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NASA unveiled its “global selfie” on Thursday, a mosaic of more than 36,000 pictures uploaded to social media showing people and places around the world in commemoration of Earth Day, the U.S. space agency said.
NASA asked people on April 22, Earth Day, to upload pictures tagged with g to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
According to a news release, selfies were posted by individuals on every continent, and 113 countries and regions.
The 3.2-gigapixel “Global Selfie” is zoomable, so viewers can enlarge the image and examine individual photos. NASA says it took several weeks to collect the images and assemble the mosaic.
“With the Global Selfie, NASA used crowd-sourced digital imagery to illustrate a different aspect of Earth than has been measured from satellites for decades: a mosaic of faces from around the globe,” said Peg Luce, deputy director of the Earth Sciences Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, according to a news release. “We were overwhelmed to see people participate from so many countries. We’re very grateful that people took the time to celebrate our home planet together, and we look forward to everyone doing their part to be good stewards of our precious Earth.”
According to the news release, the GigaPan image of Earth is based on views of each hemisphere captured on Earth Day 2014 by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite instrument on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite. Suomi NPP, a joint mission between NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, collects data on both long-term climate change and short-term weather conditions.
Agencies/Canadajournal
