Satellite images – Recap 2018

Taking a look back at a few of the satellite images of 2018

So just as last year I will take a look back at some of the more interesting satellite images I processed. Looking through the images I processed in 2018, it was a bit harder for me to make a good selection, as I focused at lot more on processing wildfire images, which are certainly interesting but of course not all viewers might like to see as many as I do.

So this year my selection is a bit smaller, but I am sure you can still find one or two images you might find interesting.

So here we go:

Image 1 – Wildfires in the Amur Oblast, Russia

Every year we can observe huge wildfires in Russia. This year we had an especially active wildfire season. In this image you can see a few wildfires in the Amur Oblast. More images of the wildfires in Russia you can find in this album on Flickr.

Image 2 – A shadowy view of the Columbia Glacier in Alaska

The Columbia Glacier in Alaska, USA. The image was taken on March 1st, 2018. You can see the long shadows cast by the mountains, together with the snow making for a beautiful picture here.

Image 3 – Tropical Cyclone Mekunu

Tropical Cyclone Mekunu as seen by Terra MODIS on May 23rd, 2018, the most intense tropical cyclone to make landfall in the Arabian Peninsula in recorded history.

Image 4 – Camp Fire, California, USA

The Camp Fire in California, USA, one of the most severe wildfires in recent years in a composite view including natural colors and an infrared overlay to show hot spots. More images of the Camp Fire can be found in this album on Flickr.

Image 5 – Wildfires north of Krasnoyarsk

And another on of the wildfire season in Russia. Multiple wildfires north of Krasnoyarsk, just take a look at the enormous amount of smoke produced here.

Image 6 – Winter storm Grayson

Winter storm Grayson, as it was dubbed, was a severe blizzard early 2018, bringing life to a standstill in many places for some time.

Image 7 and 8 – Kilauea Volcano lava flows

The activity of the Kilauea Volcano was the source of many spectacular satellite images in 2018, two of which you can see here. Both images show natural colors with an IR overlay to show hot spots. More images of this event you can find in this album on Flickr.

Image 9 – Wildfires near Kineta, Greece

An early image of the devastating 2018 wildfires in Greece. A hundred people died in the multiple wildfires during the heat wave of the summer.

The animation uses a faux 3D process based on brightness to get a better impression of the smoke clouds, the results here are in no way scientific, but nice to look at anyway.

Image 10 – 2017 Greenland wildfire burn scar losing snow cover ahead of surroundings

In this picture you can see how the area of the 2017 Greenland wildfire near Sisimiut is losing its snow cover ahead of its surroundings. You can read more about the wildfire in this article here.

Image 11 – Mount Mayon Volcano lava flow, Philippines

A composite image showing lava flows at the Mount Mayon Volcano, Philippines. The image is a combination of natural colors and infrared, clearly showing the heat of the lava flows.

Image 12 – Kamchatkan volcanoes peeking through clouds, Russia

Technically a 2017 image, I processed it in 2018 and really believe it is one of the most beautiful images. You can see volcanoes in Kamchatka, Russia, peeking through the surrounding clouds and casting long shadows.

Image 13 – Snow SW of El Bayadh near and in the Ksour Mountain range, Algeria

In this image you can see snow SW of El Bayadh near and in the Ksour Mountain range in Algeria. Snow in the Sahara makes for really beautiful photos, as can be see in this CNN article here.

Image 14 – Chinese Type 001A Aircraft Carrier CV-17 under construction

Animations made from images of the Sentinel-2 satellites showing the Chinese Aircraft Carrier CV-17 under construction at the dry docks in Dalian, China.

A few more words

In case you would like to see even more images, you can find them here on my Flickr. I would also like to thank all of you who shared my satellite images on Twitter (Not yet following me on Twitter? Change it here) or other social media in 2018 and those who gave me ideas, advice, or feedback.

Wanna give it a try yourself?

If you would like to give satellite imagery a try yourself, the  EO Browser made by Sentinel Hub is a good place to start and get quick results. You might also want to try out some of the excellent (and free) tools Remote Pixel by Vincent Sarago has to offer, especially the Remote Pixel viewer. Have fun exploring Earth!

Journalists and Media

If you want to reuse images, take a look here for more information. You might also want to read this article, talking about satellite image use in media and giving you some tips where to find good satellite images.

Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2015, 2016, 2017, 2018]
Landsat 8 data courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey
Aqua/Terra MODIS data through NASA Worldview