Images of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean acquired by the Multispectral Imager on the NEAR spacecraft on 23 January 1998 between 11
and 15 h after the spacecraft swung by Earth on its way to the asteroid 433 Eros. The images were taken at 80-min intervals as the spacecraft’s
distance from Earth increased from 92,000 mi (148,000 km) to 160,000 mi (256,000 km). The images clearly show the Earth’s clockwise rotation
as viewed from the spacecraft’s perspective, starting from the upper left image. The South Pole is at the center of each image, and the continent
of Antarctica is surrounded by sea ice and storm fronts. The smallest feature visible is approximately 8 mi (13 km) in size. The images are
constructed from blue, green, and infrared filters to highlight differences between rock types, water, and vegetation. The red areas on the right
side of the lower two images are vegetation in southern South America, and adjacent brown areas are deserts. Snow, ice, and clouds appear as
subtly different shades of white and light blue, depending on the size of the grains of snow and ice and the types of clouds.