Amazing Instrument Snaps First Global View of Earth

Launched on October 28, the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite carries the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument. NASA now releases the first global image of our planet produced with this amazing instrument.

VIIRS is able to compile a global map of how Earth looks like every 24 hours. This capability helps investigators figure out how weather patterns evolve at a level of resolution that could not be achieved with previous instruments or spacecraft.

Though it looks remarkable, this view is only a calibration image, meant to assess the performances of the sensors making up the instrument. VIIRS was brought online on November 21. Each strip of land it images is about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) wide.

The individual strips are brighter on the right side because this is where the Sun glints off the ground and the water more. This effect is produced by the unique orbit the NPP occupies, which always keeps it at the same angle in respect to both the Sun and Earth, NASA Earth Observatory reports.