The photo was taken by the satellite from 550 kilometers above the reef.
A stunning video captured by a satellite from space shows Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in 4K resolution. The company that owns the satellite said it was captured by a deployable 4K camera installed on a selfie stick.
The MP42 microsatellite was flying 550 kilometers above the reef off Australia’s northeast coast when the video was shot, NanoAvionics said. The company also posted a high definition video on its YouTube channel.
In addition to an immersive view of Earth, the video also captured the moon, which NanoAvionics said photobombed the selfie.
The depiction of the Great Barrier Reef in the background was partly symbolic. “We wanted to highlight the vulnerability of our planet and the importance of satellite Earth observation, particularly for monitoring environmental and climate change,” the company said in a press release.
The photos and clips were captured with a GoPro Hero 7 mounted on a selfie stick. According to NanoAvionics, the satellite was launched in April this year aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9.
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system in the world, stretching more than 2,300 kilometers (1,400 miles) along Australia’s northeast coast.
In a report released in March this year, an Australian government report said the Great Barrier Reef was suffering from “mass bleaching” due to global warming.
The report is based on extensive surveys of the World Heritage-listed reef between September 2021 and March 2022, according to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
Of the 719 reefs surveyed, 654 — or 91 percent — showed some level of coral bleaching, according to the report.
Although bleached corals are under stress, they can still recover when conditions become more moderate, the reef authority said.