Planet Earth

  • Released Thursday, October 2, 2014
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Earth is constantly changing, and NASA scientists and engineers are working daily to explore and understand the planet on scales from local to global. Though Earth science has been a key part of NASA’s mission since the agency was founded in 1958, this year has been one of the peaks. Three Earth-observing missions—two satellites and one instrument—have already been launched and two more missions are set to take off later this year. All of these new efforts complement an existing fleet of Earth-observing satellites and research aircraft that monitor our world. Watch the video to see a time-lapse that shows land and cloud changes in the eastern hemisphere as seen by the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite.

Of all the worlds NASA has explored, none have matched the dynamic complexity of our own.

Of all the worlds NASA has explored, none have matched the dynamic complexity of our own.

This video shows views of the eastern hemisphere from January 18 to July 25, 2014.

Africa, the Middle East and parts of Europe and Asia can be seen in this image.

Africa, the Middle East and parts of Europe and Asia can be seen in this image.

This image captured on March 30, 2014, was created from observations made by the satellite over eight orbits.

This image captured on March 30, 2014, was created from observations made by the satellite over eight orbits.

The Suomi NPP satellite launched in 2011.

The Suomi NPP satellite launched in 2011.

For More Information

See NASA Earth Observatory

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Earth Observatory
Suomi NPP satellite image courtesy of NASA/GSFC

This page was originally published on Thursday, October 2, 2014.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:50 PM EDT.