My younger daughter took a digital photography class this past semester. One of her assignments was to photograph letters of the alphabet in nature. It was a fun exercise in learning to look for patterns in our environment, an essential skill in learning to capture great images.
NASA writer and social media coordinator Adam Voiland wasn’t looking for letters in the alphabet, when he noticed a “V” on a satellite image of a smoke plume over Canada while working on a story about wildfires. That got him to wondering whether he could find all the letters of the alphabet in pictures of Earth taken by satellite or the astronauts. Voiland enlisted the help of friends and colleagues and completed the project this year.
“Some letters, like O and C, were easy to find,” he writes. “Others—A, B, and R—were maddeningly difficult.” But he succeeded!
I wanted to see the entire alphabet at once, so I took all the letters and arranged them in a single picture panel. You’ll find a key at the end of this blog with a brief description of each letter. For more information on the individual land, sea and cloud forms and to download high-resolution images of each letter, click HERE.
Here’s looking down at the coolest planet around. Bottoms up and Happy New Year!
A = Ship tracks above the Pacific Ocean
B = Arkansas River and the Holla Bend Wildlife Refuge
C = An artificial island at the southern end of Bahrain Island
D = Akimiski Island in James Bay
E = A phytoplankton bloom off the coast of New Zealand
F = Valleys and snow-covered mountain ranges in southeastern Tibet
G = Pinaki Island in French Polynesia
H = Rivers running through colorful ridges in southwestern Kyrgyzstan
I = The Andaman Islands. The thin, bright rings surrounding several of the islands are coral reefs.
J = A jade-colored coral reef juxtaposed against the jumble of the sea
K = Glaciers at the Sirmilik National Park Pond Inlet in Mittimatalik, Canada
L = Snow across the northeastern United States
M = Glaciers in the Tian Shan mountains in northeastern Kyrgyzstan
N = Ship tracks over the Pacific. Ship emissions contain small particles that cause the clouds to form.
O = Tenoumer meteorite crater in Mauritania. The meteorite struck Earth between 10,000 and 30,000 years ago.
P = Mackenzie River Delta in Canada
Q = Lonar Crater in India which formed about 52,000 years ago. It’s 3/4 mile across.
R = Lago Menendez in Argentina
S = clouds swirling over the Atlantic Ocean
T = development along two roads in the United Arab Emirates
U = Gooseneck State Park in Utah
V = Ash on the snow around Shiveluch, one of the largest and most active volcanoes on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula
W = Dust blowing over the Red Sea
X = Northwest corner of Leidy Glacier in Greenland
Y = Ugab River in Namibia
Z = Wildfire smoke over Canada in 2012