Abstract:
ArcAtlas: Our Earth brings to your computer a large collection of maps and information about the earth--its people, plants, animals, and their various environments and economies. Whether you're a researcher needing specific information and analytical tools, a teacher or student exploring the earth and its inhabitants, or just curious, ArcAtlas: Our Earth has something to offer you.
... ArcAtlas: Our Earth is a unique digital atlas, the result of many years of research by geographers and other earth scientists from Russia and the United States. More than forty different geographic themes were compiled for this atlas, with much of the information developed especially for this project.
The collaboration involved the efforts of more than 120 scientists and specialists belonging to a dozen research and other institutions ncluding DATA + (Russia), the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, and ESRI (United States).
What the atlas includes:
1. Cartographic data. Maps of each continent in the form of ArcInfo coverages.
2. More than 100 space images from a Russian satellite, and photographs from the authors' personal collections.
3. Map images including reference maps showing physical and political eatures, example maps for each geographic theme showing what the data are like, and world thematic maps.
4. ArcView projects with maps and legends.
5. On-line text that includes map descriptions, definitions of feature attributes, methods of map compilation, references, and links to ArcView maps and images.
Some things you can do with ArcAtlas: Our Earth:
1. Map the ranges of more than 300 animal species and groups.
2. Discover where human activities are changing the landscape.
3. Compare precipitation patterns to distribution of vegetation and soils.
4. Discover which countries produce the most electricity with atomic
energy.
5. Explore the pattern of volcanic eruptions around the globe.
6. Map the places where aluminum is found.
7. Learn what parts of Europe have the greatest average temperature change between summer and winter.
8. Explore maps of population density and soils to locate regions where people may be affected by soil polluted with lead.
[Summary provided by ESRI.] 
