NASA scientists created this companion image to the wildly
popular "Blue Marble" picture released last week. This image
combines data acquired during six orbits by the Suomi NPP
satellite to produce a view of the Eastern Hemisphere. The new
"Blue Marble" pictures were taken using an instrument aboard
Suomi NPP, known as the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer
Suite. The four vertical lines of "haze" seen in this image are
caused by the reflection of sunlight off the ocean. A week after
NASA released an updated version of its "Blue Marble" photo, the
picture of our planet's Western Hemisphere has become such a hit
that the space agency is coming out with a sequel. Today
researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center unveiled the
Eastern Hemisphere "Blue Marble 2012," assembled from imagery
that was collected by the Suomi NPP climate-monitoring satellite
during six orbits on Jan. 23. Both views of the Marble take
advantage of the spacecraft's Visible Infrared Imaging
Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS. You're lookin