U.S. Geological Survey / AP

A satellite image provided by the U.S. Geological Survey shows a view from space of the city of Sioux Falls, S.D., as seen from the Landsat 8 satellite on Mar. 30, 2013.

By Dirk Lammers, Associated Press

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A new satellite hovering nearly 450 miles above the Earth appears to working flawlessly as it embarks on a 10-year mission to document the planet's surface, scientists and engineers at the U.S. Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observation and Science Center said Monday.

Landsat 8 is sending more than 400 data-filled images per day back to the EROS center north of Sioux Falls, where they will be archived and made available for free download by scientists or anyone else who's interested.

The center's mission requires images to be publicly available within 48 hours of their capture, those most will be ready within 24 hours, said project scientist Tom Loveland.

The new orbiter has several advantages over its still-functioning predecessor Landsat 7, which captures just 250 images a day. Landsat 8 also boasts two new spectral bands, one to see deeper into oceans, lakes and rivers and another to detect cirrus clouds and correct for atmospheric effects, Loveland said.

The new satellite's infrared band is split into two, allowing for more accurate surface temperature readings, he added.

"It should really make a difference in our ability to map and characterize changes going on in the surface of the Earth," Loveland said.

NASA launched Landsat 8 into space in February. Since then, teams have been running it through a barrage of tests before placing the satellite into orbit 438 miles above the planet's surface.

"The spacecraft has been extremely healthy," said Jim Nelson, ground systems manager. "The instruments have performed really well."

The EROS Center, the main federal repository for satellite images, will officially take over the mission May 30 from NASA.

Since 1972, Landsat satellites have been continuously snapping pictures across the globe as part of a 40-year mission to document the planet.

Landsat 8, which is about the size of UPS truck with a 30-foot-long deployed sheet of solar panels, is stocked with a 10-year supply of fuel. It travels at a speed of 17,000 miles per hour.

Landsat 8 will work in tandem with Landsat 7, launched in 1999, to take pictures of each inch of the planet's surface every eight days. Landsat 7 continues to operate despite a faulty scan line corrector that leaves zigzag gaps in some images.

Dirk Lammers / AP

Jim Nelson, ground systems manager with the U.S. Geological Survey, shows a model of the Landsat 8 satellite at the USGS EROS Center near Sioux Falls, S.D.

Landsat 5, which dates back to 1984, worked decades past its expected mission end but began failing in November. Landsat 6 never reached orbit after its 1993 launch because of a ruptured manifold.

Nelson said the EROS Center has been preparing for the wave of new data, upgrading its ground station near Sioux Falls as well as partner facilities in Alaska and Norway.

It also overhauled its data processing and storage systems, "so we can get as much data as possible online for the users to get direct access to," Nelson said.

Loveland said there's a huge demand for the images in the scientific community, giving an example of a recent Brazilian Remote Sensing Symposium that drew more than 800 people looking to tap into the data.

"There's a great deal of planning going on from people ready to use the images," Loveland said.

The center used to charge for the images, but for years now, they've been free.

"When you put all this free stuff in universities, innovation happens," Loveland said.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Kim Poor

This illustration of a bright comet over Mars was created by artist Kim Poor.

By Leonard David
Space.com

A close encounter between Mars and Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) in 2014 is creating both opportunity and anxiety in scientific circles. Scientists are in the early stages of assembling a comet-watching campaign that uses a spacecraft currently orbiting the Red Planet, as well as rovers on the Martian surface.

Scientists are also investigating what techniques could be used to prevent cometary debris from hitting Mars-orbiting spacecraft as the comet and planet converge.

The Mars-bound comet was discovered by Rob McNaught on Jan. 3 at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. Scientists estimate that this comet arrived from our solar system’s distant Oort cloud and has been on a more than 1-million-year journey. The comet could contain volatile gases that short-period comets often lack due to their frequent returns to the sun’s neighborhood.

Scientists expect the comet’s closest approach to Mars to occur on Oct. 19, 2014, at about 11:45 a.m. PDT.

At that time, the comet will be on the sunward side of Mars. The comet and its tail should be a stunning sight in the predawn Martian sky just before the closest approach, as well as in the post-dusk sky just after the closest approach. [Photos: Amazing Comets of 2013]

NASA / JPL

Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) will pass extremely close to Mars on Oct. 19, 2014. There is even a small possibility that it could impact the planet, although new tracking data has minimized this prospect.

Will the comet hit Mars?
The close encounter will give scientists the opportunity to make observations, said Richard Zurek, chief scientist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Mars Program Office and project scientist for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

"Given the present uncertainties of the comet's path and size, it is difficult to do any detailed planning now, but that will change by the end of the year, with continued observations of the comet," Zurek told Space.com. 

New observations of Siding Spring have allowed NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Office at the JPL to refine the comet’s orbit.

The latest orbital plot places the comet’s closest approach to Mars a little farther out than previously estimated — at about 73,000 miles (117,000 kilometers) from the surface of the Red Planet.

Therefore, the chance that the comet will hit Mars has diminished to about 1 in 8,000, JPL NEO experts said.

Future observations of the comet are expected to refine the orbit  predictions further.

Comet excitement
Zurek said the comet’s close encounter with Mars is an exciting prospect for researchers. For example, MRO’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment — or HiRISE camera — should get several pixels across the comet nucleus.

"So, there should be some fascinating science that could result from observations by various instruments at Mars of the nucleus, coma and, of course, the tail," Zurek said.

NASA's  Curiosity and Opportunity are located near Mars'equator, so their best views of the comet from the Martian surface may come when the comet is visible during the predawn hours, low over the southeast horizon.

However, "More information is needed before we can understand what they might see," Zurek said.

Safety measures on Mars
There is a slight possibility that the comet could graze, or even hit, Mars, Zurek said. "If that is not ruled out by future observations of the comet, we will have to start thinking about what precautions we should take," he said.

Those safety measures would include positioning the orbiters so that they are on the other side of Mars at the time of comet impact. 

"We are not worrying about that right now, since the probability is very low and likely to be ruled out in the next few months by continued monitoring of the comet's progress," Zurek said.

Even tiny comet dust particles traveling with a relative velocity of 56 km per second (just over 125,200 mph, or 201,600 km/h) could sandblast Mars-orbiting spacecraft. The satellites could potentially be ordered to turn away or feather their solar panels to mitigate the possible dust impacts. 

Comet ISON campaign: a rehearsal
Siding Spring isn’t the only comet that will approach Mars within the next two years. Comet ISON, discovered in September 2012, will streak through the inner solar system this December and could be one of the brightest comets ever seen. [Photos of Comet ISON]

However, according to Zurek, the distance between Siding Spring and Mars will be 100 times smaller than the distance between Comet ISON and Mars.

"That's close enough that the orbiters — Mars Odyssey, MRO, and the European Space Agency's Mars Express — at least could see structure in the coma, and tail and make estimates perhaps of particle size, etc.," Zurek said. "ISON observations also would help us practice for Siding Spring's much closer passage a year later.”

"We are certainly expecting to observe Siding Spring with HiRISE and other MRO instruments," added Alfred McEwen, director of the Planetary Image Research Lab at the University of Arizona in Tucson and the principal investigator for MRO's HiRISE.

"Potential hazards to the spacecraft and instruments will be analyzed,” McEwen told Space.com. But the probability that this will be a major hazard seems low — at least to me — but the trajectory and comet properties remain poorly known. We have plenty of time to study this and get ready."

Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is former director of research for the National Commission on Space and co-author of Buzz Aldrin's new book, "Mission to Mars – My Vision for Space Exploration," out in May from National Geographic. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

• Photos: Spectacular Comet Views from Earth and Space
• Comet Gives Mars Close Shave, NASA Calculations Show | Video
• Comet of the Century? Sun-Grazing Comet ISON Explained (Infographic)

Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

NASA/GSFC/Landsat

An artist's view of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission spacecraft in orbit above the Gulf Coast of the U.S.

By Nola Taylor Reed, SPACE.com

When NASA's Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) launches on Monday, it will deliver to orbit the latest and most capable Earth-observing satellite in a four-decade long project to study the surface of our planet.

Examining Earth at a resolution of a quarter of an acre, the Landsat satellites have enabled a better understanding of deforestation, glacial retreat, the shrinking Antarctic ice sheet, increasing wildfires and other big changes taking place across the planet.

"All of these changes are occurring at rates unprecedented in human history due to an increasing population," LDCM project scientist Jim Irons, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said during a press conference Friday.

"We will be able to continue monitoring these changes from the best Landsat satellite ever launched," he added. [Photos: The Next Landsat Earth-Observing Spacecraft]

A 40-year project
When astronauts first left the surface of the Earth in the 1960s, some of their first science objectives involved mapping the planet's surface. But such mapping, linked to human exploration of space, came in starts and stops, failing to provide consistent data.

The Landsat program, a joint effort of NASA and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), changed all that.

Originally called the Earth Resources Technology Satellites Program when it was proposed in 1966, Landsat officially received the green light in 1970 and first reached orbit with Landsat 1 in 1972.

Each new satellite has overlapped with its predecessor, sometimes for years. Landsat 7, launched in 1999, still functions in limited capacity, while Landsat 5 was recently decommissioned after more than 28 years of service.

The LDCM spacecraft — set to blast off Monday at 1:02 p.m. EST (1802 GMT/10:02 a.m. PST) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California — will be the eighth satellite in the program.

It will be renamed Landsat 8 after launch and a series of on-orbit checkouts. The USGS will take over operation of the spacecraft at that point, about three months after liftoff.

Orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes, the Landsat satellites image the entire planet over the course of 16 days. When two work together, changes on the surface are captured every eight days.

Although the technology behind the satellites has improved, the programs manage enough consistency that data from the newest satellite is easily comparable to data from the original.

Each Landsat pixel measures 98 feet (30 meters) on a side, capturing enough detail for scientists to glean a great deal of information about environmental change and surface processes.

In 2009, the possibilities for Landsat data grew significantly when the entire image library was placed on the Internet for anyone to use free of charge. The archived data, which is managed by the USGS, is the longest continuous record of Earth's land surface as seen from space.

"The Landsat data plays a critical role in enabling scientific inquiry," said Mike Wulder of the Canadian Forest Service in Victoria, British Columbia. "Over time, the systematic collection and archiving of imagery since the inception of the Landsat program has enabled sophisticated scientific analysis to be taken." [The Top 10 Landsat Photos Ever]

Endless possibilities
The continuous, detailed Landsat coverage creates a wide range of possible uses.

Key among those is the management of water resources. Although almost three-fourths of the planet is covered with water, only a small fraction is available for human consumption.

"Ensuring the wise use of that scarce resource and maintaining the quality of the water within our water supply is a critical societal goal," said Tom Loveland, USGS Landsat science team manager.

Government officials use Landsat observations to monitor deforestation inside their borders. Forest services can monitor the intrusion of pests such as the mountain pine beetle and determine how they will impact day-to-day operations.

Before Landsat arrived on the scene, the forest service would make a circle on a conventional map to indicate where they thought such an infestation might be, Wulder said. Today, using Landsat data, they can look at contextual clues from the detailed coverage to determine a more precise location.

"The imagery is really allowing them to tackle different problems with a number of different approaches," Wulder said.

Landsat assisted in the identification of the breakup of West Antarctic ice shelves, which change slowly over time. By studying the shear margins, where ice flows connect to ice masses or rocky walls, scientists were able to determine the long-term change happening in Antarctica.

Landsat also helps with the management of wildfires, allowing scientists to map and monitor vegetation and fire trends and better understand the results once a fire has passed. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency also uses data from the satellites as part of a flood mitigation program.

"Both of these programs use Landsat data to measure risk, and to help our country as a whole to avoid that risk and to respond to national disasters when they occur," said Kass Green, president of Kass Green & Associates, a private company that relies on Landsat data for its remote sensing and mapping programs.

Opening Landsat to the public means that not all of its applications deal with sustaining human life. Google Earth also makes use of the freely available imagery.

"Whenever you're on Google Earth and you go into a regional level, where you look at a state, do you know what you're looking at?" Green asked. "Landsat data."

Keeping the observations going
Landsat's continuous coverage over more than four decades has been a tremendous boon for the United States and the world, researchers said. The program's 40-year history allows scientists to track not only seasonal changes but also subtle, long-term shifts in vegetation stress and water levels.

With the addition of Landstat 8 to the program, "our record will move from 40 years to 45 to 50 years, or hopefully beyond," Loveland said.

But scientists emphasized that it should not be the last mission.

"What we must all do is look forward," Green said. "We must ensure there is a Landstat program that will ensure that future generations can look back and see where we've been so they can plan where we're going."

Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

• Earth From Space: Landsat Satellites' 40-Year Legacy Explained (Infographic)
• Earth Pictures From Space: Landsat Satellite Legacy
• Landsat Photos: Most Beautiful 'Earth as Art' Images

European Space Agency

An image of the Earth taken by the European satellite MSG-3, released on Aug. 7, 2012.

By Douglas Main
Our Amazing Planet

What strange creatures dwell in the rain forests, at the bottom of the ocean or even in plain sight in our cities? If we don't look, we'll never know, one group of researchers says.

A study published Jan. 24 in the journal Science suggests that discovering and recording all of Earth's biodiversity may not be as difficult as previously thought, and could be accomplished with a "realistic surge of effort," said study co-author Mark Costello, a researcher at New Zealand's University of Auckland. By spending between $500 million and $1 billion annually for the next 50 years, humans could describe most species on Earth, Costello told OurAmazingPlanet.

Costello and his two co-authors also calculated that extinction rates are not as high as many scientists previously thought. The study suggests that species are currently being discovered faster than they go extinct, contradicting a widely held tenant amongst scientists that the opposite is currently happening amid the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaurs were wiped out tens of millions of years ago. Though some scientists welcome the focus Costello and his colleagues are placing on the need to catalog Earth's species, they don't necessarily agree with their conclusions.

How many species are there?
Estimations of the number of species that live on Earth vary considerably, from as few as 2 million to as many as 100 million species. Costello's paper suggests there are between 2 million and 8 million species, at the low end of many scientists' estimates. It is difficult to tell exactly how many species there are without counting them, of course; different environments (many little-studied) have different levels of biodiversity, making it difficult to come up with a global number, and little is known about remote environments such as the deep sea, for example.

There are currently more than 1.5 million species described, but the exact number is uncertain due to overlapping descriptions of the same species, as well as the lack of digitization of many databases and collections, said Mike Novacek, the provost of science at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who was not involved in the study. [ Earth Quiz: Do You Really Know Your Planet? ]

Although the amount of money Costello and his colleagues say will be needed to count Earth's species may seem like a lot, it pales in comparison to what we spend on sports, entertainment and space exploration. Knowing how many species are on Earth is vital to understanding life itself, Costello said.

"It's part of exploring our own planet. It is the first step in understanding ecosystems and as fundamental to biology as naming particles is to physicists, or describing elements is to chemists," he said.

Novacek said that he welcomed the paper's emphasis on recording species and conservation. "It's a cultural embarrassment that we know so little about life on this planet," he said. However, the paper's estimates of species extinction were a little low, he added.

Camilo Mora, a biologist at the University of Hawaii, went further, saying he thought the study significantly underestimated the number of extinctions occurring worldwide, making the current extinction crisis appear less worrisome than it is.

Extinction rates are also important to know because every organism serves a unique role in its ecosystem, which suffers when species are lost. Healthy ecosystems can make for cleaner water and air, as well as ensure the survival of important resources. Even people in cities and towns reap the benefit of far-flung biodiversity; for example, many modern drugs (like quinine, used to treat malaria) have originated from chemicals found in rain forest plants.

The study
The new study was a review of newly published research on extinction rates and discoveries of new species. Costello said that his team's approach was novel because it attempted to calculate global levels of biodiversity by looking at the sum of individual ecosystems the world over. Other calculations of extinction may have overstated the problem by taking local numbers and applying them globally, which Costello's team took pains not to do, he said. High levels of biodiversity in one patch of rain forest may not be paralleled in other areas of rain forest or temperate forest, for example, he said. [ 8 of the World's Most Endangered Places ]

Costello's team also suggests that there are more papers than ever describing new species, thanks to the involvement of a growing number of scientists who don't typically specialize in taxonomy, as well as amateur scientists, he said. For that reason, the task of describing the world's species may not be as insurmountable as thought, he added.

Observed rates of extinction haven't been as high as predicted by some, due in part to better conservation efforts worldwide and the survival of animals in "secondary" habitats like agricultural areas, Costello said. Species can hang on in these degraded habitats longer than expected, giving conservationists a chance to save them before they disappear, he said. Pristine habitats are nevertheless vital to protect, he added.

Controversy
But not everyone agrees with the assessments and conclusions of Costello and his co-authors.

Even the median rate of extinction suggested in Costello's paper — at 25,250 per decade — is disturbing for the planet, Novacek said, while the lower bound of the estimate (500 extinctions per decade) sounded a little low and was "optimistic," to say the least.

Mora's criticism went further: "They paint a very nice glossy picture of the reality of what's happening out there," Mora told OurAmazingPlanet. "But it doesn't represent the reality."

For example, Mora said his "mind was blown" (in a negative way) by the 500-extinctions-per-decade suggestion. Habitat loss alone leads to 25,000 extinctions per year, he said. "And that's just because of habitat loss. Now start adding all the stressors — like climate change, invasive species, pollution — and the number is likely to go a lot higher," he said.

Mora also disagreed with the paper's assertion that the number of qualified taxonomists is growing worldwide. While there may be more authors of papers describing new species, many of these consist of amateurs or nontaxonomists who do not have the necessary expertise to provide leadership in the field, he said. There are fewer full-time positions for taxonomists and many experts in their fields aren't being replaced once they retire, Mora said, a view with which Novacek agreed. [ Amazing Species Discovered in 2012 ]

Extinction crisis
All sides could agree, however, that we are in the midst of an enormous extinction crisis, the largest since the disappearance of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, and that we must do more to record and conserve these species before they vanish. "The dinosaurs disappeared because of an asteroid, and in this case we are the asteroid," Novacek said.

All sides agreed that humans could — and should — record most species, although opinions on exactly how much effort or money it might take differed. In the short term, smaller efforts could make a big difference, Costello said.

"We estimate the backlog in undescribed species in collections could be cleared by hiring 500 new taxonomists for 10 years," he said, which would cost about $5 million per year, and help pave the way for the more expensive and time-consuming process of describing new species found in the wild.

"In the end, there's going to be some controversy and dialogue about these numbers, but I'm glad the paper is coming out and that the issue (of extinction and conservation) is being discussed, because it's so important," Novacek said.

Reach Douglas Main at dmain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @Douglas_Main. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook   and Google+.

• In Images: 100 Most Threatened Species
• Earth Quiz: Mysteries of the Blue Marble
• 50 Interesting Facts About The Earth

NASA via AFP

This 1972 NASA file image shows a view of the Earth as seen by the Apollo 17 crew, Eugene A. Cernan, Ronald E. Evans, and Harrison H. Schmidt as they traveled toward the moon. The view extends from the Mediterranean Sea area to the Antarctica south polar ice cap.

By Douglas Main, OurAmazingPlanet

2013 is here, and everyone is busy making (or already breaking) their New Year's resolutions. Mother Nature took a few minutes out of her busy schedule to share a few thoughts on how to improve the situation here on our planet with some New Year's resolutions that should be taken up by mankind.

Here are the top seven resolutions for the Earth in the New Year. Take it away, Mother Nature:

1. Prevent species from going extinct
Earth is in the midst of an enormous extinction crisis, the biggest spate of die-offs since the disappearance of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, according to several studies. The world's level of biodiversity is also down by 30 percent since the 1970s, according to a report by the World Wildlife Fund, a conservation group. The United Nations Environment Program estimates that 150 to 200 species go extinct every day, which is about 10 to 100 times the "background," or natural, rate of extinction.

One problem facing endangered species, particularly in developing countries, is poaching. Driven in part by the demand for animal parts in traditional medicine cures in parts of Asia, poaching (and capture of animals for the pet trade) has only increased — dramatically — in the past decade.

A total of 633 rhinos were killed in South Africa in 2012, for example, according to Reuters. Compare that with 448 killed in 2011 and 13 killed in 2007. Poaching is largely to blame for the extinction of many creatures, including a subspecies of Javan rhino in Vietnam in 2010.

It's hard to focus on other animals and plants all the time. But humans are animals who come from a world replete with other creatures and forms of life. Even now, surrounded as many of you are by urban centers, devoid of forests and most wildlife, people depend on plants and animals for survival. Ultimately the loss of biodiversity will hurt you, as you, dear humans, are part of the web of life. Each species serves a specific function that can't be wholly replaced if one goes extinct, leading to a less productive ecosystem which ultimately provides fewer benefits for humans.

2. Preserve the rainforests
Rainforests are vital reservoirs of plants, animals and microbes. Most terrestrial animals aren't the big, charismatic species like elephants and tigers often associated with the jungles, but rainforest-dwelling arthropods (a group that includes insects, arachnids and crustaceans, all of which have hard exoskeletons).

Arthropods are the most diverse group of animals in the world and perform all kinds of vital roles in their environments, from eating fecal matter to pollinating flowers. Rainforests also contain plants than can help humans; compounds derived from these plants have been used to create many medicines, including the anti-malarial drug quinine, originally found in the Amazon's cinchona tree. It'd be a shame to lose such wealth before even discovering it.

The forests also supply the planet with an enormous supply of oxygen. Even so, from 2000 to 2010, for example, about 93,000 square miles of the Amazon rainforest were razed, covering an area roughly the size of the United Kingdom.

3. Protect areas with high biodiversity
Not all areas are created equal. Certain places should be left alone, such as those that are home to endangered species, species found nowhere else, particularly high varieties of species and those that provide other important ecological benefits.

Examples of areas that need your special attention include Madagascar, which is like no other place in the world — it is the only spot where lemurs and many other unique life-forms dwell. But forest and grassland habitat on this island off the coast of Africa is being destroyed rapidly; Madagascar has lost at least 90 percent of its original forest cover.

Another jewel would be the Philippines, which has one of the highest levels of biodiversity on the planet, but is threatened by deforestation and development. A single recent expedition found more than 300 species that are likely new to science, including a deep-sea shark that can inflate itself when frightened. But these species are potentially in danger from human activities, while other species could go extinct there and in other spots before they are even discovered.

4. Reduce greenhouse gases and limit climate change
Humans are a gassy bunch, burning fossil fuels and increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide, methane and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.

Many climate scientists have estimated that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere must be limited to 350 parts per million (ppm) to avoid the worst effects of a human-altered climate, such as warmer temperatures, more frequent heat waves and droughts, sea level rise and even more extinction of animals that can't quickly adapt to climate change. The current concentration is nearly 393 ppm and rising about 2 ppm annually, according to the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.

To avert the worst effects of global warming, humans would need to quickly find alternative fuel sources — look back to what's been provided to you and harness the sun or the wind or heat from the Earth.

The worst effects of warming can be seen in the Arctic and Antarctic, due to a phenomenon called polar amplification. Many areas throughout the Arctic have already warmed by 3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.7 degrees Celsius) over the last 30 years, heating up much more quickly than the rest of the world and acting as harbingers of things to come.

The poles are also home to magnificent animals like polar bears and penguins,which are sensitive to environmental changes. And that's not to mention the fact these areas store enough frozen water that, if melted, would put most of the world's current urban areas under water. And even if these areas don't completely melt, they could still cause significant sea-level rise.

5. Curb water pollution
Humans are really shooting themselves in the foot with this one. Although big strides have been taken in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, it remains an enormous and growing problem throughout many parts of the world, including China, parts of south Asia and Africa.

Besides the obvious detriments of polluting one's own drinking water, pollution from agricultural runoff, when it reaches the oceans, also creates so-called dead zones — algae blooms develop and consume all the oxygen in the area and other species that need oxygen die off.

The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico has been steadily growing and recently covered an area roughly the size of New Jersey. Pollution also contributes to coral disease, which is a major unrecognized factor in the decline of coral reefs — top spots for biodiversity (see Resolution #3).

6. Better manage fisheries and curb shark finning
Commercial-fishing techniques are leading to the deaths of too many fish, sea turtles and marine mammals, often when these creatures aren't targeted by fishermen.

The worst of these techniques is the use of large nets (including dragnets, seines and driftnets, which catch just about everything in their path) and longline fishing, wherein hundreds or thousands of hooks are suspended up to many miles behind boats. The average longline in the Gulf of Mexico stretches for 30 miles, and more than half of the tuna and swordfish caught are thrown back, most of which die, according to the Pew Environment group.

The hunting of sharks has also increased dramatically, primarily due to increased demand for shark fin soup in China, a substance that has repeatedly been shown to be high in toxins. Up to 73 million sharks are killed each year to quench this demand. Ocean ecosystems depend upon these predators to keep the web of life balanced.

7. Consume less
This one is pretty simple: consume less. Especially Americans, who could still survive using less energy and water; most of the world gets by on a fraction. Reuse of materials may be another good practice. This could mean simple changes like reusing shopping bags, alleviating the need for more plastic and paper.

Many items also needn't be thrown away merely because they are out of fashion. A recent study found that a large percentage of appliances that are thrown away still function properly.

In addition, boost energy efficiency by making and buying better cars, like hybrids or electric vehicles powered by renewable sources. You can also do simple things like turning off lights and appliances, using programmable thermostats and replacing air filters in HVAC systems.

Using less plastic would be another good place to start. Now, plastic is found in just about every corner of the globe, for example in thegreat Pacific garbage patch, known to scientists as the North Pacific Subtropial Gyreand even on the floor of the Arctic Ocean.

The Earth's resources are not unlimited, and if humans are not more careful, this will become increasingly obvious.

• 50 Interesting Facts About The Earth
• The Reality of Climate Change: 10 Myths Busted
• Image Gallery: One-of-a-Kind Places on Earth

Reach Douglas Main at dmain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @Douglas_Main. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter@OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

© 2012 OurAmazingPlanet. All rights reserved. More from OurAmazingPlanet.

NASA scientists created this companion image to the wildly popular "Blue Marble" picture released last week. This image combines data acquired during six orbits by the Suomi NPP satellite to produce a view of the Eastern Hemisphere. The new "Blue Marble" pictures were taken using an instrument aboard Suomi NPP, known as the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite. The four vertical lines of "haze" seen in this image are caused by the reflection of sunlight off the ocean.

A week after NASA released an updated version of its "Blue Marble" photo, the picture of our planet's Western Hemisphere has become such a hit that the space agency is coming out with a sequel.

Today researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center unveiled the Eastern Hemisphere "Blue Marble 2012," assembled from imagery that was collected by the Suomi NPP climate-monitoring satellite during six orbits on Jan. 23. Both views of the Marble take advantage of the spacecraft's Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS.

You're looking at the Eastern Hemisphere as if you were seeing it in space from a distance of 7,918 miles (12,742 kilometers). NASA says the four vertical lines of "haze" visible in this image are due to the reflection of sunlight off the ocean during Suomi NPP's orbital passes.

NASA spokeswoman Rebecca Roth said the folks at Goddard were tickled to find out that last week's "Blue Marble" picture was so quick to go viral on the space center's Flickr site. "We were curious about its popularity on Flickr compared to other images, and came across a number of articles on the 'Situation Room' photo ... and were surprised at our findings," she wrote in an email.

Last year, TechCrunch reported that the "Situation Room" photo, which shows Obama administration officials gathered at the White House during the operation to hunt down Osama bin Laden, ranked as one of the most widely seen photos on Flickr — with 1.6 million views recorded during the first 38 hours it was on the site.

Roth checked with Flickr's Zack Sheppard, and today she quoted him as saying that "the Western Hemisphere Blue Marble 2012 image has rocketed up to over 3.1 million views, making it one of the all-time most viewed images on the site after only one week."

It's always dicey to make claims about "first," "most" or "best," but Roth told me that "Blue Marble 2012" is getting far more views than the classic 2002 edition of the Blue Marble, which is perhaps best known nowadays as one of the default photos on iPhones. Right now, the Goddard hit parade is:

• Blue Marble 2012 West at 3.2 million views.
• "Bye Bye Comet" video at 681,000.
• 2002 Blue Marble East at 551,000.
• 2002 Blue Marble West at 391,000.
• Earth from Mars (You Are Here) at 311,164.

It shouldn't be long before 2012's Blue Marble East starts rising on the charts.

How the Marble was made
Suomi NPP, which was launched last October, isn't exactly designed to snap beauty shots of Earth. "NPP" stands for National Polar-orbiting Partnership, and reflects the fact that the $1.5 billion mission is a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Defense. The minivan-sized weather satellite was christened Suomi just last week as a tribute to University of Wisconsin's Verner Suomi (1915-1995), who is considered the "father of weather satellite systems."

The next-generation spacecraft flies in a 512-mile-high polar orbit to conduct climate studies at the same time it's collecting weather data. So if the satellite is only 512 miles above the surface, how can it produce a picture that looks as if it's coming from deep space? NASA scientist Norman Kuring artfully combined six sets of data from Suomi's orbital passes to produce the "Blue Marble"views.

NASA / NOAA

This graphic shows how scientists combine imagery collected by the Suomi NPP satellite during multiple orbital passes to produce a Blue Marble view of Earth.

Here's how NASA explains the perspective today in a "behind the scenes" feature:

"Using a basketball you can get a good idea of how far away the Suomi NPP satellite is from Earth. Take a basketball that has a diameter of 10 inches (about 25 centimeters) and say that's 'Earth.' (For the record, Earth has a diameter of about 7,926 miles, or about 12,756 kilometers).

"So to get the same view of Earth as the VIIRS instrument aboard the Suomi NPP satellite, hold the basketball five-eighth of an inch (about one-and-a-half centimeters) away from your face.

"The actual swath width of the Earth's surface covered by each pass of VIIRS as the satellite orbits the Earth is about 1,865 miles (about 3,001 kilometers). On the basketball that's about two and one-third inches (about six centimeters)."

More views of Earth from space:

• From the moon to the earth
• Japanese moon probe updates Earthrise
• Comet probe takes snapshots of Earth

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.