Earth As Art

By Ron Beck

One of the major challenges for the USGS is to effectively illustrate the science capabilities to lay audiences. The USGS EROS Data Center staff faced that challenge with a special exhibit of satellite images, "Earth as Art: A Landsat Perspective."

Forty-one satellite images were selected from the over 300,000 in the EROS archive. The images were selected for their aesthetic interest rather than their science value. Land forms, colors, and patterns that illustrated interesting perspectives were color balanced, highlighted, and matted and framed as 'art' objects and displayed at a local arts pavilion.

The Richat Structure is a geological formation in the Maur Adrar Desert in the African country of Mauritania. Although it resembles an impact crater, the Richat Structure formed when a volcanic dome hardened and gradually eroded, exposing the onion-like layers of rock.

The exhibit has proven a great success. Viewers were initially struck by the features, many of which had the appearance of abstract paintings. However, viewers were soon asking about the dynamics behind the images. What caused those patterns? How does the satellite collect data? How are the scientific data, represented by the images, used for monitoring land features around the world?

The West Fjords are a series of peninsulas in northwestern Iceland. They represent less than one-eighth the country's land area, but their jagged perimeter accounts for more than half of Iceland's total coastline.

From a modest showing, interest in displaying the images grew. In the past two years, the images have been displayed at the USGS National Center, the DOI museum, a Senate Office building, a number of science museums around the country, a number of science conferences, and an extended exhibit has been set up at the Library of Congress. NASA, a full partner in the Landsat Program, has four sets of the images on traveling exhibit.

Like dark fingers, cold ocean waters reach deeply into the mountainous coastline of northern Norway, defining the fjords for which the country is famous. Flanked by snow-capped peaks, some of these ice-sculpted fjords are hundreds of meters deep.

The "Earth as Art: A Landsat Perspective" was awarded the USGS Shoemaker award for Communication Product Excellence in 2003. A follow-on set, "Earth as ART2," which draws on Landsat and other space-based systems, has been developed and was opened during the EROS Data Center's 30^th anniversary open house.