Below is one of the most comprehensive
full-disk images of Earth ever captured - and the government of United States
is currently downloading a new version of it every other15 minutes. This extraordinary
view, captured on January 5 at ET 1:07pm, is about four times more clear and comprehensive
than any full-disk image of the earth ever taken before. This image was
captured by a recently launched National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) weather satellite, called GOES-16 (and formerly GOES-R). GOES-R is short
for for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite.
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| NOAA/NASA |
This satellite is a part of
the newest fleet of Earth-monitoring satellites. The director of NOAA's
National Weather Service, Louis Uccellini, said in a press statement that the
view is "much more than a pretty picture ... it is the future of weather
observations and forecasting".
GOES-16 was launched on 19 November 2016, and it’s at geostationary orbit orbits, nearly 22,300 miles
(35,900 kilometers) above Earth.
Here are some crops of the
full-disk image.
Below is North America with
a huge, rainy, snowy weather system stirring across the United States:
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| NOAA/NASA |
The Caribbean, including Florida, and part of Central America:
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| NOAA/NASA |
The western United States:
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| NOAA/NASA |