E050/0433
Whole Earth (Blue Marble 2000)
NASA/GSFC/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY 
Whole Earth. Composite satellite image of Earth centred on
the Americas. This is Blue Marble 2000, one of the most
detailed Earth images ever made. It was done to update the
original "blue marble" images taken by Apollo astronauts. It
is the result of the combination of data from three Earth-
observing satellites. A GOES satellite took the overall
Earth image, SeaWiFS gathered ocean colour data and the
AVHRR instruments on POES satellites mapped the vegetation.
Hurricane Linda, a huge spiral storm system, is at centre
left. Relief features have been exaggerated by 50 times. The
Moon (upper left) has been superimposed on the image, and is
not to scale.