April 22 is Earth Day and NASA invites everyone to take images of the Earth and post on social media using the hashtag #PictureEarth.
Through this global social media event, NASA wants to highlight the importance of protecting the planet and to celebrate the beauty of Earth.
NASA will select the best publicly shared photos that will be featured in videos and composite images it will share on social media after Earth Day.
How To #PictureEarth?
NASA encourages users of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to post images that show Earth's life, motion, and beauty. Users can focus on the details and come up with close-up images of blooming flowers, ancient trees, colorful insects, furry and feathered animals, crashing waves, molten lava, puffy clouds, frozen ice, warm sunlight, and other images.
Users can post captions and messages along with the images. NASA said it will check social media sites for posts with #PictureEarth hashtags and its own event page.
NASA's Earth Day Activities
NASA is also hosting several Earth Day events that are open to the public. It will host the next episode of NASA Science Live that focus on Earth. The 30-minute episode will stream on Ustream, Periscope, Facebook Live, and YouTube and will air on NASA Television and website. Users can ask questions using the hashtag #AskNASA.
NASA will also open its latest facility, Building 4221, a state-of-the-art and environment-friendly building that was designed based on federal guidelines on energy and water efficiency. Building 4221 is insulated and covered in low-emissivity glass that deflects heat, resulting to reduced cooling costs. It also has rooftop solar panels that absorb energy to augment electrical power.
NASA satellites and airborne instruments take images of the Earth on a daily basis and share them with scientists and the public worldwide. Scientists use data from NASA's instruments, and Earth-observing spacecraft from other nations, to build a picture of the planet.
On April 26, NASA will launch its new observatory fleet, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 to the International Space Station. NASA said the OCO-3 mission that aims to measure carbon dioxide from space will help create solutions to important global issues such as freshwater availability, food security, and human health. Carbon dioxide is mainly implicated in the rising global climate change.
