Saturday, May 5, 2012

A Good Photograph is One That Sparks a Question.

A good photograph is one that sparks a question.


Vimeo Video Link: https://vimeo.com/42909676

In looking at the pictures taken from the International Space Station of the earth at night, I find my attention drawn to that thin line separating earth from space: Our atmosphere.  


The First Question that comes to mind is: How thick is this protective layer?

The answer is that this layer you can see in the photograph above represent a line that extends ~100km above the surface of the earth.  60 miles.  The distance you could drive in less than one hour on most freeways.  The distance from Boston to Cape Cod.  This thin protective layer allows the earth's average mean temperature to be 57 °F (14.4°C) (reference linkand not to be subjected to the -250 to +250 °F (-157 to 121°C) (reference linkthat the International Space Station experiences between the side away from the sun and the side towards the sun.


The Second Question is: What are the colors you can see in the atmosphere?  What causes this?  There seem to be yellows, greens, reds.....


8 comments:

  1. I think you have an error on your degrees. The reference links point to your temperatures... in Fahrenheit

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome video, but it would look even better if you did some inter-frame interpolation to smooth out the motion. Here is a good tutorial:http://nerds-central.blogspot.ca/2007/04/synthetic-slow-motion-with-avisynth.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm thinking the colors do and mean something as the same as threes do: photosyntese through chlorophyl but then toxic,heat and negative radiation out and at the same time the good stuff from outher space in. the layers are also a different mix of compositions of noble gasses but mostly it's natural methane,all out and of the earth "beginning" with the aurora borealis bringing it into the atmospere.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  4. And the colors mean something the same as on earth
    Red=heat
    Green=plants
    yellow= materials of the grounsurface

    red(the heat) maybe to push back/hold the watervapor from earth,on earth!as an firewall
    Green neutralize and as some sorth of membrame filter all the stuff that goes up,thats a lot these days
    and yellow is maybe the first membrame/filter,that holds or separate the most important buildingblocks for earth and what it needs.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lots of Good information in your post, I favorited your blog post so I can visit again in the future, Thanks.

    flat earth

    ReplyDelete