It’s a striking image of our planet that captures everything from the brilliant blue hue of the Caribbean Sea to the thick smog over the north. India.
But in addition to providing a new global perspective of Earth from space, the image is just the beginning of a new science mission that will monitor ocean ecology and marine health, as well as be able to track wildfires, droughts, and floods.
That’s because it was taken over by a recently released POT satellite, NOAA-21, which experts hope will provide vital information about our planet’s oceans, atmosphere and land.
The Earth observing spacecraft has an instrument known as the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), which began collecting data in early December and produced a mosaic of frames over a 24-hour period.
Impressive: In addition to providing a new global perspective of Earth from space, this image is just the beginning of a new science mission that will monitor ocean ecology and marine health, as well as track wildfires, droughts, and floods.
Capture everything from the brilliant blue of the Caribbean Sea (pictured) to the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau.
It shot all sorts of features, including the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, in haze and could over northern India caused by agricultural burning.
VIIRS measures sea surface temperature, a metric that is important for monitoring hurricane formation, while monitoring ocean color helps monitor phytoplankton activity, a key indicator of ocean ecology and marine health.
“The turquoise color seen around Cuba and the Bahamas in the bottom left image above comes from sediments in the shallow waters around the continental shelf,” said Dr. Satya Kalluri, program scientist at the National Administration Oceanic and Atmospheric.
On the ground, VIIRS can detect and measure wildfires, droughts, and floods, and its data can be used to track the thickness and movement of wildfire smoke.
The instrument also provides analysis of the world’s snow and ice cover, clouds, fog, aerosols and dust, and crop health.
It collects images in the visible and infrared light spectrums, allowing scientists to see details of the Earth’s surface.
One of its most important uses is to produce images over Alaska, Dr. Kalluri added, because satellites like NOAA-21 orbit the Earth from the North Pole to the South Pole, so they fly directly over the Arctic several times a day.
It also has what is known as the Day-Night Band, which captures images of lights at night, including city lights, lightning, auroras, and lights from ships and fires.
“VIIRS serves so many disciplines, it’s an absolutely critical set of measurements,” said Dr. James Gleason, NASA project scientist for the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Flight Project.
‘VIIRS provides many different data products that are used by scientists in unrelated fields, from agricultural economists trying to make crop forecasts, to air quality scientists forecasting where wildfire smoke will be, to disaster relief teams trying to night lights are counted to understand the impact of a disaster.’
NOAA-21 is the second operational satellite in the JPSS series, which entered orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base on November 10.
The previous one, known as NOAA-20, launched in November 2017.
Covered: Haze also broke and could over northern India (pictured), which experts say was caused by agricultural burning
NOAA-21 (depicted in an artist’s impression) is the second operational satellite in the JPSS series, which entered orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base on November 10.
Both spacecraft observe the entire surface of Earth twice a day while cruising 512 miles (824 kilometers) above our planet at 17,000 mph (27,360 kph).
A third JPSS satellite is scheduled to launch in 2027 and a fourth in 2032.
Another research satellite known as Suomi-NPP, which was launched into space in 2011, served as the model for the JPSS series.
“We launched multiple weather satellites to double and now triple ensure that we always have one up and running. Space is a dangerous environment,’ said Dr Gleason.
“Things happen and you can lose an instrument or a satellite, but we can’t lose the data. It’s too important to too many people.
NOAA-21 will be the 21st polar-orbiting satellite operated by NOAA and is expected to have a mission lifetime of about seven years.
If you liked this article…
How about we take a look at some of the strange and wonderful new exoplanets discovered in 2022including water worlds and a gas giant ‘in the womb’
Or do you speak alien? Scientists say Earth needs to prepare for an alien encounter now before it’s too late
Meanwhile, a study has found that Comet ATLAS may be a remains of a mysterious fireball that swept 23 million miles from the sun 5,000 years ago
