# Blue water in earth photo space **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 23, 2011, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-water-in-earth-photo-space/603932 "2011-11-23T23:27:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![YoDoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e68b1a/32.png) [@YoDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YoDoc)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-water-in-earth-photo-space/603932/21 "2011-11-26T10:57:55Z")
Huh. I’ve been to both the Bahamas, and lake Michigan. I grew up in Florida on the west coast, in bradenton. Yes, those colors are real. Gmaps uses false color at sea, because nobody takes high res satellite images of a big watery nothing. They get better res over land, near coasts, and over large cities. The clouds forming over Florida do so because of the temperature and elevation differences. Notice the hole in the clouds over lake okochobee. The moisture rich air blows in from the water, gets warmed up over the land, and rises to an altitude where the pressure and temperature are sufficiently low to allow condensation. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAlecCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-water-in-earth-photo-space/603932/22 "2011-11-26T12:31:39Z")
There is one algorithm for processing “land” data, and one for processing “ocean” data, with the results combined into one image. There is a “land/sea” mask that is pretty coarse for picking which algorithm to apply which results in some very shallow water getting processed with the land algorithm. The sharp demarcation shows where the algorithm shifts from one to the other. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-water-in-earth-photo-space/603932/23 "2011-11-26T13:40:23Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > I’m not sure why the Bahamas area gets such a lot of real imagery over the sea. Most other coastal areas have only a very small amount of photo imagery beyond the coast. [Example](http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=50.010883,-5.266829&spn=0.035632,0.091066&t=h&vpsrc=6&z=14). Two reasons probably. First you want actual photos of all those little islands so lots of water gets photographed in the processs. Second, the water around those island actually looks nice when photographed so thats the image they use. ---
**Author:** ![Dufus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c77e96/32.png) [@Dufus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dufus)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-water-in-earth-photo-space/603932/24 "2011-11-26T17:19:38Z")
> [@DaveBfd](#): > > off topic: Why is the cloud cover near Florida almost perfectly fitted to the land? > > It seems odd to me that it starts and stops along the coastline. What prevents it from forming that way over the water nearby? [Check out this photo](http://www.panoramio.com/photo/3535044) [And this one!](http://www.panoramio.com/photo/3535051) ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-water-in-earth-photo-space/603932/25 "2011-11-26T19:07:01Z")
> [@DaveBfd](#): > > off topic: Why is the cloud cover near Florida almost perfectly fitted to the land? > > It seems odd to me that it starts and stops along the coastline. What prevents it from forming that way over the water nearby? It’s not a cloud, it’s alligator breath. Ferreals. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-water-in-earth-photo-space/603932.md?page=1)