The Earth From Above: Western Hemisphere Poster

A gorgeous view of the Earth from space. You're looking down on North America, with South America below. This would look great on any home or office wall. We also offer a companion view of the Eastern Hemisphere--Asia with a portion of Africa. These would be a great pairing, either side-by-side or on either sides of a mantle or similar.. More about how the picture was created: This spectacular “blue marble” image is the most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth to date. 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. Much of the information contained in this image came from a single remote-sensing device-NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS. 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. 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.