NASA Satellite Returns Epic View of Earth

The US space agency has announced, a high-resolution camera aboard a NASA satellite has beamed back its first photograph - a spectacular view of the entire sunlit side of Earth from one million miles away.

The colour image of Earth was taken by the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (Epic) onboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite, launched in February in year 2015.

Earth image by Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera
  1. The photograph has been generated by combining three separate images captured by the camera, which can click a series of 10 images using different narrowband filters - from ultraviolet to near infrared.
  2. The Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR, maintains the nation՚s real-time solar wind monitoring capabilities which are critical to the accuracy and lead time of NOAA՚s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) space weather alerts and forecasts.
  3. Without timely and accurate warnings, space weather events like the geomagnetic storms caused by changes in solar wind can disrupt nearly every major public infrastructure system, including power grids, telecommunications, aviation and GPS.
  4. These initial Earth images show the effects of sunlight scattered by air molecules, giving the images a characteristic bluish tint.

Examrace Team at Aug 21, 2021