A stunning global image of Earth captured by a NASA satellite

It’s a stunning image of our planet that captures everything from the bright blue of the Caribbean Sea to the thick smog of northern 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 environment and marine health, as well as be able to track wildfires, droughts and floods.

That’s because it was captured by NASA’s recently launched NOAA-21 satellite, which experts hope will provide vital information about our planet’s oceans, atmosphere, and land.

The Earth-observing spacecraft has an instrument known as a The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Network (VIIRS), which began collecting data in early December and produced a mosaic of images over a 24-hour period.

All kinds of features, including the snow-capped Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, cut through to create a smog over northern India from agricultural burn.

VIIRS measures sea surface temperature, an important metric for monitoring hurricane formation, while monitoring ocean colors 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 shallow waters around the continental shelf,” said Dr. Satya Caloury, NOAA program scientist.

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 tool also provides analysis of global snow, ice cover, clouds, fog, aerosols, dust, and crop health.

It combines images in the visible and infrared spectra of light, allowing scientists to see details of Earth’s surface.

One of its main uses, Dr. Caloury added, is producing images over Alaska, where satellites like NOAA-21 orbit the Earth from the North Pole to the South Pole, flying directly over the North Pole several times a day. .

It also has what’s called a day-night band, which takes pictures of the lights at night, including city lights, lightning, northern lights, ship lights, and fires.

“VIIRS serves so many disciplines, it’s a very important set of measurements,” said Dr. James Gleason, NASA project scientist for the Joint Flight of the Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Project.

VIIRS provides many different data products that are used by scientists in unrelated fields, from agricultural economists trying to make predictions about crops, to air quality scientists projecting where smoke from wildfires will be. forests, to disaster relief teams calculating nighttime lights To understand the impact of a disaster. ”

NOAA-21 is the second operational satellite in the JPSS series, and was launched into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base on November 10.

The previous version, known as NOAA-20, was launched in November 2017.

The two spacecraft monitor Earth’s entire surface twice a day while cruising 512 miles (824 kilometers) above our planet at 17,000 mph (27,360 km/h).

A third JPSS satellite should be launched in 2027, and a fourth in 2032.

Another research satellite known as Suomi-NPP, which exploded in space in 2011, served as a model for the JPSS series.

We’ve launched many weather satellites to multiply it, and now we’re sure we always have one that works. “Space is a dangerous environment,” said Dr. Gleeson.

Things happen and you can lose an instrument or a satellite, but we can’t lose data. It is very important to many people.

NOAA-21 will be the 21st polar-orbiting satellite operated by NOAA and is scheduled for a nearly seven-year mission.

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