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The Earth from space The whole sunlit side, from 1.5 million kilometres away

EPIC · DSCOVR · L1 point
—
The Earth seen by EPIC on
EPIC image (NASA), 1,080 pixels. The camera always sees the sunlit side: from one image to the next, the Earth turns about 25° eastwards.

Viewing geometry

Time of the shot
—universal time; one image every 1 to 2 hours or so
Point at the centre of the image
—where DSCOVR is overhead; the Sun is almost at the zenith there
DSCOVR – Earth distance
—around the L1 point, on a Lissajous orbit several hundred thousand km wide
Sun – Earth – DSCOVR angle
—4 to 15°: a thin crescent of night borders one side of the disc
Moon, offset from the Earth’s centre
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The images of the day

Marshak et al. (2018) · Published literature; cited One thumbnail per shot, UTC time; ☾: the Moon is in the field. Playing the images (play button) shows the Earth turning over the day.
Where EPIC is: the L1 Lagrange point
Where EPIC is: the L1 Lagrange point Diagram, not to scale: the Sun on the left, the Earth on the right, and between them, 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth, the DSCOVR satellite circling the L1 point and looking at the Earth at a small angle from the direction of the Sun. Sun DSCOVR · EPIC L1 point (1.5 million km) Earth Sun–Earth–DSCOVR angle 150 million km (not to scale)
At L1, the pulls of the Sun and the Earth balance for a body that turns with the Earth: DSCOVR stays between the two and sees the sunlit side at all times. It does not sit exactly on the axis (the Sun behind would jam communications) but follows a Lissajous orbit around L1, hence an angle of 4 to 15° that varies over about six months.

The geostationary discs right now

GOES-19 (GOES-East)
GOES-19 (GOES-East)
35,786 km above the equator at 75.2° W; one image of the disc every 10 minutes, night included
GOES-18 (GOES-West)
GOES-18 (GOES-West)
35,786 km above the equator at 137.0° W; one image of the disc every 10 minutes, night included

Miller (2020) · Published literature; cited GeoColor imagery: true colour by day, infrared clouds and city lights by night. Image relayed and refreshed every 10 minutes.

Method and sources

EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera, NASA) has watched the Earth from NOAA’s DSCOVR satellite at the L1 Lagrange point since June 2015: 10 wavelengths, three of which (red, green, blue) make up the colour images. The “natural” images render what the eye would see; the “enhanced” ones stretch the colours to bring out the land. The list of each day’s images and their metadata come from the public EPIC API; the images are relayed by this site and kept.

Geometry: computed here for each image from the J2000 geocentric positions of the satellite, the Moon and the Sun published with the image: distance to the Earth, Sun–Earth–satellite angle, apparent radius of the Earth (about 0.24°), angular offset between the Moon and the Earth’s centre seen from the satellite. The Moon is flagged in the field when its limb enters the camera’s 0.61° square, and in front of the Earth when it crosses the disc while nearer to the satellite (Marshak et al., 2018).

GOES: latest full-disk GeoColor image of the two American geostationary satellites (NOAA STAR), reduced to 1,200 pixels.

Reading these data
EPIC only photographs the sunlit side, a few times a day, and some days are missing (maintenance, DSCOVR safe mode in 2019–2020). The colours of the natural images are calibrated but JPEG-compressed; for science, use NASA’s level 1B or 2 products. The lunar transits (July 2015, July 2016 and a few others) are not all among the routinely published images.
SOURCES OF THIS PAGE
Marshak et al. (2018)
Marshak, A., Herman, J., Szabo, A., et al. (2018). Earth observations from DSCOVR EPIC instrument. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 99, 1829–1850. Images: NASA EPIC Team, epic.gsfc.nasa.gov (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center); DSCOVR is operated by NOAA. · doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-17-0223.1
Licence : Published literature; cited
Miller (2020)
Miller, S. D., et al. (2020). GeoColor: A blending technique for satellite imagery. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 37, 429–448. Images: NOAA/NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR), GOES-19 and GOES-18 ABI full disk. · doi:10.1175/JTECH-D-19-0134.1
Licence : Published literature; cited

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