6 STUNNING HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITE IMAGES OF NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN EARTH'S GREENS

Pictures: Earth's Green Places Mapped in High Resolution
By Christine Dell'Amore, National Geographic News, 20 June 2013.

Newly released satellite images show our planet's vegetation like never before.

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1. Planet Green

Earth's gone green in recently released satellite images showing our planet's vegetation (pictured here, the entire planet).

Using the NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite, scientists can now detect subtle differences in greenness on the 25 percent of Earth that's made up of land. (See National Geographic pictures of life in green.)

The images - taken between April 2012 and 2013 - show the darkest green areas as the lushest, while the pale colours signify sparse vegetation cover due to snow, drought, rock, or urban areas, according to the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

Mapping vegetation has some practical uses, including forecasting weather or understanding how to best use agricultural land.

2. Emerald Nile

Looking like a ginkgo leaf, the life-sustaining Nile River winds south through Egypt in a satellite picture created from images taken between July 9 and 15, 2012.

The white dots are the urbanized areas of northern Egypt. (Explore an interactive of the green maps.)

3. Mississippi Greens

The Mississippi River and its many tributaries - seen in lighter green - empty into the Gulf of Mexico in a picture made from satellite images taken between March 25 and 31 of this year.

Forty percent of the salt marsh in the continental United States are located where these two water bodies meet.

4. Fertile Crescent

The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers create a fertile crescent through central Iraq in an image created from pictures taken between November 12 to 18, 2012.

Though clouds can often obscure satellite images, there's usually enough clear sky over the course of the week to get the shot, according to the NOAA website.

5. A River Runs Through It

Farmland straddles the Platte River (centre) in the U.S. Midwest state of Nebraska in an image from pictures taken between July 22 to 28, 2012.

This region produces around 40 percent of the annual corn yield for the U.S., according to NOAA.

6. Mountain High

The Rocky, Cascade, and Coast mountain ranges of the Pacific Northwest seem to resemble parts of the human brain in an image taken from June 11 to 17, 2012.

White areas depict higher, less vegetated elevations. Potato fields and other agriculture can be seen in the bottom centre of the image as the Rockies give way to the plains of Idaho.

Video: Green: Vegetation on Our Planet (Tour of Earth)

Source: NOAA Visualizations/YouTube

[Source: National Geographic News. Edited. Video added.]