Share a Bit of Earth’s Majesty With Every Letter You Send
A new stamp collection pulls together beautiful top-down views of the Earth
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In this false-color image, red represents healthy vegetation. Photo: USPS
Just outside of Garden City, Kansas, farmers who irrigate their fields end up with repeating circles of healthy crops interspersed with dry soil, demonstrating at once the reach of their technology, and the conditions in which they work.
This view of Kansas farmlands, cropped down from a much, much larger Landsat image, is being commemorated by the United States Postal Service as part of a special stamp collection they’re calling Earthscapes (Forever).
The original Landsat image from which the above stamp was derived. Photo: NASA/GSFC/Landsat
The stamp collection pulls together striking aerial views of the natural world, along with similarly beautiful scenes of human endeavor—constructions and features that in some cases resemble abstract art. MyModernMet:
Snapped by both NASA’s satellites and photographers dangling from aircrafts, these photos show our world from high above – in heights ranging from hundreds of feet to several hundreds of miles. According to USPS, “The beautiful ‘earth art’ images were chosen to showcase designs or patterns and geographic diversity so viewers can see the world in a new way and contemplate a much bigger picture.”
The USPS’ stamp of the Bear glacier in Alaska. Photo: USPS / Based on the original IKONOS image seen here.
More from Smithsonian.com:
Scenes From a Changing Planet
Earth From Space
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