One Year on Earth – Seen From 1 Million Miles
On July 20, 2015, NASA released to the world the first image of the sunlit side of Earth captured by the space agency's EPIC camera on NOAA's DSCOVR satellite. The camera has now recorded a full year of life on Earth from its orbit at Lagrange point 1, approximately 1 million miles from Earth, where it is balanced between the gravity of our home planet and the sun.
EPIC takes a new picture every two hours, revealing how the planet would look to human eyes, capturing the ever-changing motion of clouds and weather systems and the fixed features of Earth such as deserts, forests and the distinct blues of different seas. EPIC will allow scientists to monitor ozone and aerosol levels in Earth’s atmosphere, cloud height, vegetation properties and the ultraviolet reflectivity of Earth.
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2. kirkelicious commented 8 years ago
In case anyone is interested what L1 - a Lagrange point - is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxpVbU5FH0s
3. stonedecroze commented 8 years ago
4. thundersnow commented 8 years ago
5. blue_alien commented 8 years ago
6. Verbalist54 commented 8 years ago
I had no idea that South America rose above the clouds...it looks exactly like when someone makes a Layers mistake on Photoshop.
I never knew that the random process of forming clouds on Earth yields the same exact patterns multiple times a year...especially when such patterns are distinct faces and English Letters Aligned as if they were Text added in on Photoshop.
I never knew that the Moon, Mars or any other planets never pass behind the Earth throughout an entire year...also since the Earth moves closer and farther from the Sun throughout the year, the lighting should get darker and lighter...in fact, considering the vast distances the Earth and the Satellite are covering between each shot, there should not be this perfect linear progressive movement with this perfectly consistent but blotchie lighting contrast...
See if NASA would just admit they are using Photoshop, I could go and help their staff maybe even land a job doing this for them...why don't they consult PIXAR??
7. kirkelicious commented 8 years ago
You have to consider the scale of things. Correctly scaled earth and moon are like a soccer ball and a tennis ball with a distance of 8 meters between. Now imagine zooming in on that soccer ball from 33 m away. Chances, that you get the tennis ball into the same shot are really small.
If it where a common thing for the moon to pass exactly on the extended earth moon axis (behind earth in layman's terms) we'd have lunar eclipses all the time.
I guess the other stars do not show up because of the exposure settings, but could have been edited out. So what? The sensors of the cameras do probably not even cover a rectangular area, certainly not a 4:3 aspect ratio. They were built for a very special purpose - to observe earth.
I doubt that a 3% change in distance from a light source would change the brightness significantly, but I am perfectly fine with NASA adjusting brightness levels to create an image that is pleasant to look at.
The satellite remains fixed in its position relative to the earth and the sun at the Lagrange point L1, so it is completely irrelevant how fast they are moving. The fact that we move through space at 2 million km/h does not has to be considered by photographers on earth, because their relative motion to their subject is stationary. Same thing there, only the angle and distance remain constant.
Recurring clouds in text form and South Africa rising above the clouds are figments of your imagination.
There seems to be a lot you do not know. I can only encourage you to spend some time learning about these things. It isn't always easy to understand, but when you finally do it is hugely satisfying, because the topic is truly fascinating.
+3 1. huldu commented 8 years ago