Cool Geo-Pic: Lake Titicaca

http://m.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=89403&eocn=image&eoci=moreiotd

Cool Geo-Pic: Mapping Earthquakes in Chile

Another cool geo-pic from NASA/s Earth Observatory.  I like the analysis on the historical rippling to other areas.

Quick Cut and Paste:

"The maps above show how the Earth moved in mid-September …..the amount of land motion is represented in shades from yellow to purple. Areas where the ground shifted the most (vertically, horizontally, or both) are represented in yellow, while areas with little change are represented in purple.  …Interferograms can be used to estimate where the fault moved deep in the Earth and which areas have increased stress and higher likelihood of future earthquakes…"

 

 

 

 

Full Article:

Mapping Earth Motion from the Illapel Earthquake  - October 1, 2015

 

 

References and Related Reading:

• AGU Blogosphere: The Trembling Earth (2015, September) Chile keeps having earthquakes. Accessed September 29, 2015.
• European Space Agency (2015, September 21) Chile earthquake on the radar. Accessed September 29, 2015.
• The Guardian (2015, September 25) How did Chile manage to survive its recent earthquake virtually unscathed? Accessed September 29, 2015.
• Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (2015) Earthquake offshore Illapel, Chile. Accessed September 29, 2015.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2015, May 14) Sensing How Much the Moved in Nepal.
• NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2015) Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis Center for Natural Hazards. Accessed September 29, 2015.
• Slate (2015, September 16) Chile earthquake and tsunami: Hawaii on tsunami alert after 8.3 quake strikes Chile. Accessed September 29, 2015.

Full Credits:

NASA Earth Observatory maps by Joshua Stevens, using interferogram data courtesy of Copernicus and Eric Fielding NASA/JPL, and earthquake data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.

 

 

Cool Geo-Pic: Mapping Internet Attacks

This image and hyperlink comes from Norse to highlight there Dark Matter platform. 

Per the company's website - " .... The patented Norse DarkMatter platform is a globally-distributed "distant early warning" network of thousands of sensors, honeypots, and crawlers that continuously analyzes Internet traffic to identify compromised hosts, malicious botnets, anonymous proxies, and other sources of digital attack. Processing hundreds of terabytes daily, the DarkMatter™ attack intelligence platform continuously computes over 1,500 distinct risk factors for millions of IP addresses every day...."

Good stuff, but the visualization really brings it to life. It immediately reminds us of a global thermonuclear warfare simulation a-la internet attacks.

Definitely check out Norse - IP Viking-Live

Cool Geo-Pic: Border Result of Different Agricultural Use

Found the cool geo-pic from the familiar NASA Earth Observatory. Fascinating how the different demands & policies for agricultural land use can produce such a stark contrast.

Geo-Pic:



Quick "Cut & Paste" Description:

"....The border between the two countries is defined by land-use policies. In China, land use is intense. Only 11.62 percent of China’s land is arable. Pressed by a need to produce food for 1.3 billion people, China farms just about any land that can be sustained for agriculture. Fields are dark green in contrast to the surrounding arid landscape, a sign that the agriculture is irrigated. As of 2006, about 65 percent of China’s fresh water was used for agriculture, irrigating 629,000 square kilometers (243,000 square miles) of farmland, an area slightly smaller than the state of Texas....."

".....The story is quite different in Kazakhstan. Here, large industrial-sized farms dominate, an artifact of Soviet-era agriculture. While agriculture is an important sector in the Kazakh economy, eastern Kazakhstan is a minor growing area. Only 0.03 percent of Kazakhstan’s land is devoted to permanent agriculture, with 20,660 square kilometers being irrigated....."

Credits: Source link

• BBC News (2010, January 30) Kazakhs protest against China farmland lease. Accessed July 9, 2014.
• Earth Observatory (2013, September 25) Fall harvest in Kazakhstan. Accessed July 9, 2014.
• Encyclopedia of Earth (2013, August 25) Land use profile of China. Accessed July 9, 2014.
• Fragile Oasis (2011, September 7) Borders from space. Accessed July 9, 2014.
• United States Central Intelligence Agency (2014, June 22) The world factbook: China. Accessed July 9, 2014.
• United States Central Intelligence Agency (2014, June 22) The world factbook: Kazakhstan. Accessed July 9, 2014.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Caption by Holli Riebeek.

Instrument(s): Landsat 8 - OLI

Geo-Pic: Mapping a Hurricane from the "Outside In"

Found this post from NASA's Earth Observatory an interesting perspective to storm data.

 Quick "Cut & Paste" Description: 

".... one satellite—Cloudsat—peered inside the storm and observed its vertical structure. It did so with acloud-profiling radar that sent pulses of energy toward Earth and recorded the strength of the signal that bounced off ice and water particles."

"....The bottom map shows the storm as observed by Cloudsat around 2 p.m. local time (18:00 Universal Time) on October 29, 2012. The image shows a cross-section—what the storm would look like if it had been sliced near the middle and viewed from the side. (Watch this animation to see how Cloudsat collects data).... "

 Image: Vertical "cut-away" of storm precipitation: 

" ... The top image, acquired the same day by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on the Aqua satellite, is shown for reference. The yellow line is the north-to-south track that CloudSat took over the storm.

In the Cloudsat data, the darkest blues represent areas where clouds and raindrops reflected the strongest signal back to the satellite radar. These areas had the heaviest precipitation and the largest water droplets. The blue line in the center of the image is the freezing line; ice particles formed above it, raindrops below..." 

Credits:
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using CloudSat FirstLook data provided courtesy of the CloudSat team at Colorado State University. Caption by Adam Voiland.

Instrument: 

CloudSat - CPR

Mapping Equinoxes - Understanding Seasonal Change from a Perspective in space

This is both a nice textual and visual explanation of the changes in season.

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:
" ....One of the most frequently misunderstood concepts in science is the reason for Earth’s seasons. As we experience the September equinox today .... we thought we’d offer a space-based view of what’s going on.... The shape of this line between night and day varies with the seasons, which means different lengths of days and differing amounts of warming sunshine...."

"....Of course, it is not the Sun that is moving north or south through the seasons, but a change in the orientation and angles between the Earth and its nearest star. The axis of the Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees relative to the Sun and the ecliptic plane. The axis is tilted away from the Sun at the December solstice and toward the Sun at the June solstice, spreading more and less light on each hemisphere. At the equinoxes, the tilt is at a right angle to the Sun and the light is spread evenly...."

Full article link - click here

Full Credits:

NASA images and animation by Robert Simmon, using data ©2010 EUMETSAT. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.

Instrument:

Meteosat

Related Readings:

1. Stern, D. (2005) From Stargazers to Starships: Seasons of the Year. Accessed September 22, 2011.
2. U.S. Naval Observatory Day and Night Across the Earth. Accessed September 22, 2011.
3. U.S. Naval Oceanographer Earth's Seasons. Accessed September 22, 2011.

"Un-Cool" Geo-Pic: Gulf Oil Slick Approaching Loop Current

This "Un-Cool" Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory.

Given the news hype, this image from NASA helped quantity the oil slick flow.

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:
" ...This pair of sea surface temperature images shows how the warm waters of the Loop Current connect the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean (top image, May 1–8, 2010) and the dynamic northern margin of the Loop Current a week and a half later, on May 18 (bottom image). ...."

" ....Oil was very close to the Loop Current, whose warm waters appear in yellow near the bottom of the image. However, there is also an eddy of cooler water (purple) circulating counterclockwise at the top of the Loop Current. According to NOAA, “Some amount of any oil drawn into the Loop Current would likely remain in the eddy, heading to the northeast, and some would enter the main Loop Current, where it might eventually head to the Florida Strait.” 


" .... Updated, May 20: In a web posting, NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration confirmed that "a small portion of the oil slick has reached the Loop Current in the form of light to very light sheens.....”
Full Article - Click Here

 References / Credits:

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2010, May 18). Deepwater Horizon Incident, NOAA Situation Update 18 May 10. Accessed May 19, 2010.


Related Resources:
Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Response, the official site of the Deepwater Horizon unified command.


Current information about the extent of the oil slick is available from the Office of Response and Restoration at the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration.


Information about the impact of the oil slick on wildlife is provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.


More images of this event in Natural Hazards


NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen, using data obtained from the Goddard Level 1 and Atmospheric Archive and Distribution System (LAADS) and Ocean Color Web. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.


Instrument: Aqua - MODIS

Cool Geo-Pic: Currents Collide and Coastal Waters Bloom off Patagonia

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory. I love the nutrient patterns based on the blooms from change ocean currents.  The pathways from my fridge to the couch are much less interesting ....

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:
" ...Located over the continental shelf of southeastern South America is one of the world’s most productive and complex marine ecosystems. Covering about 1.2 million square kilometers (4.6 million square miles) of coastal waters, the Patagonia Large Marine Ecosystem stretches from the Rio de le Plata (a wide estuary at the mouth of the Paraná River) to the southern tip of the continent...."



"... In November 2009, as summer approached in the Southern Hemisphere, the foundation of the ecosystem’s food web—plant-like microorganisms called phytoplankton—bloomed expansively, brightening the waters with living ribbons of color...."
"....The sea surface temperature image (right) reveals one of the reasons for the region’s productivity: the convergence of two wind-driven ocean currents. The warm, salty Brazil Current meanders south over the continental shelf, where it meets the cold, less-salty Falklands/Malvinas Current, a north-flowing branch off the Antarctic Circumpolar Current...."

"....In the spring and summer, the convergence zone occurs at about the latitude of the Rio de la Plata, which is where it seems to be based on the water temperatures shown in the sea surface temperature image. Blues and purples (cooler water) dominate the image south of the estuary, while pinks and yellows (warmer water) dominate the image north of there...."


Full Article - Click Here



References / Credits:
These images are made from data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite in November 2009. Aqua has been collecting data on the ecological and physical state of the ocean since its launch in 2002. Monthly maps of chlorophyll and sea surface temperature from Aqua are available in Global Maps on the Earth Observatory.


NASA Earth Observatory images created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the Ocean Color Group team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.
Instrument: 
Aqua - MODIS

Cool Geo-Pic: Winter Temperatures and the Arctic Oscillation

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory.  What I find fascinating is that the changes in climate patterns vary by geography, terrain and element (land/water).

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:
" ... Much of the Northern Hemisphere experienced cold land surface temperatures, but the Arctic was exceptionally warm. This weather pattern is a tale-tell sign of the Arctic Oscillation.



The Arctic Oscillation is a climate pattern that influences winter weather in the Northern Hemisphere. It is defined by the pressure difference between air at mid-latitudes (around 45 degrees North, about the latitude of Montreal, Canada or Bordeaux, France) and air over the Arctic. A low-pressure air mass usually dominates the Arctic, and while higher pressure air sits over the mid-latitudes.

This pressure difference generates winds that confine extremely cold air to the Arctic. Sometimes, the pressure systems weaken, decreasing the pressure difference between the Arctic and midlatitudes and allowing chilly Arctic air to slide south while warmer air creeps north..... When the pressure systems are strong, the Arctic Oscillation is positive.... Cold Arctic air chilled the land surface at midlatitudes, while Arctic land, such as Greenland and Alaska, was much warmer than usual...."


Full Article - Click Here





References / Credits:
Climate Prediction Center. (2010, January 8). Arctic Oscillation. National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Accessed January 8, 2010.


National Snow and Ice Data Center. The Arctic Oscillation. Accessed January 8, 2010.


Wallace, J.M. (2000, July 17). On the Arctic and Antarctic Oscillations. University of Washington. Accessed January 8, 2010.


National Snow and Ice Data Center. (2010, January 5). Extreme negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation yields a warm Arctic. Accessed January 8, 2010.


NASA Earth Observatory image by Kevin Ward, based on data provided by the NASA Earth Observations (NEO) Project. Caption by Holli Riebeek.


Instrument: Terra - MODIS

Cool Geo-Pic: A Global Good Mornin' to Ya

This cool Geo-Pic shows "Good Morning" tweets.

Full credits to Jer Thorp : blog.blprnt.com GoodMorning! Full Render #2 from blprnt on Vimeo.




Per the site: " GoodMorning! is a Twitter visualization tool which shows about 11,000 tweets collected over a 24 hour period between August 20th and 21st. The tweets were harvested to find people saying 'good morning' in English as well as several other languages.The tweets appear as blocks and are colour-coded. Green tweets are early in the morning, orange tweets are at about 9am, and red tweets are later in the morning. Black tweets are 'out-of-time' messages (sent at times that aren't in the morning at that location)....."

GoodMorning! Full Render #2 from blprnt on Vimeo.

Cool Geo-Pic: Planetary Visualization of the S&P 500

This Cool Geo-Pic blends planetary rotations to stock performance. Helps me understand why my stock portfolio went from the size of Jupiter to the mini-moon of Pluto.

STOC (Stock Ticker Orbital Comparison) data visualization from UAT Media on Vimeo.

Cool Geo-Pic: The Geography of Jobs

This cool Geo-Pic comes from TIP Streategies in Austin, TX.

From their site:

This animated map provides a striking visual of employment trends over the last business cycle using net change in jobs from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on a rolling 12-month basis. Read more…

The Geography of Jobs - TIP Strategies

Posted using ShareThis

Cool geo-Pic: Mediterranean Region by Population

This cool Geo-Pic comes from the United Nations GRID-Arendal Maps & Graphics feed.

They have a similar series on migration, water supply, environment & security.

Desertification Environment and Security in the Mediterranean: Desertification


Non-renewable Natural Resources Environment and Security in the Mediterranean: Non-renewable Natural Resources

Population Environment and Security in the Mediterranean: Population
Water Environment and Security in the Mediterranean: Water
Migration Environment and Security in the Mediterranean: Migration

Agriculture and Fisheries Environment and Security in the Mediterranean: Agriculture and Fisheries

Credits:
Titled Picture: Population. Environment and Security in the Mediterranean: Population
Source: Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University; World Gazetteer
Cartographer/Designer: Emmanuelle Bournay and Matthias Beilstein, Zoï Environment Network
Appears in : Environment and Security Issues in the Southern Mediterranean Region
Published: 2009

Cool Geo-Pic: Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee), Northern Israel

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory.

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:
".... Israel’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Tiberias, is also known as the Sea of Tiberias, Lake of Gennesaret, Lake Kinneret, and the Sea of Galilee. The lake measures just more than 21 kilometers (13 miles) north-south, and it is only 43 meters (141 feet) deep. The lake is fed partly by underground springs related to the Jordan sector of the Great Rift Valley

, but most of its water comes from the Jordan River, which enters from the north. The river’s winding course can be seen draining the south end of the lake at image bottom...."

".... Ruins of the famous biblical town of Capernaum, re-discovered in 1838 by the American explorer Edward Robinson, lie just north of Tiberias on the northwestern shore of Lake Tiberias. Excavations have revealed a synagogue from the fourth or fifth century, making it one of the oldest in the world...."

download large image (1 MB, JPEG) acquired August 15, 2009

Full Article - Click Here


References / Credits:

Astronaut photograph ISS020-E-31066 was acquired on August 15, 2009, with a Nikon D2Xs digital camera fitted with an 400 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 20 crew. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson, NASA-JSC.

Instrument:
ISS - Digital Camera

Cool Geo-Pic: Antarctic Ozone Hole 2009

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory. The news of ozone decade is cautiously optimitistic as the rate of decay seems to be "holding" for now ....

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" ... The annual ozone hole started developing over the South Pole in late August 2009, and by September 10, it appeared that the ozone hole of 2009 would be comparable to ozone depletions over the past decade. This composite image from September 10 depicts ozone concentrations in Dobson units, with purple and blues depicting severe deficits of ozone. The image was made from data collected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument onboard NASA’s Aura satellite...."


"...Recent observations and several studies have shown that the size of the annual ozone hole has stabilized and the level of ozone-depleting substances has decreased by 4 percent since 2001. But since chlorine and bromine compounds have long lifetimes in the atmosphere, a recovery of atmospheric ozone is not likely to be noticeable until 2020 or later.

Visit NASA’s Ozone Watch page for current imagery, data, and animations of the year to date..."

Full Article - Click Here


References / Credits:

Antarctic Ozone Hole: 1979 to 2008
Climate Change and Atmospheric Circulation Will Make for Uneven Ozone Recovery
New Simulation Shows Consequences of a World Without Earth's Natural Sunscreen
Ozone Day 2009
What’s Holding Antarctic Sea Ice Back From Melting?
NASA image courtesy Ozone Watch. Caption by Michael Carlowicz.
Instrument:
Aura - OMI

Cool Geo-Pic: Hurricane Jimena by Visual & Radar

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory.

What I like most about the image is the "satellite to radar" comparison. I can happily report "all has been quiet" on the hurricane front for us Floridians.

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" ... The center of Hurricane Jimena was coming ashore over Baja California on September 2, 2009, when these images were taken. The top image is from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. The lower image was made from data collected by a radar instrument flying on the Cloudsat satellite. Together, the images show the structure of the Category 1 hurricane shortly after it make landfall. The storm brought both damaging wind and drought-breaking rain to the peninsula...."


Full Article - Click Here

download large image (32 KB, PNG) acquired September 2, 2009

References / Credits:

National Hurricane Center. (2009, September 4). Hurricane Jimena Advisory Archive. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service. Accessed September 4, 2009.

Stevenson, M. (2009, September 3). Jimena weakening after plowing into Mexico. Associated Press. Accessed September 4, 2009.

More images of this event in Natural Hazards

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using CloudSat FirstLook data provided courtesy of the CloudSat team at Colorado State University.

Instrument:
CloudSat - CPR

Cool Geo-Pic: Eclipse - Prophesy or Shadow? Depends on your point of view.

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory. While I've seen some wonderful eclipse images, this is the first that's from the "moon"s point of view".

Funny how a prophetic event to one, is just a shadow to another. Makes me wonder what an ant dreams up when he encounters my "looming darkness" on a sunny Sunday sidewalk stroll. Eghads! It blocks out the sun!

Another example that all things are relative to your point of view.

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" ... The Moon’s shadow engulfed Taiwan and a large swath of southeastern China and the Pacific Ocean on the morning of July 22, 2009, during an unusually long total eclipse of the Sun. This pair of images from the Japanese geostationary satellite MTSAT show the view of Earth at 8:30 a.m. local time in Taiwan (left) and an hour later (right), near the time in eastern China when the disk of the Moon completely overlapped the disk of the Sun (called totality). The longest period of totality occurred over the Pacific, where the total eclipse lasted more than 6 minutes...."

download large 8:30 image image (90 KB, JPEG) acquired July 22, 2009

download large 9:30 image image (94 KB, JPEG) acquired July 22, 2009

Full Article - Click Here

References / Credits:

Exploratorium.edu. (n.d.) Total Solar Eclipse, July 22, 2009. Accessed July 22, 2009.
U.S. Naval Observatory. (n.d.) The Sky This Week, 2009 July 17 – 24. Accessed July 22, 2009.
Espenak, F. (n.d.) Total Solar Eclipse of 2009 July 22. NASA Eclipse Website. Accessed July 22, 2009.
Images provided by WebGMS–MTSAT/GMS (HIMAWARI) Website, Institute of Industrial Science & Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Japan.
Instrument:
MTSAT

Cool Geo-Pic: Atlantic Ocean Temperatures

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory. Given my daughter was born between to hurricance passes, this is always something on interest to us "New Floridians".

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" ...The first month of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season drew to a close without so much as a tropical storm, but that isn’t unusual. According to the National Hurricane Center, the 1944-2002 average for named storms in June was only about 0.75, which means they don't occur every year. When they do form, it is usually the Gulf of Mexico that brews them up, and this image of sea surface temperatures on June 30, 2009, shows why...."

Full Article - Click Here

References / Credits:

National Hurricane Center. Tropical Cyclone Climatology. Accessed July 1, 2009.
NASA image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.
Instrument:
Aqua - MODIS

Cool Geo-Pic: Fire Season in a Rain Forest

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory. What can create a fire season in a rain forest? Us, of course.

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" ...Prior to widespread human settlement and forest clearing, there was no such thing as a fire season in the Amazon Rainforest. The ability of trees to draw water up from deep underground during the annual dry season and a lack of natural fire triggers—lightning rarely occurs without rain—meant that in most places, a fire might occur once in several hundred—or perhaps as many as 1,000—years. Today, burning begins in August, generally peaks in September, and tapers off by October; during these months, the skies over the Amazon fill with smoke ......"

"..... Scientists use the amount of smoke and fires in the Amazon as an indicator of how much of the Amazon was cleared or degraded each year, but the burning has other impacts. Fires release large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, adding to global warming. And the smoke chokes off cloud formation, which changes the Amazon’s energy balance: fewer clouds mean more sunlight reaches the surface, which leads to warming."

Full Article - Click Here

References / Credits:

Koren, I., Remer, L., and Longo, K. (2007). Reversal of trend of biomass burning in the Amazon. Geophysical Research Letters,34, L20404, doi:10.1029/2007GL031530.
Lindsey, R. (2004). From Forest to Field: How Fire is Transforming the Amazon. NASA’s Earth Observatory. Accessed June 29, 2009.
Lindsey, R. (2008). Amazon Fires on the Rise. NASA’s Earth Observatory. Accessed June 29, 2009.
Torres, O. . Chen, Z., Jethva, H., Ahn, C., Freitas, S.R., and Bhartia, P.K. (2009). OMI Observations of the Anomalous 2008 Southern Hemisphere Biomass Burning Season. Manuscript submitted for publication.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, based on OMI aerosol data provided by Omar Torres and Changwoo Ahn (Hampton University). Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.
Instrument:
Aura - OMI

A Map for Memorial Day - Sobering remembrance

I spent the Memorial Weekend in the Washington DC area. We celebrated my son's 8th birthday, toured the Air & Space Museum, and heard the roar of the Rolling Thunder bikers as they massed on the mall for remembrance of our soldiers' sacrifice.

This particular site (www.MapTheFallen.org) seemed to capture my mixed emotions on the two wars and the sacrifice born by our military. I wish I could bring them all back, and hope this site continues to geographically illustrate their deeds, and emphasize the eternal thanks we owe them all.

In the Google Earth environment, you are able to see home of record, approximate place of death, and other thematic/temporal representations.