Photos of the most detailed view of the Earth ever

These are the most detailed photographs of the Earth ever. And every 15 minutes, this image is updated with a new version.

The picture below was taken at 1:07 pm on January 5, with a resolution four times higher than the previous highest resolution photo.

These images were taken from the weather forecast satellite called GOES-16 . This is the newly launched geostationary satellite of the US National Air and Satellite Administration (NOAA).

Louis Uccellini, director of the NOAA Weather Center, said in a press release that the photo "is not merely a beautiful sight, it makes more sense. It is the future of the monitoring and forecasting industry. weather".

The most detailed image of Earth ever published.(Photo: NOAA / NASA).

The GOES-16 was launched on October 19, 2016, flying about 35,900 kilometers from the ground, which is called a geostationary orbit.

This trajectory allows satellites to stand still compared to a point on the ground and track air, ground, and ocean fluctuations over time - NOAA said.

Later this year, the GOES-16 will end the test run and will replace GOES-15 (also known as GOES West) or GOES-13 (GOES East) , 2 weather satellites that are launched each time turns in 2006 and 2010.

GOES-15 is more than ten years old. GOES-13 was hit by a small meteorite in May 2013, causing it to be deactivated for a while.

According to NOAA, GOES-16 captures images with longer wavelengths of light, four times the resolution, and sends them to Earth at five times the frequency of other satellites.

That means we will receive the Western Hemisphere panorama updated every fifteen minutes, tracking the weather phenomenon (for example, a storm) every 30 seconds.

Uccellini also said that these more detailed, faster and newer images "will provide a concrete and timely view of dangerous weather phenomena. It also shows the characteristics that previous tools "This is often overlooked. Besides, these quickly updated photos will allow us to observe and predict the evolution of more accurate weather phenomena."

"Forecasting experts can provide accurate, timely and reliable alerts and information. At the same time, they can also provide accurate information on emergencies and other decisions." , Uccellini added.

NOAA plans to launch a similar satellite, called GOES-S or GOES-17, in the spring of 2018 to replace other older satellites.

Here are some parts in the panoramic picture:

This is North America with rain and snow moving around the United States.(Photo: NOAA / NASA).

Untreated image data from GOES-16 satellite looks like this:

Untreated image data from GOES-16 satellite.(Photo: NOAA / NASA).

The satellite has two visible light channels (assembled to form the pictures you see in this article), and four infrared shooting channels (invisible light that can be perceived by temperature). .

Satellites have ten other infrared channels to filter out "differences in air such as clouds, steam, smoke, rocks, volcanic ash" , NOAA said.

GOES-16 uses the moon to correct images.(Photo: NOAA / NASA).

Florida, the Caribbean and part of Central America.(Photo: NOAA / NASA).

North America.(Photo: NOAA / NASA).

North West of America.(Photo: NOAA / NASA).

Central America's Yucatan Peninsula.(Photo: NOAA / NASA).

Dust from the Sahara Desert (right) blows into the Atlantic Ocean.(Photo: NOAA / NASA).

Photos in South America, especially Argentina.A storm hit the northeast.