The Blue Marble

New images have been recently produced from Nasa's Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) housed by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite (Suomi NPP, named after Verner Suomi)  of the Earth as seen from space. These two images are the highest resolution pictures of the Earth to date and detail both the western and eastern hemispheres.

VIIRS Eastern Hemisphere Image
Unfortunately, the Pyramids are covered by clouds.

 Information on how this picture was constructed is in the link.

Credit Nasa/Noaa

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VIIRS Western Hemishphere Image,
If you look closely, you can see the Grand Canyon and effects of the Hoover dam

Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/SuomiNPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring

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The purpose of Suomi isn't just to take pretty pictures though; it is to mainly understand, measure, and predict long-term climate change and short-term weather patterns. It does this by collecting measurements of clouds, ocean color, land and sea temperatures, and the Earth's reflection coefficient or Albedo. The amount of data that this satellite provides to the environmental sciences is vast. The information can be used to model vegetation dynamics, to model regional to global climate, to understand the cryosphere, and to study the energy and water balance of the earth. More information can be found at Nasa's page: Suomi NPP.