Earth Matters

October Puzzler Answer: Kansas City

October 27th, 2014 by Kathryn Hansen

OctoberPuzzler_2014_annotated

Congratulations to Deanne Howard, who was the first to solve our October 2014 puzzler. The answer is Kansas City, which as many readers pointed out is located in both Kansas and Missouri. We decided to award the win to the first person to correctly guess the city name, regardless of whether the answer specified a state.

North is to the upper right in this image, which was taken on September 6, 2014, by astronauts on the International Space Station. Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport is a distinct landmark, located inside the bend of the Missouri River. Southeast of the river confluence (off the bottom of this photograph), the Kansas City Royals faced the San Francisco Giants in baseball’s 2014 World Series at Kauffman Stadium. Read more about this Image of the Day published on October 24, 2014.

We extend a special thank you to Lynne Beatty, Daniel Hogan, Mary Mathews, DJ Bailey, Ryan Wilson, David M., hai On, Gaye Hattem, and others who shared extra insight about the scene in the comments section of the puzzler’s original blog post, and to Ken Hammond for the nod to the area’s history on Facebook.

October Puzzler

October 20th, 2014 by Kathryn Hansen

OctoberPuzzler_2014

Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The October 2014 puzzler is above. Your challenge is to use the comments section to tell us what part of the world we are looking at, when the image was acquired, what the image shows, and why the scene is interesting.

How to answer. Your answer can be a few words or several paragraphs. (Try to keep it shorter than 200 words). You might simply tell us what part of the world an image shows. Or you can dig deeper and explain what satellite and instrument produced the image, what spectral bands were used to create it, or what is compelling about some obscure speck in the far corner of an image. If you think something is interesting or noteworthy, tell us about it.

The prize. We can’t offer prize money, but, we can promise you credit and glory (well, maybe just credit). Roughly one week after a puzzler image appears on this blog, we will post an annotated and captioned version as our Image of the Day. In the credits, we’ll acknowledge the person who was first to correctly ID the image. We’ll also recognize people who offer the most interesting tidbits of information about the geological, meteorological, or human processes that have played a role in molding the landscape. Please include your preferred name or alias with your comment. If you work for or attend an institution that you want us to recognize, please mention that as well.

Recent winners. If you’ve won the puzzler in the last few months or work in geospatial imaging, please sit on your hands for at least a  day to give others a chance to play.

Releasing Comments. Savvy readers have solved some of our puzzlers after only a few minutes or hours. To give more people a chance to play, we may wait between 24-48 hours before posting the answers we receive in the comment thread.

Good luck!