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NASA EPIC

Android app to showcase pictures taken by NASA EPIC

The Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR is a project by NASA to observe and monitor solar wind in real time. The satellite is located at L1 orbit. L1 orbit is the neutral gravity point between the Earth and sun approximately one million miles from Earth. L1 is a good position from which to monitor the sun, because the constant stream of particles from the sun (the solar wind) reaches L1 about an hour before reaching Earth. So that before the particles reach earth the information from DSCOVR will reach ;). I think the DSCOVR satellite must be specially made to stand against strong solar wind. So that it will not fail before sending the information to earth.

Scientists on earth are continuously watching DSCOVR while the DSCOVR itself is having an eye on the sun all time. Some fun loving scientists from NASA [mostly women] fixed an camera at the back of DSCOVR. So they can take some selfies at times. That is Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera or simply EPIC. EPIC provides 10 narrow band spectral images of the entire sunlit face of Earth using a 2048x2048 pixel CCD (Charge Coupled Device) detector coupled to a 30-cm aperture Cassegrain telescope. As the DSCOVR spacecraft is located at the Earth-Sun Lagrange-1 (L-1) point giving EPIC a unique angular perspective that will be used in science applications to measure ozone, aerosols, cloud reflectivity, cloud height, vegetation properties, and UV radiation estimates at Earth's surface. NASA releases those images on daily basis [unless some UFO is spotted].

Additional to these daily selfies, EPIC has captured some special moments. Once on a new moon sunny EPIC captured moon's shadow on Africa. I think thats called as solar eclipse. In another situation EPIC intelligently clicked other side of the moon when moon peaked between DSCOVR and earth.

More about EPIC and DSCOVR can be found at the website https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/epic and https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/dscovr-deep-space-climate-observatory respectively. Daily images can be found at https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Here I have built an application to see these selfies on you Android application.