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. (via PhotoBlog - NASA’s ‘Blue Marble’ goes viral … here’s the flip side)