First, yes, this image was created by stitching together images - as many of the modern ones are. That's because our satellites tend to orbit close to the Earth and have cameras designed to take close up images of parts of the Earth. So, many of them can't get the entire planet into a single frame.

Then, again, yes, the scientist who made this image cloned some of the clouds. The explanation is here:

"Then he created a "map of clouds stitched together from 200 satellite scenes" as well as a topographic map to add elevation to our planet's land masses. Some of the clouds are cloned because, as he told me via email, "there are gaps between orbits near the equator, and there's no way to fill them with real data.""

The Secrets Behind the Most Famous Earth Image of All Time

There are many "blue Earth" photographs. Many of them are made by stitching together photographs taken close up.

Others are single photographs.

To find out which is which, you have to look up the original and read the description.

Also close up images of Earth, stitched together, often show only a small portion of the Earth's globe. So they may not show even half the globe - because they simulate the view from the spacecraft which is close up.

Here is a selection of some of the single photos of Earth by distant spacecraft

Earth from lunar orbit, Apollo 8 image of Earth AS8-14-2383 taken by Astronaut William Anders using a Hasselblad camera with a 3-inch lens.

Photograph of Earth and Moon taken by the Galileo spacecraft. Earth and Moon seem a lot closer to each other than they are - image foreshortened.

Photo by the Messenger spacecraft, on its way to Mercury.

Earth and Moon from Mars Reconnassance orbiter - Earth colours toned down

Earth as a pale blue dot photographed by Cassini from Saturn, through its rings.

I got those from: Watching the Earth From Space

10 Views of Earth from the Moon, Mars and Beyond [Slide Show]

See also

Dark side of the moon captured by Nasa satellite a million miles from Earth

This is another video this time of the Moon passing behind the Earth DSCOVR satellite's 'million mile camera' captures lunar eclipse - BBC News