Deep Space Earth Observations
March 01, 2019
Alexander Marshak, Visiting ATS from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Hosted by Christine Chiu
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Abstract
The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) was launched on 11 February 2015 to a sun–Earth first Lagrange point (L1) orbit, approximately 1 million miles from Earth toward the sun. The Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) onboard DSCOVR is one of the two Earth-facing science instruments; EPIC delivers nearly hourly observations of the entire sunlit face of the Earth. We discuss the specifics of deep space earth observations and review the products retrieved from these measurements. Also, there are many images containing unexpected bright flashes of light over both ocean and land. We examine the origin of these flashes and demonstrate conclusively that many flashes are specular reflections off tiny ice platelets floating in the air nearly horizontally.
