Atlantic Gallery

Whole Earth (Blue Marble 2000)

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

© NASA/GSFC/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Earth from space, satellite image

Earth from space. Satellite image showing North and South America as seen from 35, 000 kilometres above the Earth's surface. North is at top and the Moon is at upper right. Clouds (white) are seen, as are seas and oceans (blue). Land cover ranges from vegetation such as forests and grassy plains (green) to arid areas such as deserts, mountains, and scrublands (brown). This image combines data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite and NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)

© NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER (NASA-GSFC)/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) two breaching in evening light, Moray Firth

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) two breaching in evening light, Moray Firth, Inverness-shire, Scotland, UK, August, sequence 2/2. Photographer quote: A day of overcast cloud cleared in the last ten minutes of sunset spilling golden light through a small gap between the cloud base and hill top. A group of dolphins seized the moment and performed a perfect synchronized leap in the low warm sunlight. And I smiled, sighed with relief, and went home happy! Did you know? The bottle nose dolphins in the Moray Firth are said to be worth more than £4m to the Inverness economy through tourism revenue