The Best Satellite Photos of DigitalGlobe 2012

Dig­i­tal­Globe is the world leader in satel­lite pho­tog­ra­phy. Found­ed in 1993 as World­View Imag­ing Cor­po­ra­tion, the com­pa­ny was per­ma­nent­ly renamed Dig­i­tal­Globe in 2002. In 1993, the Unit­ed States Depart­ment of Com­merce grant­ed Dig­i­tal­Globe the first license allow­ing a pri­vate enter­prise to build and oper­ate a satel­lite sys­tem to take high-res­o­lu­tion dig­i­tal pho­tographs of the Earth for com­mer­cial sale. . For the past few years, Dig­i­tal­Globe has host­ed an annu­al com­pe­ti­tion to select the best satel­lite imagery. Their experts combed through exten­sive archives from three satel­lites (Quick­bird, WorldView‑1, and WorldView‑2) and select­ed the 20 final­ists for the 2012 ‘Top Satel­lite Image’. Below is the first image, this is North­ern Eng­land on 06/09/12, the sculp­ture is known as the “Lady of the North”:

Now it’s up to you to decide which of these pho­tos are the most inter­est­ing. Italy 2/04/12 — Cos­ta Con­cor­dia wreck:

Japan 9/20/12 — Mount Fuji:

East­er in St. Peter’s Square, Vat­i­can 4/08/12. You can also see the famous St. Peter’s Basil­i­ca — the heart of the Vat­i­can:

Antarc­tic Land­scapes 1/27/12:

Homs, Syr­ia 2/15/12 — pipeline fire:

New Mex­i­co 9/20/12, Shut­tle Endeav­or on a Boe­ing 747:

Lon­don, UK 7/23/12 — Olympic Vil­lage:

Chile 10/14/12 — Chuquica­ma­ta cop­per mine:

Chile 4/02/12 — Andes, Puntiagudo-Cord?n Ceni­zos vol­canic chain:

Sandup­ing, Chi­na 8/01/12 — Three Gorges Dam:

Monte Car­lo, Mona­co 9/22/12 Annu­al Yacht Show:

Tokyo, Japan 4/07/12 — Skytree, the tallest struc­ture in Asia:

Neva­da 8/28/12 — Burn­ing Man Fes­ti­val:

I also advise you to admire the best pho­tos from the Geo­Eye satel­lite in a sep­a­rate col­lec­tion.