NASA Website Shares New Daily Photos Of Earth

Following the release of a handful of new images of Earth taken by NASA's DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) satellite over the past few months, the space agency has launched a new section of its website that showcases daily photos of our "blue marble." The website, found at epic.gsfc.nasa.gov, will post 12 new photos per day, all taken of the Earth over the last 24 hours as it rotates. The images are all taken by DSCOVR's camera, known as EPIC, or Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera.

DSCOVR captures the daily images from an orbit distance of about 1 million miles from Earth. The satellite was developed in collaboration with NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and is designed to monitor space weather, such as effects on the ozone, or if the Sun's magnetic fields are affecting Earth's communication systems.

The satellite was launched in February of this year on one of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets. It reached its orbiting position in June, and because it keeps its position due both the Sun and Earth's gravitational pulls, it's constantly facing the sunlit side of our planet.

Among the visuals highlighted in the photos from Monday include the typhoons Koppu and Champi as they make their way across the Pacific Ocean. Other details that NASA's new website will share each day include the surface features that are captured in the images. All the images will also be archived, so users can navigate to a specific date and see what the Earth looked like.

SOURCE: NASA