Awe-Inspiring

Courtesy of Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite captured this composite image, titled “Blue Marble,” using swaths of the planet’s surface taken on the same day earlier this year. The agency recently renamed the satellite for the late Verner E. Suomi, a longtime UW–Madison professor who is often called the father of satellite meteorology. This image — taken with an instrument aboard the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership — logged more than 3.1 million views on Flickr.com within the first week of its release. UW researchers help translate the satellite’s data into information useful to meteorologists, farmers, pilots, ship captains, and almost anyone with an interest in the weather.

Published in the Summer 2012 issue