The Swarm

(Courtesy of GeoEye.)
Callan Bentley at NOVA Geoblog has found a mind boggling satellite image of the crowds at yesterday's inaugural festivities. Click over to see at nearly double the size of the above picture. As he notes, despite all appearances, that dark mass is not a swarm of angry ants boiling out to defend their nest. New Scientist also has a series of four images; not as high resolution but still pretty amazing.

Followup: It looks as if all of these are crops and pieces of one large image, which can be seen here.

Followup 2: Avram Grumer at Making Light points out the original source (10 Mb download), and the opportunity to download the huge full size image at 3 times the width and height of the version linked in the first followup. He also points out that the satellite taking the shot captured a second satellite passing below it! Amazing! And a sharp commenter points out that in Google Maps, you can see the same satellite with a whole lot more boats tied up at it! Oh it just keeps getting better!