It’s a beautiful picture of our planet that captures everything from the deep blue of the Caribbean Sea to the thick smog over northern India.
But in addition to providing a new global perspective of Earth from space, the image is the start of a new science mission that can monitor ocean ecology and marine health, as well as track fires, droughts and floods.
That’s what was captured by the recently launched NOAA-NAA satellite, which experts hope will provide vital information about our ocean, atmosphere and land.
Earth has a known space saving instrument The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), which began collecting data in early December, has produced a handful of images over a 24-hour period.
Stunning: In addition to a new global perspective of the Earth from space, this image is only the beginning of a new scientific mission that tracks ocean ecology and marine health, as well as fires, droughts and floods.
It takes in everything from the sparkling blue Caribbean Sea to the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau.
All kinds of features, including the Himalayas and the snow-capped Tibetan plains, blanketed northern India and smog erupted in the heat of agriculture.
VIIRS measures sea surface temperature, a metric that is important for monitoring hurricane formation, but monitoring ocean color helps keep tabs on phytoplankton activity, an indicator of ocean ecology and marine health.
“The turquoise color that is seen around Cuba and the Bahamas in the bottom-left of the image above” comes from sediment in the shallow waters around the continental shelf, said Dr. Satya Kalluri, a program scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
On land, VIIRS can detect and measure fires, droughts and floods, and its data can track the thickness and movement of wildfire smoke.
The tool also provides analysis of snow and ice cover, clouds, fog, aerosols and dust, and the safety of the world’s crops.
It collects images in both the visible and infrared spectra, allowing scientists to see every detail of the Earth’s surface.
One of the most important uses of images over Alaska, Dr Kalluri added, is that satellites such as the Earth-orbiting NOAA-21 fly directly over the Arctic several times a day from the North Pole to the South Pole.
It’s also known as the Day-Night Band, which captures images of night lights, including city lights, lightning, auroras, and lights from ships and fireworks.
“VIIRS serves so many disciplines, the set of measurements is absolutely critical,” said Dr. James Gleason, NASA project scientist for the Articulated Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Project.
‘VIIRS provides many different types of data that scientists use in neighboring fields, from economists trying to forecast crops, to air quality scientists predicting where wildfires will be, to supporting disaster teams who count night visions to understand the impact. calamity.’
NOAA-21, the second operational satellite in the JPSS series, was launched into orbit on November 10 from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The previous one – known as NOAA-20 – was launched in November 2017.
Blanket: Even darkness and smog over northern India (pictured), which experts say is caused by agricultural heat.
NOAA-21 (pictured in the artist’s impression) is the second operational satellite in the JPSS series, launched in orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Nov.
Both craft observe the integrity of the Earth’s surface twice a day while orbiting 512 miles (824 kilometers) above our planet at 17,000 mph (27,360 kph).
The third JPSS satellite is due to be launched in 2027, and the fourth in 2032.
Another research satellite known as Suomi-NPP, which was launched into space in 2012, is in the JPSS series for blue.
“We’ve launched multiple weather satellites to double and now we’re triple sure that we’re always going. The space environment is dangerous,” Dr Gleason said.
“It happens and you can destroy the instrument or the satellite, but we can’t destroy the data. It’s too important, even for many people.
NOAA-21 will be the 21st polar-orbiting satellite operated by NOAA and should have a mission life of about seven years.
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