From winter to summer in six seconds: Incredible Nasa animation reveals just how changeable Earth's weather is (and shows why we are so obsessed with it)

The image above was captured on March 30, 2014, by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite. The composite image of the eastern hemisphere was compiled from eight orbits of the satellite and ten imaging channels, then stitched together to blend the edges of each satellite pass.

Time lapse video shows images for the eastern hemisphere from January 18 to July 25, 2014
Reveals the eastern hemisphere changing from winter to summer, while an ever changing pattern of clouds passes

It is an astonishing glimpse of just how volatile the weather on our planet is - and why we are so obsessed by it.
Nasa has revealed a stunning animation using satellite data to show six months of weather in just six seconds.
It reveals the eastern hemisphere changing from winter to summer, while an ever changing pattern of clouds passes.

'Of all the planets Nasa has explored, none have matched the dynamic complexity of our own,' the agency said. 

The time-lapse video shows images for the eastern hemisphere from January 18 to July 25, 2014.

'Subtle changes in the snow and vegetation cover of the land vie for attention with a dynamic, swirling layer of clouds that are constantly present and constantly moving,' Nasa said. 

Though Earth science has been a key part of Nasa's mission since the agency was founded in 1958, this year has been one of the peaks.

Two new Earth-observing satellites have already been launched and put to work: theGlobal Precipitation Measurement (GPM) and the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (

Three more missions are set to take off in the next six months: the wind-measuring ISS-RapidScat, the ISS Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS), and the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite. 

Research planes have also been flying over polar ice, hurricanes, boreal forests, and pollution plumes. 

All of these new efforts complement an existing fleet of Earth-observing satellites. In visible light and many invisible wavelengths, NASA and its science partners are observing the entire planet every day. 

The image above was captured on March 30, 2014, by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite. 

The composite image of the eastern hemisphere was compiled from eight orbits of the satellite and ten imaging channels, then stitched together to blend the edges of each satellite pass.