The yearly cycle of Earth’s ecosystem is simply beautiful.

As the seasons change throughout a year, the density of plant growth on land and in oceans fluctuates. NASA scientists recently imaged that yearly cycle in a stunning new animation.

The animation does not showcase a specific year of the annual plant life cycle, rather it shows an average yearly cycle based on an accumulation of satellite data and images, including data sets of the average over years and a “running average” over a certain number of days.