Resource

NASA Earth Observations - Global Views

Ocean, energy, land, atmosphere and life maps as seen by NASA satellites of the entire earth. For examples, you can view snow cover, population, vegetation, solar insolation, carbon monoxide, rainfall and many other parameters.

More energy from sunlight strikes the Earth in one hour than all the energy consumed on the planet in a year. At high noon on a cloudless day, the surface of the Earth receives 1,000 watts of solar power per square meter. Sunlight provides by far the largest of all carbon-neutral or clean-energy sources. Heat travels in all directions from the Sun and is the ultimate source of all energy on Earth. This energy is responsible for all sorts of weather events, not only scorching heat waves. For instance, wind occurs when sunlight heats the ground, which heats the air above it, which rises, so that cool air whisks in to take its place.