EARTH Masterpieces of Stone and Ice

Revel in Earth as Art. Make sure you watch in glorious 1080p. Landsat missions were launched for scientific purposes, but they make up one of the most awe-inspiring collections of beautiful images of our home planet. For the last few centuries, artists have been exploring Earth s untamed and awe-inspiring vistas, often as an antidote to life in the modern world. They evoked the grandeur of the Hudson River, the peace of Scandinavian fiords, or the omnipotent power of the ocean. This romantic ideal today has gained a new vantage point, from space, and a new set of brushes for capturing the beauty of our planet. Landsat images feature colors tuned to record geological or even human forces at work. More than that, though, this great gallery of Earth explores its timeless beauty, its uncertain path forward. So take this tour of Earth s great landforms as seen from space. We travel to Africa and the Sahara and Namib deserts, to Argentina and Bolivia, the American heartland, and the great Canadian land and ice forms. Then it s on to Greenland, Iceland, Russia, India, China, and finally the continent down under. We wrap our journey in a small corner of the vast Great Sandy Desert. The satellite has brought out the scarring action of natural wildfires. The narrow sand dunes that cut across the scene are like cracks on an ancient brittle canvas. A masterpiece, from the turbulent imagination of an artist, whose brushes are wind, and fire, and time.