From orbit, Earth often looks more like art than geography. Satellites such as the European Union's Copernicus Sentinel missions are designed to turn that beauty into information. Rather than taking only "normal" photographs, the Sentinel-2 satellites record Earth in multiple wavelengths of light, including bands beyond human vision. Scientists then combine those wavelengths into false-color images that make it easier to tell forests from tundra, open water from ice, or bare ground from snow. The result is a view that can feel stylized while actually being highly diagnostic.
