Customer Reviews

National Geographic Satellite Atlas Of The World

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If you are one of those who like to read atlases, reading it will be a different experience. It is not the kind of reference books in which you can find out whether city A is the capital of country Z, or that you can see comprehensive maps of every country in the world. It is not a comprehesive atlas, anyway, although it is divided into sections according to the continents of the world, but the maps are not listed country by country. The interesting things you can find in it are a great variety of images of our Earth, which are not common in common atlases. You can appreciate the beautiful of our planet in very different perspectives. The images are really beautiful! Some of the readers may be disappointed that their home towns cannot be seen in the book (but I'm lucky enough to see mine!). However, if you are a true lover of your home planet, it's a real gem for you.

I came accross this book at a large retail bookstore outlet called Borders. I found myself enthralled in it for at least 30 minutes before I realized I should be heading for the doors before closing. I was could have purchased the book then and there, but I wanted to see the price difference here at Amazon.com. Sure enough it was a better buy at Amazon. I say get this book and leave it out where people can flip through and enjoy it to it's fullest.

As a child, I was always fascinated by maps, and fascinated by astronomy. In many ways, this book combines those fascinations in one truly remarkable text. Every page is a full-colour plate, showing satellite-produced images of the entire world in multiple respects.

The organisation of the book is basic, as any other atlas; the major sections include the World, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia/New Zealand, and Antarctica. In addition to these major sections, there are shorter pieces on satellites (both history of satellites and how satellites work), the future, and credits/index sections.

This is no simple book of maps. There are typical geopolitical maps, to be sure, as apart from the basic outlines, it is sometimes hard to tell what is being shown in the photographs. However, pride of place certainly belongs to the photographs, from both the visible light spectrum and non-visible (ultra-high and -low) spectrums. These show geological topography, physical features, vegetation, climate, oceans, population, constructed/built-up features, and more.

With regard to the oceans, there are different types of satellite images which show temperature variations, depth, underwater vegetation, geological fault lines, and even pollution. There is a fascinating section showing the seasonal variations of ocean temperature and motion due to El Nino effects.

Similarly, with population and developed areas, it is mesmerising to see the differences and similarities across the various continents. Cities look very much the same in many respects from space in the distant view; the dominant characteristics at ranges that cover tens of miles is often the contours and geological/natural formations that surround a city. However, when close-up ranges are shown, the human constructions become apparent, and the cities show their unique characters based on the population in connection with their environments. One particularly fun photograph is a composition photograph showing the lights at night around the world. This particular map shows dense population around cities, particularly coastal cities; however, this can be deceptive, as the more highly populated country of India puts out less light at night than the lesser populated but more technologically advanced North America and Europe.

This is a wonderful way to look at the world, to see the kinds of things that a traditional map with boundaries and countries would not show. Done with the quality photography and explanation that is the hallmark of National Geographic, this large-format book would look at home equally on the shelf of a student of any age as well as the coffee table of a well-appointed home.

Shows the world in all its glory. Get a full color birdseye of pollution, urbanization, natural/industrial disasters, and many amazing natural phenomena.

Really excellent.

This is a very different and interesting Atlas: you will have the feeling of looking at the ground from the space.
But I wanna say sth. bad: I think this map is not a good one if you want to expand your knowledge of countries, cities... And the satelite pictures are not well orgnized in the atlas. It will take time to identify where is a detailed map from, and the detailed maps (added together) cover only a very small part of the world. So in some sense, this is an "enjoyment" of satellite pictures other than a world atlas.
But overall, I rank this atlas a very good one.

Satellite photos let us see the lands as they really look like. However, the coloring of the pictures may be artificial or real, depending on whether they have been tempered with. Artficial coloring is sometimes done deliberately (like for the purpose of contrast), of course.

This atlas is too short. We can use far more detailed photographs. For instance, California alone requires a whole chapter unto itself. Also, it's been five years since publication, and far more powerful satellites are now being used for cartography.

Still, this book is a good start, and the quality is excellent. For those of us who aren't planning wars, we don't need photos of the Predator or the Global Hawk quality. This will do.