Educators and the science-attentive public are eager consumers of high quality, interesting, and informative imagery of the Earth. But imagery without explanatory background and context is of limited use in the classroom. Since September 2000, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Universities Space Research Association have offered the Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) web site, which is designed to serve as a repository of imagery, captions and web links highlighting the diverse processes and phenomena that shape our planet and our lives.

Pipeline Aurora. The photo above shows a display of the aurora borealis over the Alaska pipeline, taken November 18, 2001 at 10:30 p.m. (local time). Photograph © Greg Syverson, Wildlife Photography and Video. Used with permission.

Each day the web site features a new Earth science image with a descriptive caption. EPOD's goal is to educate and excite people about the science of our planet. EPOD photos, imagery, drawings, animations, etc. exemplify features within the Earth system spheres of air, water, land, life and human dimensions.

Mammatus Clouds. This impressive photo of mammatus clouds was taken in the late afternoon (18:57 local time) near Perth, Western Australia on December 27, 2004. Photograph by Ben Eenhoorn. Courtesy of Ben Eenhoorn and EPOD. Used with permission.

We encourage contributions from all walks of life that show interesting, relevant, beautiful, or unusual aspects of the Earth - short captions and related web links are appreciated but not required. Contributors can submit their digital photographs using our semi-automated web-based submission (at the bottom of the EPOD home page). Editors filter and refine submissions from the community as necessary and seek additional content and relevant links.

Springtime Pond Chorus. The winter snow has melted leaving pools of water in the fields and woods of northeastern Wisconsin, an early spring home for wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) and other species. Photograph by Martin Ruzek, USRA. Courtesy of Martin Ruzek and EPOD. Used with permission.

EPOD aims to maintain an eclectic collection of imagery including field and laboratory photos, aerial photography and satellite images, complementing other excellent image repositories such as the NASA Earth Observatory and the Visible Earth. Image contribution and acknowledgement guidelines, and acceptable use policies can be found on the EPOD web page http://epod.usra.edu/.

Copyright^© 2006 Martin Ruzek

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doi:10.1045/april2006-featured.collection