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Nasa satellite captures stunning 6,000-mile-long panoramic photo of Earth in just 15 minutes

Nasa has captured the world's largest panoramic photo at 6,000 miles long and 120 miles wide using a satellite orbiting 438 miles above the Earth. 

The swath is made up of 56 still images taken during the satellite's final orbit and stretches from northern Russia down to South Africa.

Nasa's Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) scanned the surface of the Earth during orbit in April and took just 15 minutes to take the shots.

Zoom in in the full image below (may not work on all devices) 

Image of the globe showing the swath of land captured by Nasa's Land Data Continuity Mission as it orbited the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour. The seamless swath is made up of 56 images travelling from northern Russia, over the Red Sea and down into South Africa. The camera took just 15 minutes to shoot the panoramic image, which is 6,000 miles long and 120 miles wide 

THE LDCM IN NUMBERS

The LDCM travels at 438 miles (705 kilometres) above the Earth.

It orbits at speeds of around 17,000 miles per hour.

The satellite takes just 20 minutes to complete one orbit of the planet.

It is the eighth satellite of its kind to orbit the Earth and will soon be renamed Landsat 8.

The first satellie, known as Landsat 1 or Earth Resources Technology Satellite 1, was launched in 1972.

Landsat 8 took 56 images during its final orbit in April.

These images, stretching from northern Russia to South Africa, were stitched together by Nasa to form a seamless swath of land.

It is the world's largest panoramic photo and is 6,000 miles long and 120 miles wide.

After two months of testing and calibration in space, Nasa fired LDCM into space in February. 

It travelled to 438 miles (705 kilometres) above the Earth and orbited the planet.

During its final flight in April it scanned a 120-mile wide swath of land starting at northern Russia and finishing at South Africa.

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The LDCM took 56 individual shots of the land as it orbited the Earth and Nasa stitched these images together to form the seamless swath.

Each shot includes clouds, haze and varying angles of sunlight.

The photos were enhanced using the Operational Land Imager (OLI) that can capture images at a higher-resolution that what human eyes can see.

Nasa's LDCM orbited the Earth at around 17,000 miles per hour (27,000 kph) and completed one full orbit in 20 minutes.

It took the LDCM just 15 minutes to capture the 6,000-mile-long swath. 

One of the first images taken by the Nasa's LDCM shows irregularly-shaped fields and farms around the braided channels of the Volga River in central Russia. The Volga river is the longest river in Europe stretching 2,294 miles. This shot is one of 56 images captured and stitched together by Nasa to form a 6,000-mile-long panoramic photo

This image, taken by Nasa's LDCM, shows the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, along the coast of the Red Sea. Jeddah has largest sea port on the Red Sea, and is the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital, Riyadh, with a population of 3.2 million. All the images in the swath have been enhanced using Nasa's Operational Land Imager, which means they are higher-resolution that what the human eye can naturally see

A video produced by Nasa shows the path taken by the LDCM.

There is also an interactive Gigapan map below.

The first image taken by the LDCM showed irregularly-shaped fields and farms around the braided channels of the Volga River in central Russia, an area with a long and rich history of agriculture.

The middle image was taken of the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, along the coast of the Red Sea.

The last image reveals the eastern shore of Africa’s largest lake, Lake Victoria.

The shallow water is clouded with tan sediment and green plant growth.

LDCM was launched as a joint mission of Nasa and the US Geological Survey (USGS). 

Instruments on LDCM collect data in strips, or paths, which are divided into smaller scenes for cataloguing and storage at the Earth Resources and Observation Science Center of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Nasa's 6,000-mile-long panoramic photo ended in South Africa. This image was one of the last shots captured by the LDCM during its final orbit. It shows the eastern shore of Africa's largest lake, Lake Victoria. Named after Queen Victoria, the lake has a surface area of 26,600 square miles and contains around 2,750 cubic kilometers of water

The beginning, end, and center of the swath correspond to images taken by previous Landsat models including the  Landsat 4 in 1982, Landsat 5 from 1984, and Landsat 7, which was launched into space in 1999 to collect images and data.

All the images captured by Landsat satellites are catalogued in a path-row system called the Second World-wide Reference System.

The latest satellite is still in its calibration and checkout phase, and the images shown on the Gigapan map are considered test data.

Later this month, the satellite will be handed over to USGS and renamed Landsat 8.

After this point the satellite will be considered operational and any data it captures will then be available online.

VIDEO: Nasa's LDCM captures 56 images from Russia to South Africa




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