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I originally needed an Earth model for a sci-fi stop-motion film. I built one in Blender, and have been improving it ever since. The model seen in this wallpaper isn't anything near the original version!
The model is produced entirely in Blender, except for the spherical NASA maps. The Earth model is actually composed of three separate spheres, rendered overtop each other. First is the ground sphere, next is the cloud sphere, and the atmosphere layer completes the effect. A fourth sphere provides a masking effect, which is used to blur the very edges of the ground and cloud layers (earlier versions of the model always had sharp edges in certain areas).
The spherical maps are owned by NASA. I obtained them from visibleearth.nasa.gov, with the exception of the water mask map, which I obtained from mirrors.arsc.edu/nasa/landmask/.
