NASA today released a new, high-resolution “Blue Marble” image of the Earth taken from NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite — Suomi NPP. This composite image is 8000 x 8000, and uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on Jan. 4, 2012, according to NASA. For those of you on slower connections, it could take some time to download the 16.4MB file.

Suomi NPP carries five instruments on board, the biggest and most important of which is the Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), which took the photos used to make this high-resolution composite. 
 
Photo courtesy of NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring
 

RELATED