This Blue Marble image is the first fully illuminated snapshot of Earth captured by the DSCOVR satellite, which will capture and transmit full images of Earth every few hours. The information will help examine a range of Earth properties, such as ozone and aerosol levels, cloud coverage, and vegetation density, supporting a number of climate-science applications.
This Blue Marble image is the first fully illuminated snapshot of Earth captured by the DSCOVR satellite, a joint NASA, NOAA and U.S. Air Force mission. After launching in February 2015, DSCOVR spent months rocketing away from Earth before reaching its final orbit position in June 2015 at Lagrange point 1 (L1), about 1 million miles away from Earth.
The DSCOVR mission serves several important purposes, including providing scientific data on heat and radiation fluxes across Earth's atmosphere, and maintaining the nation's ability to provide timely alerts and forecasts for space-weather events, which can disrupt telecommunications capabilities, power grids, GPS applications, and other systems vital to national and local economies.
And with its Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), DSCOVR will capture and transmit full images of Earth every few hours. The information gathered by EPIC will help examine a range of Earth properties, such as ozone and aerosol levels, cloud coverage, and vegetation density, supporting a number of climate-science applications.
NASA will make all the data, data products and images collected by DSCOVR freely available to the public, including the new Blue Marble images. Starting soon, you'll be able to view and download new Blue Marble images taken by DSCOVR every day.
