Air

Upending the basin: drone count

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You’ve heard of the annual Audubon bird count. Now you can take part in a drone count. Not the bees – the unmanned aircraft. Here at Great Lakes Echo we’ve been running a series of stories about the use and potential of unmanned aerial vehicles. If nothing else, we’ve discovered that no one seems to have a clue of how many of these things are out there.

Land

Photo Friday: Land distribution around railroad supply town

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By Evan KreagerGreat Lakes EchoThe small town of Reese, just south of the crease of Michigan’s Thumb, was once a bustling supply center at the crossroads of two railways. This true-color image, taken by NASA’s Earth Observing — 1 satellite on May 21, 2012, shows the town at their intersection. The green and white square plots of land also gives insight into some of the area’s history, according to a description of the image produced by NASA. In the late 18th century, the Continental Congress decided how to govern the newly settled lands west of the Appalachian Mountains, according to the NASA description. The Ordinance of 1785 divided the land into townships, and then again into individual square mile plots, creating the colorful collage seen here.

Climate

Photo Friday: Ice atop Lake Erie

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When last week’s snowstorm and cold spell made its way through the Great Lakes, nearly 90 percent of Lake Erie froze over, according to the NASA Earth Observatory. The colorized picture above shows ice (pale blue) and snow (blue-green) formed on top of the lake. A report by Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at Wunderground.com, showed that these high levels of ice coverage had not been seen on the Great Lakes since January 1994.