12 January 2011

Archival Gold: The NOAA Photo Library

Posted by Jessica Ball

The next feature for “Archival Gold”, posts featuring public-domain Earth science images, is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Photo Library. Here’s a bit about it from their site:

The NOAA Photo Library has been built so as to capture the work, observations, and studies that are carried on by the scientists, engineers, commissioned officers, and administrative personnel that make up this complex and scientifically diverse agency. It also has been built in an attempt to capture NOAA’s scientific heritage, which is in fact a heritage shared by much of the physical and environmental science communities in the United States today.

The photos are organized by collection, but there is (of course) a search feature, and the photos aren’t all about oceanic and atmospheric subjects. Here are a few of my favorites:

Pacific Ring of Fire Expedition. Views of the plume coming out of Brimstone Pit crater near the summit of Northwest Rota-1 volcano. NOAA Photo Library

Topographic surveying at dusk. NOAA's Historic Coast & Geodetic Survey (C&GS) Collection Credit: Family of Vice Admiral H. Arnold Karo, C&GS

A volcano in the Kurile Islands. Credit: Collection of Dr. Igor Smolyar, NOAA/NODC

Images of snowflakes showing six-sided symmetry and ice crystals. In: "Micrographia, or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses....", by Robert Hooke. 1667.