World Air Traffic Over A 24-Hour Period (VIDEO)

This cool video tracks air travel traffic over a 24-hour period. While there are regions, like North America and Europe, that are particularly crisscrossed with flights, the overall impression is this is one busy planet.

See the globe from additional breath-taking vantage points by checking out one astronaut's images of Mount Kilimanjaro, Haiti, the Maldives, and more as seen from orbit, NASA's best images of the Earth to date, and these incredible photos of the world's most severe storms as seen from space.

WATCH:

Comments

[TheGavel]

01:01 PM on 04/18/2010

Now we can see human has the ability to watch itself committing s ui cidal. The environmen­tal impacts due to "moderniza­tion", including air pollution from air traffic will collective­ly throw this planet out of w a c k!

[TheGavel]

01:01 PM on 04/18/2010

Now we can see human has the ability to watch itself committing s ui cidal. The environmen­tal impacts due to "moderniza­tion", including air pollution from air traffic will collective­ly throw this planet out of wack!

[TheGavel]

01:01 PM on 04/18/2010

Now we can see human has the ability to watch itself committing suicidal. The environmen­tal impacts due to "moderniza­tion", including air pollution from air traffic will collective­ly throw this planet out of wack!

[blueskybigstar]

05:53 PM on 04/11/2010

After 911 the shutting down of the airports caused the atmosphere to shrink. With all the planes flying, it stirs up the air and extends the height of the atmosphere­.

[LueyLuey]

02:41 AM on 04/11/2010

And we wonder why the Polar Ice caps are melting. humm maybe this could be the reason.

[anothervoice]

11:00 AM on 04/10/2010

And yet, there are those who argue that man's activities have nothing to do with climate change...

[Imzadi]

09:56 AM on 04/10/2010

I saw this two years ago. I wonder if this is the same or an updated version?

[cloudmaker]

08:37 AM on 04/10/2010

Isn't it time tht grownups stop using the word "cool" as an adjective for anything and everything­? Surely with the thousands of adjectives available, we could give a little thought to finding a more apt word.

[Balloon-Boy]

02:36 PM on 04/10/2010

Your post is really cool. Keep it up.

[cloudmaker]

05:05 PM on 04/10/2010

Let me show you how adjectives work so that you can avoid cliches like cool. Your post was obvious, predictabl­e, superfluou­s, insipid, juvenile, sophomoric and, I am guessing,
sarcastic. What it was not is the very word under discussion­.

[Zapatista]

04:28 AM on 04/10/2010

2. This illustrati­on also shows how the global south (S, America, Africa etc) are very far behind in the global technologi­cal rat race ... just how the first world wants them = underdevel­oped and easy to economical­ly take advantage of.

[Poncia]

04:44 AM on 04/10/2010

It's amazing how S. America and Africa let that happen and have absolutely nothing to do with their own disadvanta­geous position.

[Zapatista]

04:26 AM on 04/10/2010

1. It's amazing how few crashes there are ... flying is probably even safer than walking down the sidewalk statistica­lly.

[davidhilton1]

09:28 PM on 04/09/2010

IMO, this video needs music. Cool vid none the less. . .

[GoogleMaster]

10:57 PM on 04/09/2010

One of those planes is Putin, flying over Sarah's place.

[Balloon-Boy]

07:38 PM on 04/09/2010

It's interestin­g as night falls, air traffic becomes very low, no matter where in the globe. Another thing is that there is no traffic through the North and South poles.

[Dadeo]

07:51 PM on 04/09/2010

The North pole comes alive near the end of December.

[Balloon-Boy]

07:57 PM on 04/09/2010

I would think if you fly over the poles, you can shorten the distance a lot.

[BZkCarter]

07:59 PM on 04/09/2010

I saw alittle over the north pole

[Repubis]

11:15 PM on 04/09/2010

As did I. And if you look- the planes near the north pole were moving much much faster...?

[anelder]

06:49 PM on 04/09/2010

Wow! One of the many reasons I'm living long enough to enjoy all this technology­. Wow!

[nationalhealth]

06:47 PM on 04/09/2010

Reminds me of the time I kicked an ants' nest. Kinda meaningles­sness.

[Angiefranci]

06:36 AM on 04/10/2010

Yeah, I thought of a swarm of bugs or ants, too.

[originaldna]

06:23 PM on 04/09/2010

Why are they still using the old maps, Africa is way bigger than that.
http://str­angemaps.f­iles.wordp­ress.com/2­006/11/afr­ica_in_per­spective_m­ap.jpg

[Palito]

10:21 PM on 04/09/2010

its an artifact of the projection system. land masses closer to the poles get distorted and look bigger than what they are.

[timekiller25]

12:25 AM on 04/10/2010

Last time I checked, Africa had a significan­t portion of its land mass near the equator...