The big blue marble

Yesterday I realized that my favourite screensaver, xplanet, can load separate data files for elevation, specular reflectance (for bodies of water), and cloud coverage. Even better, it’s possible to download real-time cloud coverage maps, produced every three hours from a variety of satellite imagery. Wow. The other images in the xplanet gallery are also incredible, but nothing else is quite as compelling. I’ve had this as my screensaver for about two years now, and have yet to get bored of the watching the blue marble spin. You can, too — the software is free for Unix, Mac OS X, and Windows. Enjoy…