Earth Day 2014: NASA Celebrates The Occasion With #GlobalSelfie Campaign

NASA-Earth — NASA has asked people to get outside and take selfies, showing mountains, parks, the sky, rivers and lakes. NASA

NASA has announced a global “selfie” initiative as part of the agency's Earth Right Now campaign to celebrate this year’s Earth Day on Tuesday.

According to NASA, the year 2014 is a big one for the space agency as five of its major missions are planned to be launched into space by December to gather critical data about the planet. And, to mark the significance of the year and what its missions mean for the planet, NASA has asked people to send in “selfies” that showcase mountains, parks, rivers, lakes and the sky from all over the world.

“While NASA satellites constantly look at Earth from space, on Earth Day we're asking you to step outside and take a picture of yourself wherever you are on Earth. Then post it to social media using the hashtag #GlobalSelfie,” NASA said on its website. “For Earth Day we are trying to create an image of Earth from the ground up while also fostering a collection of portraits of the people of Earth. Once those pictures stream around the world on Earth Day, the individual pictures tagged #GlobalSelfie will be used to create a mosaic image of Earth -- a new "Blue Marble" built bit by bit with your photos.”

GlobalSelfie-NASA — #GlobalSelfie sign. NASA

The Earth mosaic image and a video using the images will be released in May. According to NASA, it will monitor photos -- with the hashtag #GlobalSelfie -- posted to five social media sites, including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+ and Flickr. Users can also post photos to the #GlobalSelfie event page on Facebook, #GlobalSelfie Google+ event page, or the #GlobalSelfie group on Flickr.

NASA has identified thousands of new planets in the universe in recent years, but the space agency, which currently has 17 Earth-observing missions orbiting the planet to study its atmosphere, land and oceans, has studied Earth more closely than any other planet.

Now, NASA wants to create a different picture of the planet -- “a crowd-sourced collection of snapshots of the people of Earth that we could use to create one unique mosaic of the Blue Marble.”

To download the #GlobalSelfie sign, click here. Meanwhile, NASA has also released a video that provides “a look back at Earth in 2013 from the viewpoint of orbit.” Here is the video: