NASA NPP Satellite Gets First Look At US East Coast

Here's looking at you, East Coast. A new NASA satellite captured its first look at the eastern seaboard of North America yesterday (Nov. 21).

The Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard NASA's newest Earth-observing satellite, acquired the high-resolution image of a broad swath of Eastern North America from Canada's Hudson Bay past Florida to the northern coast of Venezuela. Earlier this month, the satellite sent back its first look at the Earth.

VIIRS is one of five instruments onboard the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite that launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Oct. 28.

Since then, NPP reached its final orbit at an altitude of 512 miles (824 kilometers), powered on all instruments and is traveling around the Earth at 16,640 mph (26,780 kph).

VIIRS will collect radiometric imagery in visible and infrared wavelengths of the Earth's land, atmosphere and oceans.

By far the largest instrument onboard NPP, VIIRS weighs about 556 pounds (252 kilograms). Its data will be used to observe the Earth's surface including fires, ice, ocean color, vegetation, clouds, and land and sea surface temperatures.