This is pretty stunning, and quite beautiful in its own way.

Aaron Koblin, a graphic artist and game designer has produced a remarkable animation, built using real data, of a 24-hour stretch of commercial air travel into, out of, and within the United States. Watch how the lights, and flights, build with the advance of dawn from east to west.

Tip of the hat to Andy Revkin of the New York Times, who featured the work in a recent post of his Dot Earth blog. Andy's blog post includes a quick Q&A with Koblin, whose own website, complete with hi-res stills and animation, is here.