Ellipsis Drive: How to Turn Satellite Data Into Beautiful Art

Have you ever seen photos of clouds captured by satellites? From the almost cosmic swirls of hurricanes to the mesmerizing, lava-like lava flows of volcanoes, these images can be as beautiful as they are scientifically informative. The process that takes normal satellite data and transforms it into works of art is called Ellipsis Drive, and it’s available to anyone with the right software and hardware set up in their homes or offices. This guide explains how to set up your own Ellipsis Drive system so you can make satellite data come alive in your art, photography, videos, and more!

3 Ways to Create Stunning Skywatch Art

1. Paint with light. Even without a camera, we can capture the sky's beauty by painting it with light. 

2. Create animation with time-lapse photos of the sky. 2 minutes of photos over 8 hours can make for a great time-lapse video!

3. Use Ellipsis Drive to create beautiful art from satellite data! With this interactive website, you can transform satellite images into unique and eye-catching works of art. You may need to use a graphics program such as Photoshop or Illustrator in order to use some of its features. All the imagery on this site is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Use your own photos

I have been looking at satellite data from NASA's Earth Observatory for years and have never found an elegant way to display this data online. I'm a designer, so it only made sense that I try my hand at solving this problem. I call the project Ellipsis Drive. The goal of the project is to turn massive amounts of satellite imagery into beautiful art. To get started, I created two types of maps: one with a blue background representing water and one with red representing land (each map has different colors depending on the year). Once you choose your map type, you can zoom in anywhere on Earth and see what was happening in that spot in any given year.

Google Images

The first thing you need is satellite data. You can get this from Google Earth or a company like DigitalGlobe which will give you access to images at different resolutions. To create something that has texture, I recommend using images from a lower resolution. For example, if you're creating something for your desktop background, use one of the default resolutions available on Google Earth. If you want something much more detailed and higher quality for printing, then purchase a higher-resolution image from either DigitalGlobe or another provider.

Stock Photos

The first, and most basic, step in the process is to find a location with the right type of imagery. You can use Google Earth or Google Maps for this. Once you have found a suitable location, take note of the satellite that passes over it. This will be the satellite you will use in your sky watch. For example, if you are looking at Rio de Janeiro from space then either Terra 2-05 or 2-07 would work. 

I'm lucky enough to live in an area where there are many satellites passing overhead on a daily basis (Southern California). I typically end up using SIRAL 1C which has 16 crossings per day (8 northbound and 8 southbound) which gives me plenty of chances to catch one. 

I've experimented with different ways of catching these images but my favorite is by using DSLR timer software and taking long exposures during twilight hours when the landscape below is starting to light up but before stars appear in the sky.