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This image of Earth's eastern hemisphere was built from data collected by the Suomi NPP satellite, which flies in a polar orbit at an altitude of 824 kilometers (512 miles). The perspective of this new image, however, is from 12,743 kilometers (7,918 miles) above a point at 10 degrees south latitude and 45 degrees east longitude.
Separate images in red, green and blue wavelengths are combined to make natural-color imagery. Multiple, adjacent swaths”slices of Earth viewed on each satellite pass”get built into the composite image.
A decade ago, members of the Earth Observatory team pulled together about 10,000 satellite scenes, collected over 100 days, and created a 43,200- by 21,600-pixel map of Earth. By 2007, the resolution of this full Earth Blue Marble was up to 86,400 pixels by 43,200 pixels. Even after all of these years, the Blue Marble is still the most popular and most downloaded NASA image.
Of course, the original Blue Marble image is actually a photograph”not a composite view. It was taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts as they traveled to the moon. The view is from a distance of about 45,000 kilometers (28,000 miles).
Source: NASA
