Mesmerizing timelapse of the Earth is the highest resolution single-shot imagery ever taken of our planet from space.
The video and images were snapped by the Russian weather satellite Elektro-L during its orbit 36,000 kilometers above the equator. The images are in 121 megapixels; That’s 1 km per pixel. In the video shown above here, the images are in true color, but if you really want to see the vegetation pop out, watch it in the infrared– the vegetation will instead appear orange (video below).
Also unlike most NASA photos of the Earth from space, these images were snapped in a single shot. By contrast, NASA’s photos are usually composites of several photographs.
Not since The Blue Marble— the famous photograph snapped by Apollo 17 astronauts on their way to the Moon in 1972– has there been such a spectacular and moving single-shot view of the Earth.
via – Mother Nature Network
A timelapse of Planet Earth from Electro-L, a geostationary satellite orbiting 40,000 km above the Earth.
The satellite creates a 121 megapixel image every 30 minutes with four visible and infrared light wavelengths. The infrared light appears orange in these images, and shows vegetation.
The images were obtained beginning on May 14th, 2011 and end on May 20th. The images are the largest whole disk images of our planet, the resolution is 1 kilometer per pixel.
The images are “masked” by a circular barrier that blocks out the light of the Sun and other stars. This is to prevent damage to the camera by exposure to direct sunlight. The images have been interpolated (blended) to create a smooth animation.
// Photo – Russian Federal Space Agency