The NOAA collection spans centuries of time and much of the natural world from the center of the earth to the surface of the sun. This collection contains over 16,000 photographs with subjects ranging from tornados to animals to pictures of the earth from space. There are two ways to access the images. The first is “View Album.” The pictures are then grouped by subject. The NOAA in Space topic, for instance, has sections on satellite systems, space vehicles, rockets and launches, and imagery. Each section then has a large number of thumbnails, which can be enlarged. The picture quality is quite good. When a thumbnail is selected, the large image provides information about the source of the image. Many of the images are in the public domain and are readily available for distribution. Those that are under copyright are so indicated.
The second method to access the images is called “Browse Catalog.” In this method, a short description is given along with the thumbnail and date. Selecting the link this time provides a larger image. This is the way to review hundreds of images rapidly. To view the images it is recommended that users set their monitor resolution to 800 × 600 and set the colors to as high as possible. Many of the pictures are also available in a high‐resolution scan.
There is a search capability provided, but the results can be overwhelming. A search for “Michigan,” for instance, brought up 41 results. Some of the results are individual pictures, and some are albums containing a large number of hits. However, as an image could be found in any number of categories, this does provide a way to find a specific image.
In summary, this is a fun and easy site to use. One criticism is that the long album pages do not have a “back to top” feature. This is a minor inconvenience. Also, the larger images do not have a back button; users will need to use the Web browser’s back button instead. These are trivial problems, though. If you need a unique picture of such things as a tornado, a polar bear or a seacoast, this is a good place to go. Best of all, it is free.
