Tracking My Travels from Space
This holiday break I was lucky enough to travel to Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore for the first time and had some truly amazing experiences. In addition to the delicious local cuisines I sampled, kind people I met, and cultural traditions I learned about, I saw some amazing sights. I took plenty of pictures with my phone, but I constantly wondered what things would look like from space. When I got home and started looking through my travel pictures, I also fired up Planet’s Explorer and tracked my route via satellite imagery.
Seeing places from Low Earth Orbit can offer insights and understandings that we can’t quite get from the ground, and since Planet’s satellite fleet is monitoring the entire Earth with unprecedented frequency and coverage, Planet’s Explorer platform had stacks of imagery for me to browse of every place I visited. Below is just a handful of the fascinating places I encountered during my travels, as seen “from above and below.”
- Hong Kong — Victoria Harbor Boat Traffic (22.288719, 114.171707)
My first stop was Hong Kong where I took a ferry between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon; a quick ride, but with some great views of Victoria Harbor. The PlanetScope image on the bottom was captured by a Dove satellite on Dec 24, 2017, the day I arrived in Hong Kong.
2. Bangkok — Suvarnabhumi Airport (13.692123, 100.750894)
After a few days in Hong Kong, I took a flight to Bangkok. I’m often amazed by the detail you can see in the PlanetScope imagery produced by our tiny Dove satellites. Airplanes parked at their gates and taxiing along the runway at Suvarnabhumi Airport can be clearly seen in the above PlanetScope imagery. Using the ‘Compare’ slider reveals day-by-day activity. Luckily all my flights were on time!
3. Chiang Mai — The Old City (18.789077, 98.985609)
After a few days in Bangkok, I took an overnight bus to Chiang Mai, famous for its Old City with a distinct square perimeter, which can be seen in the above PlanetScope image. While exploring the Old City, I took a Thai cooking class (that’s me making Pad Thai!), and on New Year’s Eve thousands of lanterns were lit near Tha Phae (the eastern gate) and released to the sky. It’s local tradition to let go of all your fears and worries from the previous year as your lantern floats skyward. Considering how 2017 went down, it was a much appreciated ritual.
4. Chiang Mai (outskirts) — Elephant Sanctuary (19.114714, 98.892612)
Another highlight for me was visiting an elephant sanctuary on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. The rainy season in Thailand is typically between July and October, which I luckily missed out on. The good weather allowed me to focus on the important things, like feeding the elephants an endless supply of sugarcane and bananas. Using the ‘Compare’ slider you can see how much drier things are in December.
5. Singapore — Marina Bay (1.283346, 103.860778)
The last stop on my trip was Singapore where I visited the Marina Bay area. The Marina Bay Sands Hotel has three 55-story buildings connected across the top by a skydeck that looks like a cruise ship. I have to admit, I get a bit nervous at such tall heights, but the view was worth it. The Gardens by the Bay park, directly across Dragonfly Lake, has a SuperTree Grove in the center, all of which can be seen from space in the above high-res SkySat image.
Make sure to follow Planet on Twitter and Medium for even more space-based insights. Wishing everyone a Happy 2018!
