Stunning ultra-high-def time-lapse of Earth from space
The animation above comprises nearly 200 photos of Earth taken from the Russian Elektro-L weather satellite over four days in 2011.
The geostationary satellite orbits at a speed that keeps it hovering about 22,000 miles above the Indian Ocean. It takes a 121-megapixel picture every 30 minutes.
This time-lapse view was created by stitching together those images and correcting for small misalignments and aberrations, then rendering them at the ultra-high-definition resolution known as 4K, which creates pictures four times sharper than regular HD.
The Elekro-L weather forecasting satellite was launched in January 2011 and is planned to remain in orbit for 10 years.