Earth seen by satellite - Earth seen by satellite - Mosaic of Earth images obtained...

Earth seen by satellite - Earth seen by satellite - Mosaic of Earth images obtained by the Suomi NPP satellite in April 2015. On the right, cyclone Joalane passes over the Indian Ocean. This natural - color composite image of Earth was assembled from data acquired by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi National Polar - orbiting Partnership (Suomi - NPP) spacecraft. It stitches together 671, 551, and 443 nanometer wavelength data from six orbits on April 9, 2015. Suomi NPP does not actually observe Earth from the perspective shown in this image. The satellite flies in a polar orbit at an altitude of 824 kilometers (512 miles), and its images have a resolution of 750 meters per pixel. In the image, the virtual camera looks down from the perspective of 8,300 kilometers (5,100 miles) above a point at 50 degrees South latitude and 40 degrees East longitude. Most of the scene is filled by the Indian Ocean (center and left), while parcels of the Atlantic (top left) and Southern Ocean (bottom) fill in the rest and remind us that it is all really one ocean. The image also includes southern Africa and Madagascar, with tropical cyclone Joalane swirling in the Indian Ocean