Two Views of Earth's Moon: International Space Station & NOAA Weather Satellite

Two Views of Earth's Moon: International Space Station & NOAA Weather Satellite

The first image shows the Moon, pictured the day before it went into its Last Quarter phase, seen from the International Space Station as it orbited 266 miles above the Pacific Ocean northeast of New Zealand on May 21, 2022. 

In the second image, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GOES-18 weather satellite has captured the Moon rising over the northeast edge of Earth on May 11, 2022, from a much greater distance away than the International Space Station.

Did you know that Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) use the Moon for calibration? GOES satellites scan the moon regularly to help calibrate the visible channels on each satellites’ imager. The Moon is a very stable and predictable target with no atmosphere.

A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit 35,786 km (22,236 mi) in altitude above Earth's equator (42,164 km (26,199 mi) in radius from Earth's center) and following the direction of Earth's rotation.

However, normal processing of the satellite data removes all data beyond the edge of Earth. Special data processing is required to obtain Moon images like this.

Learn more about how satellite data becomes imagery at go.usa.gov/xdH2W   

Credit: NOAA/NASA/Johnson Space Center (JSC)

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