This Is the Definitive Photograph of Planet Earth - Polidicks

Source: [url]http://gizmodo.com/5909215/this-is-the-definitive-photograph-of-planet-earth[/url] Image link (warning, very large image): [url]http://d2g9lyou3wkw5g.cloudfront.net/j+%2822%29.jpg[/url] [quote] Unlike NASA's Blue Marble—which is a composite made from many different photographs—this is a portrait of Earth taken in one single shot. It's the highest resolution image of our home planet, 121 megapixels. That's an amazing 0.62 miles per pixel. This image was not taken by NASA or the European Space Agency. It's been taken by Russia's latest weather satellite, the Electro-L. Elektro-L is now orbiting Earth on a geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers above the equator, sending photographs of the entire planet every 30 minutes using a 2.56 to 16.36 Mbits per second connection with ground control. The images—and the video of the Northern Hemisphere—combines four light wavelengths, three visible and one infrared. The orange you are seeing here is the vegetation. According to Robert Simmon-a scientist at the NASA Earth Observatory, Goddard Space Flight Center-the Russian images are not better or worse than NASA's images. They are just different visualizations of reality based on different data sets: Elektro-L is a Russian Satellite similar to GOES (the satellites that provide the cloud image loops shown on the news every night). The images posted by Gizmodo are a combination of visible and near-infrared wavelengths, so they show the Earth in a way not visible to human eyes (vegetation looks red, for example). They're not any better or worse than NASA images, but they show different things. The Elektro-L is similar to their GOES satellites. "It's a geostationary weather satellite orbiting above the equator at ~54° East" says Robert, "the US has two similar operational geostationary satellites over the east and west coasts, EUMETSAT has one over Europe and one over the Indian Ocean, Japan has one over the far western Pacific." The difference between them is that Elektro-L uses three bands in reflected light-red and two near infrared bands-while NASA's GOES doesn't have the near-infrared. Dennis Chesters, GOES Project Scientist at Goddard, explains the Russian process in more detail: The 3 reflected sunlight bands can simulate a conventional red-green-blue color picture. The near infrared channel is a vegetation indicator, since plants reflect near-ir as well as green. You can learn more about the basic characteristics of Elektro-L's ten-channel imager, the Multichannel Scanning Unit (MSU), here. [/quote] Fuck this is awesome.

Thats a slow connection speed for a satellite. I mean, shit I get 50 Mbps and the image took long enough to load.

fucking incredible

Hope someone puts it into one of those googlemaps-type things where you can zoom in and the resolution is dynamic, else I won't be able to see it.

[QUOTE=latin_geek;35902107]Hope someone puts it into one of those googlemaps-type things where you can zoom in and the resolution is dynamic, else I won't be able to see it.[/QUOTE] [url]http://zoom.it/cyEQ[/url] Enjoy :v:

"this image cannot be displayed because it contains errors" Gaia is a troll

[QUOTE=Cone;35902145]"this image cannot be displayed because it contains errors" Gaia is a troll[/QUOTE] Try refreshing the page...works fine for me.

What's with all the red? EDIT: Oh sorry, I missed this [QUOTE]The orange you are seeing here is the vegetation.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=mac338;35902157]What's with all the red?[/QUOTE] analogies

[QUOTE=mac338;35902157]What's with all the red? EDIT: Oh sorry, I missed this[/QUOTE] Seems that there's red instead of green?

[QUOTE=mac338;35902157]What's with all the red? EDIT: Oh sorry, I missed this[/QUOTE] the blood of virgins, as increased by modern technology no it's just that older more icon photo is from the 70's and made from different photos and always was inaccurate. [editline]10th May 2012[/editline] oh, satellite sees different colors

[QUOTE=Chrille;35902173]Seems that there's red instead of green?[/QUOTE] Oh god it's the communists they still want to see the whole planet red! [img]http://sae.tweek.us/static/images/emoticons/emot-gonk.gif[/img]

Why isn't America in the center?

[QUOTE=Sharkcheater;35902231]Why isn't America in the center?[/QUOTE] Is there some reason it should be?

This is amazing.

[QUOTE=Sharkcheater;35902231]Why isn't America in the center?[/QUOTE] Because if you'd read the article you'd know it was a [I]Russian[/I] satellite and not an American.

[QUOTE=JeanLuc761;35902268]Is there some reason it should be?[/QUOTE] because its the best country ever... [img]http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/7/2008/11/CryingEagle-Flag640.jpg[/img]

[QUOTE=Fear_Fox;35902340]Because if you'd read the article you'd know it was a [I]Russian[/I] satellite and not an American.[/QUOTE] Why are you thinking he was being serious?

OH GOD, if you have Google Previewer do NOT scroll over the link to open it, my computer froze up for like 10 minutes.

Those cloud formations are beautiful.

I have yet to see one with Europe in the middle. :( It's always either the US or Asia.

Wow it looks beautiful, the colour of the ocean looks much darker than the original blue marble.

Man, look at all those jaggies. The Universe needs to turn up AA. :D

scary

I think it'd look better without the IR. Still amazing though.

It's so... uncomfortable to try and find out what part of Earth is on the picture at first. Kind of uncommon angle. But looks absolutely stunning. I may stop saying that I want another globe to live on. This one is the most beutiful thing in the entire Galaxy. Never ceases to amaze me.

The Chromatic Aberation is absymal but nevertheless pretty damn cool. Also no Green.

[QUOTE=Genericenemy;35902475]Wow it looks beautiful, the colour of the ocean looks much darker than the original blue marble.[/QUOTE] I doubt it was taken with a visible spectrum.

I appreciate the universe we live in a lot more all-of-a-sudden. This proves that nature in itself will always stand to be gorgeous..

Why isn't there any green on land?