A year of Earth's weather from a million miles away

Thursday, July 21, 2016, 11:42 AM - When you think of photos of Earth from space, showing the entire planet, what usually comes to mind are the gorgeous shots from the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s.

That's because the space capsules that took astronauts to the moon and back were usually far enough away from Earth to get a full shot. For satellite photography, most satellites orbit too close to have such a perspective.

That changed about a year ago, when NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) teamed up to launch DISCOVR. Unlike other satellites, it was designed to perch itself at Lagrange point 1, about 1.6 million km (or a million miles)  from Earth. At that point and distance, it is balanced at a sort of gravity "sweet spot" between Earth and the Sun, where it can remain more or less stationary, instead of orbiting Earth as normal satellites do.

It's snazzy, but the thing that's capturing the public imagination is one of its onboard instruments, EPIC, the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera.

"EPIC takes a new picture every two hours, revealing how the planet would look to human eyes, capturing the ever-changing motion of clouds and weather systems and the fixed features of Earth such as deserts, forests and the distinct blues of different seas," NASA says.

You can see the results up above: One full year of Earth's weather, from wispy clouds here and there, to typhoons swirling in the Pacific Ocean.

Aside from the stunning shots beamed back regularly, EPIC's most amazing shots have been Moon photobombs.

SOURCE: NASA