File Format: Earth.jpg - Full colour 1440x720 JPG file, 725K.
Map Type: Simple Cylindrical Projection.
Map Origin: Constructed by Constantine Thomas, based on map constructed by James Hastings-Trew from USGS data.
Map coverage: Full 360° wrap (centred around 0°), full pole-to-pole coverage.
Image coverage: Vertical edge: 180°W. Horizontal edge: 90° N/S.

Radius (1 km = 1 POV unit): 6,378 km
Average distance from primary (1 km = 1 POV unit): 150,000,000 km

There are two versions of the Earth maps available from this site:

BASIC VERSION: The 'basic' version is the combined land/sea map and cloudmap shown to the left of this text (click on it to download it). The clouds have been improved so that they are much more dominant - if you look at an image of Earth (e.g. from one of the Galileo fly-bys), most of the planet is covered in opaque white clouds. This is generally pretty realistic looking and good enough for 'casual' purposes, however, it doesn't allow you to create the effect of specular reflection of sunlight from the oceans that is seen in satellite images. This can be achieved using the separate maps provided below.

File Format: Earthpng.zip - Four 256 colour land/ocean/cloud/cloudbump 2048x1024 PNG files in a single 2.75 MB zip file.
Map Type: Simple Cylindrical Projection.
Map Origin: Constructed by Constantine Thomas, based on maps constructed by James Hastings-Trew from USGS data.
Map coverage: Full 360° wrap (centred around 0°), full pole-to-pole coverage.
Image coverage: Vertical edge: 180°W. Horizontal edge: 90° N/S.

Radius (1 km = 1 POV unit): ocean map: 6,378 km ; terrain map: 6,378.1 km; cloud map/bump: 6,380 km.
Average distance from primary (1 km = 1 POV unit): 150,000,000 km

NOTES: The four maps on the left (land, sea, clouds, cloudbump) are designed to be combined in POVray to create an Earth with ultra-realistic oceans and clouds. They are available here in a single 2.75 MB zip file called earthpng.zip. The PNG files are smaller than gifs (and therefore easier to download!), and are fully supported in POVray so you should have no trouble using the maps. A sample scene file (earth.pov) is provided with a full explanation to show you how to use the maps. All four maps are higher resolution than the basic Earth map described above, but have 256 colours instead of 16 million.

The idea is to layer the maps to get the right effect. The sea map goes at the bottom of the pile, and is given a specular finish. The land map goes above this - the blue areas on it that correspond to the oceans are set to complete transparency by a transmit statement. You will thus be able to see the specular ocean map beneath, but the land areas will 'cover over' any specular highlight on the sea map. Thus, only the ocean regions of the Earth reflect the sunlight specularly, and the continents do not (which is what we want). The blue cloud map then goes on top with a complex transmit statement (see scene file) that allows you to see through the clear parts and gives the rest of it a varying opacity. Finally, a greyscale cloudbump map is used as a normal_map to simulate high clouds on the day/night terminator. A sample scene file is included in earthpng.zip to demonstrate and explain how to combine the maps.

If you're interested, separated Land/Sea/Cloud maps are also available for Cytherea and Blue Mars.