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NASA Earth VIDEO Showcases Satellites' Best Clips From Orbit

WATCH: NASA's 'Greatest Hits' Satellite Videos Of Earth
By 

Editorial Assistant, HuffPost Science

To mark Earth Month, NASA has given a shout-out to some of its satellites with a "greatest hits" video. The two-minute compilation features the most spectacular images of Earth taken in 2012 -- giving eye-popping views of glaciers, deserts, oceans, and even city lights from space. Check out the video above.

Among the satellites featured are Aquarius, which measures sea surface salinity, and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting (NPP) satellite, which takes various climate measurements. There's a stunning view of the planet at night (0:19), sand dunes formed by the wind over thousands of years in Egypt's Great Sand Sea (0:32), and a massive 19-mile crack in the Antarctic ice sheet (0:49).

The video also includes data visualizations and computer models put together from the satellites' measurements, like the eerily beautiful animation of Hurricane Sandy's 80-mph winds at 1:46. The highlight reel wraps up with a beautiful time-lapse of the "moonset" as seen from the International Space Station.

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Before You Go

Best Space Photos Ever Taken
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This photo was among the first images taken by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite. (credit:NASA/SDO)
(02 of07)
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Australian National University astrophysicist Brian Schmidt chose this Hubble photo of Supernova SN 1994D as his favorite space image, which he called "the poster child of a type Ia supernovae." (credit:NASA/ESA, The Hubble Key Project Team and The High-Z Supernova Search Team)
(03 of07)
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This photo shows helmets and spacesuits covered in lunar dust after the last manned moonwalk, from the 1972 Apollo 17 mission. (credit:NASA)
(04 of07)
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The crescent planet Neptune and its crescent moon Triton, as seen by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989. (credit:Voyager 2, NASA)
(05 of07)
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"Earthrise," the first picture taken of planet Earth by people orbiting the moon. This shot was captured by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders on December 24, 1968, as his spacecraft became the first to fly around the moon. (credit:NASA)
(06 of07)
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This photo, called "Earth From Mars," was taken by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on March 8, 2004. It was the first image of Earth seen from the surface of a planet beyond the moon. (credit:NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas A&M)
(07 of07)
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This seminal 1995 image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Called the Hubble Deep Field, it collected light over many hours to reveal the deepest view of the universe yet, which included thousands of distant galaxies. (credit:R. Williams (STScI), the Hubble Deep Field Team and NASA)
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