See Earth Wear a Freaky Face in Striking Satellite Images
A swirling dance of moisture and dry air gave our planet a reason to smile.
Want to see our planet looking like a giant smiley-face emoji? Of course you do. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's GOES-West satellite has you covered. NOAA shared a GIF of satellite imagery that makes Earth look like it's wearing a wicked grin.
"This water vapor imagery from GOES-West caught our eye and made us smile," the NOAA satellites team tweeted on Tuesday, describing the sped-up, eight-hour loop from Sunday as a "smiling weather pattern."
This water vapor imagery from #GOESWest caught our eye and made us smile 😉. For #TimelapseTuesday we’re taking a longer look.
— NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) April 19, 2022
The smiling weather pattern in this 8-hour loop from Sunday, shows white/blue moisture moving towards the #PNW, and drier orange/red air over Hawaii. pic.twitter.com/huPEvtHaVc
The white and blue colors represent moisture, while the orange and red colors show drier air as it moved over Hawaii. GOES-West monitors weather, including storm and lightning activity.
The grinning Earth has some good company with other space images of objects making faces. The sun looked like a jack-o'-lantern back in 2014 in a NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory image. The Hubble Space Telescope caught sight of a spooky, bug-eyed galaxy system. Mars has a crater known appropriately as Happy Face Crater.
Our planet's grinning weather pattern was just a fun coincidence, and it's definitely not a sign clowns from outer space are coming for us.
