Mapped Earth

3D population density of NY, PA, NJ and CT; localized census data using satellite imagery via @KonturInc

Twice a day the tide flows in and out of the Rade de Brest through one narrow strait, the Goulet. In this neap week the range at Brest fell to 1.7 meters and the Goulet's jet eased, then built again. Data: Ifremer MARC (open license); coastline © OpenStreetMap contributors

Lower the North Sea just 30 meters and Dogger Bank becomes an island. Keep going and Britain joins Europe across Doggerland, but Ireland never did: the Irish Sea was full of ice. #NorthSea #geography

North America's rivers in stream order: the great trunks first, then each smaller branch off the river it feeds, down to the headwaters. 533,718 miles of waterways in total. Data: HydroRIVERS (HydroSHEDS). Relief: Terrain Tiles.

The biggest share of North America's Redheads winters in one shallow lagoon, the Laguna Madre on the Texas and Tamaulipas coast. A year of their migration from eBird sightings and USGS band recoveries. #birdmigration #birds

Black Sea water pours through the Bosphorus, swings west across the Sea of Marmara and drains through the Dardanelles into the Aegean. Data: E.U. Copernicus Marine Service (model) #Istanbul #Marmara

Lower the Mediterranean just 110 metres and you can walk from Malta to Sicily. Keep draining and the floor sits on a kilometre of salt, left the last time this sea dried out. #Mediterranean #geography

Typical peak colour in Spain's forests: Irati in the Pyrenees around the start of November, Andalusia's Genal valley chestnuts mid-to-late November. Holm oak and pine keep the south dark. 25 years of NASA satellite data. #otoño #España

Typical peak colour in Türkiye's forests: Yedigöller late October, Istanbul's Belgrad Forest around Nov 10. Most of the country never turns; the colour is a Black Sea ribbon. 25 years of NASA satellite data. #sonbahar #Türkiye

Lake Tahoe's surface never sits still, even in a calm week. Light autumn winds kept it drifting about two and a half miles a day, curling into eddies a few miles across. Our own model, 30 Sep to 7 Oct 2026. Weather: NOAA HRRR · Depths: TRPA, USGS #LakeTahoe

Two weeks of air moving over the entire planet, both poles in one frame. Color is air temperature, brightness is speed. Around Antarctica, the storms of the Southern Ocean race west to east with almost no land in their way. Data: ERA5 / Copernicus #weather #dataviz

Fall color takes about four weeks to cross the US. Minnesota's north woods peak in the first week of October; the South Atlantic waits until the end of the month. The typical autumn, from 25 years of NASA satellite records. #fallfoliage

The 1906 fire burned the heart of San Francisco, yet 1 in 8 buildings standing today is older than the quake: the Victorians of the Mission, Noe Valley and the Haight, outside the fire line. #dataviz #SanFrancisco

Lake Champlain lost almost 4°F in the first week of October. The Inland Sea, east of the islands, started as the warmest water on the lake and cooled the fastest. Our own model, 1-8 Oct 2026. Weather: NOAA HRRR · Depths: VCGI · © OpenStreetMap #LakeChamplain

One band lights up hard at the foot of the Bolivian Andes: humid lowland air climbs the eastern slope and erupts into storms almost every afternoon. The high, dry Altiplano gets far fewer strikes. 11,921,089 flashes over Bolivia, one frame per day for a year. Data: NOAA GOES-19

Typical peak colour in Japan's forests: around Kamikochi Oct 16, Kyushu mid-November. Beech and oak gold, maples red, cedar and cypress dark. 25 years of NASA satellite data. #紅葉 #Japan

The Irish Sea fills and empties twice a day, the tide pouring in from both ends. This week the water off Liverpool rose and fell up to 8 metres; off Arklow, near the tide's pivot point, it barely moved. Data: E.U. Copernicus Marine Service (model) #IrishSea #tides

Typical peak colour: the Lake District around Oct 29, London around Nov 4, Cardiff around Nov 7. Beech and oak hold their russet well into November. 25 years of NASA satellite data. #autumncolours #England #Wales

Oct 1 in Spain: Logroño peaked at 19°C, its coolest afternoon since June 9. Seville, the same afternoon: 31°C. The front crossed the north in a day and never reached the south. Data: ERA5, Copernicus #Spain #weather