Tuesday, November 18, 2008

East African Savanna : Landscapes

This is a collection of Landscapes in the African Savanna. Please feel free to click on the picture to see bigger images and set it as your wallpaper. I am not giving too many captions here.


Wildebeests and Zebras in the background.


Early morning bit of back light shot of Savanna animals mixed heard.




A Gazelle
Hanging nests of weaver birds.




Remains of 2004 famine







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Sunday, November 09, 2008

East African Savana : Butterflies and Plants

Since I had very less free time to roam around, I managed to photograph only two Butterflies and I am yet to look for the identities of both.

The first one is this, probably a Lycaenidae


this another Pieridae looks like a Gull.



The Savanna walk was full of wild flowers. I did not have too much time to spend, but did manage to click few interesting ones.

This looks like Fabaceae


And this a Liliaceae




This a ground Orchid ?





Typical Savanna trees. Looks like some Acacia


Aloe seen in wild



I guess this is an Ipomea

This is Acacia species



This reminds me of Apta

A Solanaceae

This is a Cadaba species of Capparaceae. Reminded me of Cadaba fruticosa I seen back in Bangalore.

This one I am not remembering now.



This was an interesting herb, some ground orchid probably.


All the identities are listed here are wild guess of a non-botanist. Please let me know any hints on the identities here in comments or by email.

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Thursday, November 06, 2008

ISRO'S Bhuvan To Better Google Earth

Rahul Srinivas, Nov 06, 2008 1637 hrs IST

Another 'Bhuvan' up against the Angrez

Now, this is a comparison we thought we never would make. Nevertheless, here it is. Come March 2009, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) will launch its own IRS (Indian Remote Sensing) image portal called Bhuvan. The portal will offer detailed satellite views of our planet to users -- akin to those seen on Google Earth and Wikimapia, but with a difference; this one will give sharper and more detailed pictures than provided by Google. Google Earth, which can zoom up to 200m, will have good competition in Bhuvan, which has a sharper zoom level capability of up to 10m.

Apart from the "geek" value of this service, ISRO plans to use it to enhance urban and forest planning and traffic management. Like Google Earth, a "special" version would be in the offing for professional and corporate users who might need higher resolution data. Of course, this would come at a price, though the base version would remain free.

Now, the differences. While Google Earth provides single-layer information, Bhuvan would provide multi-layer information. Additionally, you would be able to view the images date-wise. The entire service makes use of Indian satellites and its focus will be the Indian subcontinent.

Apart from Bhuvan, ISRO is also readying an information portal called "Bhu Sampada." Both services are expected to be operational by March 2009.

Story


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