Berlin,the capital city of Germany,seen from space by the Ikonos satellite. North is at top. The large park is the Tiergarten,which is marked by the position of the former Berlin Wall (centre right,running north to south). The German parliament building,the Reichstag,is just above the park's north-east tip. The Brandenburg Gate (pale blue) lies where the Tiergarten's east- west road leaves the park. Launched in 1999,Ikonos was the first commercial satellite to collect data at one-metre resolution. The satellite,which orbits at an altitude of 681 kilometres,is owned by Space Imaging,Colorado,USA. Image size: 3x3km |