Enhancements by Robert Simmon (ocean color, compositing, 3D globes, animation). Image by Reto Stöckli (land surface, shallow water, clouds). Global city lights, derived from 9 months of observations from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, are superimposed on a darkened land surface map. The cloud image is a composite of two days of imagery collected in visible light wavelengths and a third day of thermal infra-red imagery over the poles. MODIS observations of polar sea ice were combined with observations of Antarctica made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's AVHRR sensor-the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer. Topographic shading is based on the GTOPO 30 elevation dataset compiled by the U.S. Two different types of ocean data were used in these images: shallow water true color data, and global ocean color (or chlorophyll) data.

The land and coastal ocean portions of these images are based on surface observations collected from June through September 2001 and combined, or composited, every eight days to compensate for clouds that might block the sensor's view of the surface on any single day. Flying over 700 km above the Earth onboard the Terra satellite, MODIS provides an integrated tool for observing a variety of terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric features of the Earth. Much of the information contained in this image came from a single remote-sensing device-NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS.

This record includes preview images and links to full resolution versions up to 21,600 pixels across. These images are freely available to educators, scientists, museums, and the public. Using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer (.386 square mile) of our planet.

View of earth from space