Benjamin Grant - Overview: A New Way of Seeing Earth (Young Explorers Edition)

To my familythank you for your endless support of me and this project.

To Emilythank you for believing in this idea and for the guidance that brought it to life.

To Sandrathank you for contributing so much experience and excitement to this book.

To Trish, Larsson, Nicole, Sam, and the rest of the team at Penguin Random Housethank you for your continued collaboration and belief in my work.

To Timthank you for believing in the hypothesis and for your devotion to shaping it with me.

To Pat, Graham, Adam, Peter, Patrick, Katya, and Dylanthank you for always bringing out my inner child.

To Michellethank you for your encouragement to be patient and follow through.

To Kira and Elithank you for your teamwork that makes it possible to keep this project going.

To Maxar Technologies, Nearmap, NASA, and Axelspacethank you for creating the beautiful technology that offers us access to these new perspectives.

And to all the parents who decided to share these images with your childrenthank you for inspiring an idea that will hopefully lead to a better home for all the generations to come.

The authors would like to thank the following people for sharing their enthusiasm and expertise: Turner Brinton, Public Relations Manager, Maxar Technologies, Denver, Colorado; Mary Grikas, Vice President of Global Communications, SolarReserve, Santa Monica, California; Dr. Daniel Macfarlane, Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan; Dr. Carsten Lemmen, Coastal Research Department, Helmholtz-Zentrum, Leuphana University, Geesthacht, Germany; Dr. George Pinky Nelson, NASA Space Shuttle Astronaut, Retired; Shannon Ream, Digital Media Manager, Corporate Communications, Maxar Technologies, Boulder, Colorado; Dr. Paola Malanotte-Rizzoli, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Dr. Julie Rose, Research Ecologist, NOAA, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Milford Laboratory, Milford, Connecticut, USA; Dr. Lonnie Thompson, School of Earth Sciences and Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; Dr. Colin D. Woodrooffe, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Australia

BENJAMIN GRANT is the author of Overview and the founder of Daily Overview on Instagram, from which the book and project take their inspiration. His daily posts have both delighted and challenged his audience from around the globe since 2013. Benjamin graduated from Yale University, where he studied history and art history and rowed on the heavyweight crew team. He currently lives and rides his bike in San Francisco. You can follow along on Instagram at @dailyoverview, or learn more at dailyoverview.com.

SANDRA MARKLE is the award-winning author of more than 200 nonfiction books for children. A former elementary science teacher, she is a nationally known science education consultant and has developed science specials for CNN and PBS and an acclaimed internet-based education program for the National Science Foundation. She lives in Sarasota, Florida, with her husband.

THE TECHNOLOGY THAT MAKES OVERVIEW POSSIBLE

MAXAR SATELLITES

Commercial satellite operator Maxar Technologies makes the amazing images in Overview possible. The company has four satellites positioned approximately 400 miles (644 km) above the Earths surface. These satellites are at slightly different heights but all travel along north-south orbits at roughly 17,500 miles (28,163 km) per hour! Each makes about fifteen laps around the Earth every day, completing one orbit every 92 minutes.

With the satellites orbiting so quickly, they do not have much time to snap sharp, clear pictures of any one spot on the surface. But the engineers at Maxar designed the satellite cameras with this in mind. The cameras on board the satellites are hugeabout 18 feet (5 m) long and about 8 feet (2.4 m) wide, with lenses just under 4 feet (1.2 m) wide. The size of the lens makes it possible to photograph large areas all at once. For example, while passing over Chicago, just one photo can capture the entire city! On top of that, the cameras are so powerful, you can take a clear picture of a basketball from 400 miles (644 km) away!

We are very thankful that our friends at Maxar have let us use their satellites and this incredible technology to see our Earth in a brand-new way.

WORLDVIEW3 SATELLITE

An artists rendering shows what the Maxar WorldView-3 Earth-observation satellite looks like in space.

EXPLORE MORE

DAILY OVERVIEW

Started by author Benjamin Grant, Daily Overview lets you see a new picture of our Earth from above each and every day. Also visit the website to buy other books and posters of Overviews.

Instagram: @dailyoverview

Facebook: Daily Overview

Check out these other books and websites to learn more about Earth and how we can protect it for the future.

Barnard, Bryn. The New Ocean: The Fate of Life in a Changing Sea. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017. Explore the lives of jellyfish, orcas, sea turtles, tuna, coral, and blue-green algae, and investigate how pollution plus rising water temperatures affect themand us.

Burns, Loree Griffin. Life on Surtsey: Icelands Upstart Island (Scientists in the Field series). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017. Follow the field studies of an Icelandic team investigating the changes of a volcanic island formed by a 1963 eruption.

Cherrix, Amy. Eye of the Storm: NASA, Drones, and the Race to Crack the Hurricane Code (Scientists in the Field series). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017. Scientists use technology to track hurricanes and monitor their strength to warn people in their projected path.

Delano, Marf Ferguson. Earth in the Hot Seat: Bulletins from a Warming World. Washington, DC: National Geographic Kids, 2009. Explore the dangers and challenges Earth faces as a result of global warming.

Easy Science for Kids: Volcanoes. easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-volcanoes. Check out volcanoesboth their outside and inside structures. Dont miss the action video!

Fleischman, Paul. Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines. Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2014. A group of writers share facts about environmental issues and offer a guide for evaluating news stories and real ways to make a difference.

Goldstone, Bruce. I See a Pattern Here. New York: Henry Holt and Co. Books for Young Readers/Macmillan, 2015. Stunning photos let you share natures artwork and the many diverse patterns found naturally on Earth.

Hopkins, H. Joseph. The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever.