14 DAY TRIAL // About 75% of our planet's surface stays blue all throughout the year, simply because it is covered by seas, oceans and other bodies of water.
Although algae blooms can cause this great blue to change its color every once in a while, it's the vegetation that covers continents worldwide that's truly impressive to look at from space.
The animation above was created by NASA researchers with the help of information provided by NOAA. It documents a year's worth of changes to our planet's vegetation cover.
The video shows how, over the course of a year, drought, wildfires and snow cause some of the green patches covering Earth's surface to disappear. Still, the greenery always returns.
According to NASA, the satellite data used to piece together this video were collected between April 2012 – April 2013.