Get ready to revel in some next-level planetary beauty, because on Monday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released the first imagestaken by its GOES-16 weather satellite, launched in November 2016.
Perched 22,300 miles above Earth, the spacecraft has a spectacular view of our world's complex atmospheric dynamics. Take this stunning shot of the Americas, snapped on January 15, which captures the fine details of meteorological phenomena like cloud cover, storm development, and the flow of global air currents.
GOES-16's pictures were taken by the Advanced Baseline Imager, the satellite's high-definition camera, which was built by the Harris Corporation. The instrument can take pictures across 16 different wavelength channels—two visible, four near-infrared, and ten infrared. This versatility helps scientists identify traces of smoke, volcanic ash, water vapor, and other substances in Earth's atmosphere.
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