Most Amazing High Definition Image of Earth - Blue Marble 2012

[tabatha]

January 25, 2012

A 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed 'Suomi NPP' on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin.

Suomi NPP is NASA's next Earth-observing research satellite. It is the first of a new generation of satellites that will observe many facets of our changing Earth.

Suomi NPP is carrying five instruments on board. The biggest and most important instrument is The Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite or VIIRS.

To read more about NASA's Suomi NPP go to: npp.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html

Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring

NASA image use policy.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6760135001/

[Scuba]

1. I can see my house!

Very cool, thanks for posting.

[FailureToCommunicate]

2. Where are the borders?!?

[Marnie]

3. What a very thin live giving atmosphere the earth has.

Harm it and there is nothing for a million million years to heal it.

[DirkGently]

4. Beautiful.

[Odin2005]

5. You can see the lack of snow we had in the northern plains.

Freaky!

[Surya Gayatri]

6. Thanks for posting this, Tabatha...

It's so breath-catchingly beautiful, I teared up.

SG

[tabatha]

7. You may want to follow their Flickr account.

They post almost daily, too much to repeat here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6765664367