High resolution satellite photos create 4K video of Earth

• James Tyrwhitt-Drake from the University of Victoria in Canada created a high-definition video of planet Earth
• images from a Russian weather satellite are 'joined' to make video of Earth rotating with the sun sweeping across
• Tyrwhitt-Drake used images from the Elektro-L satellite that sits above the Indian Ocean at a height of 25,000 miles
• Every 30 minutes the satellites takes a 121 megapixel image of Earth

By Jonathan O'Callaghan for MailOnline

Published: 08:10 EST, 20 November 2014 | Updated: 11:16 EST, 20 November 2014

You might have seen some amazing images of Earth from space, but you probably haven’t seen anything like this.

Using images from a Russian weather satellite, an incredible time-lapse of Earth in 4K resolution has been created, showing our planet in stunning HD.

In the video both hemispheres, and then Earth as a whole, are shown with the sun ‘moving’ across the surface as the planet rotates.

Scroll down for video

James Tyrwhitt-Drake from the University of Victoria in Canada has created a high-definition video of planet Earth (still from the video shown). In it Earth is seen rotating with the sun sweeping across the surface. He used images from a Russian weather satellite

The video was created by James Tyrwhitt-Drake from the University of Victoria in Canada. He used images captured by the geostationary Elektro-L weather satellite from 15 to 19 May 2011.

The Russian satellite orbits at a height of 25,000 miles (40,000km) above the ocean and at such a speed that it always remains over the same spot on the planet.

Every 30 minutes the Russian satellite takes a 121 megapixel image (11,136 x 11,136 pixels) of Earth.

Normally it shows vegetation as orange, rather than green, as the camera on the satellite uses both visible and infrared light.

But Mr Tyrwhitt-Drake edited the images to make the vegetation appear more natural.

In the video the glint of the sun can be seen on the Indian Ocean as Earth rotates.

The first part of the video shows sunlight washing over the Northern Hemisphere, before then taking a look at the Southern Hemisphere.

The final part shows the entire Earth being lit up by the sun in images from Elektro-L.

The video uses images captured by the geostationary Elektro-L weather satellite (illustrated) from 15 to 19 May 2011. This Russian satellite orbits at a height of 25,000 miles (40,000km) above the ocean and at such a speed that it always remains over the same spot on the planet

On his YouTube channel Mr Tyrwhitt-Drake explains why features like the city lights and other stars aren’t visible.

‘City lights are not visible because they are thousands of times less bright than the reflection of sunlight off the Earth,’ he said.

‘If the camera was sensitive enough to detect city lights, the Earth would be overexposed.’

The sun is purposefully not visible directly to protect the cameras on the satellite from direct exposure to sunlight, while stars are obscured from view by a mask - although they would not be bright enough to be visible anyway.

Every 30 minutes the Russian satellite takes a 121 megapixel image (11136 x 11136 pixels) of Earth. Normally it shows vegetation as orange (previous picture from the satellite shown), rather than green, as the camera on the satellite uses both visible and infrared light, but the latest video was edited to make it seem more natural