Aerial Photos

These are a few photos I took out of planes this week. I had several cameras in my lap and played around with them for the best results. I'm still going through the many thousands of images I created while flying around the country.

Above: The front range of the Rocky Mountains at Columbia Falls, Montana. Pretty much everything in the photo from the mountains and beyond is within the boundaries of Glacier National Park. To the north are the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. As I said in a previous post we were never able to really see the scope of the mountains as they were shrouded in clouds the three days we were there.

The park encompasses over 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km2) and includes parts of two mountain ranges (sub-ranges of the Rocky Mountains), over 130 named lakes, more than 1,000 different species of plants and hundreds of species of animals. This vast pristine ecosystem is the centerpiece of what has been referred to as the "Crown of the Continent Ecosystem," a region of protected land encompassing 16,000 square miles (41,000 km2).



Above and Below: Some slightly blurry images of Salt Lake City area and the Wasatch Mountains. The highest mountaintop visible from Salt Lake City is Twin Peaks, which is 11,330 feet (3454 m). This was my second trip to Salt Lake City in the past few years. Its always a dramatic sight. Last visit the city was covered with smog which obscured the view. Not so this time around.

The mountains near Salt Lake City are easily visible from the city and have sharp vertical relief caused by massive ancient earthquakes, with a maximum difference of 7,099 feet (2164 m) being achieved with the rise of Twin Peaks from the Salt Lake Valley floor. (Salt Lake City has an average elevation of 4,327 feet (1,320 m). Below: The view from the airport on the west side of the city about 4 miles from the central business district.



Below: I thought this was a pretty cool shot. If you click on the image you can see it in better detail. At the bottom of the image is the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power plant in Limestone County, Alabama. It was an accident that I got the plant as I was aiming for the sunset and then noticed the massive cooling towers on the ground.

I hadn't realized we were that far north over Alabama. Browns Ferry is one of the largest electric plants in the nation in terms of nameplate capacity. Among nuclear plants, it is second only to Palo Verde in Arizona.



Below: A shot of the Atlanta skyline. We circled the city many times so I got quite a few shots. In this image you can clearly make out the Georgia Dome and the 21-acre Centennial Olympic Park and Georgia World Congress Center (left-center-bottom). The three state-owned facilities are one of the largest combined sports, entertainment and convention center facilities in the world.

The Georgia Dome, the largest cable-supported domed stadium in the world, opened in 1992. Located in downtown Atlanta, the Dome is the home venue for the Atlanta Falcons, host to Super Bowl XXVIII and XXXIV. A total of 8,300 tons of reinforced steel were used to construct the Dome. That's more than the weight of iron and steel used in the Eiffel Tower. The building covers 8.9 acres and contains 1.6 million square feet on seven levels. It is 290-feet high.



Below: A clearer picture of Atlanta's SoNo district (south of North Ave.). Prominent in the image is the Bank of America Plaza skyscraper (right-center-golden spired roof). At 1,024 ft. (312 m) the tower is the 42nd-tallest building in the world.



More about the Bank of America Plaza Skyscraper:

The building is designed in the Postmodern architectural style. The Plaza's imposing presence is heightened by the dark color of its exterior. It soars into the sky with vertical lines that reinforce its height while also creating an abundance of corner offices (e.g. maximum tenant revenue). Located on 3.7 acres (1.5 ha) on Peachtree Street, the tower faces its border streets at a 45-degree angle to maximize the views to the north and south (midtown and downtown).

There is a 90 ft (27 m) obelisk-like spire at the top of the building echoing the shape of the building as a whole. Most of the spire is covered in 23 karat (96%) gold leaf. The open-lattice steel pyramid underneath the obelisk glows orange at night due to lighting. At its most basic, this is a modern interpretation of the Art Deco theme seen in the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building.