EPIC New Science from 1 Million Miles Away
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- Written by:
- Samson K. Reiny
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- Produced by:
- Kathryn Mersmann
- View full credits
NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) sits onboard NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite at the Lagrange point 1, a million miles away from Earth.
EPIC has been imaging the sunlit side of Earth between 13 and 22 times a day since 2015. Now, scientists have developed ways to use these images to study specific elements of our home planet's atmosphere and plant life, like ozone in the stratosphere, the makeup of clouds and the health of vegetation on land.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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Image processing
- Joycelyn Thomson Jones (NASA/GSFC)
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Writer
- Samson K. Reiny (Wyle Information Systems) [Lead]
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Scientist
- Alexander Marshak (NASA/GSFC)
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Producer
- Kathryn Mersmann (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Related pages
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ID: 12600 Produced Video
![Music: Crystal Sound Bath by James Alexander Dorman [PRS]Complete transcript available.](/vis/a010000/a012600/a012600/LARGE_MP4-12600_sunglints_large.00737_print.jpg)
EPIC Observations of Ice in Earth's Atmosphere, from a Million Miles Away
Read moreParked in space a million miles from Earth, the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) onboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) captures glimmers of reflected sunlight, evidence of ice crystals in the atmosphere. || Music: Crystal Sound Bath by James Alexander Dorman [PRS]Complete transcript available. || DSCOVR orbits Lagrange point 1, where it is balanced between the gravity of Earth and the sun. ||
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ID: 12312 Produced Video
One Year In The Life of Earth
Read moreOn July 20, 2015, NASA released to the world the first image of the sunlit side of Earth captured by the space agency's EPIC camera on NOAA's DSCOVR satellite. The camera has now recorded a full year of life on Earth from its orbit at Lagrange point 1, approximately 1 million miles from Earth, where it is balanced between the gravity of our home planet and the sun. EPIC takes a new picture every two hours, revealing how the planet would look to human eyes, capturing the ever-changing motion of clouds and weather systems and the fixed features of Earth such as deserts, forests and the distinct blues of different seas. EPIC will allow scientists to monitor ozone and aerosol levels in Earth’s atmosphere, cloud height, vegetation properties and the ultraviolet reflectivity of Earth.The primary objective of DSCOVR, a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Air Force, is to maintain the nation’s real-time solar wind monitoring capabilities, which are critical to the accuracy and lead time of space weather alerts and forecasts from NOAA.For more information about DSCOVR, visit: http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/DSCOVR/. To view all the pictures EPIC has taken, visit https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov. ||
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