Since the launch of NASA Earth Observatory (EO) on April 29, 1999, the site has hosted more than 18,000 image-driven stories, featuring everything from the newest satellite imagery to decades-long records of change. This video highlights 25 of our favorite images and data visualizations. The collection represents Earth’s diverse landscapes—deserts, mountains, oceans, and polar regions—along with depictions of human interaction with the environment.
Hungry for more? Explore past content in our archive or browse by location with the EO Explorer tool. And as always, keep up with the latest daily content as we embark on year 26 of Image of the Day. NASA Earth Observatory: where every day has been Earth Day since April 1999.
More information about the images featured in this video can be found in their associated Image of the Day stories.
Night Light Maps Open Up New Applications
Still Sandy After All These Years
Cloudscape at Dawn, Northwest Atlantic
Cruising Past the Aurora Borealis
Clouds “Shine” Over the Mediterranean Sea
Evening Glow in the Junggar Basin
Green Harvest in South Korean Waters
Fishing in Green, Living in Yellow
Australia’s Ephemeral Lake Mackay
Just Another Day on Aerosol Earth
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, Joshua Stevens, Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Jeff Schmaltz, and Norman Kuring, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey, NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview, VIIRS day-night band data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership, EO-1 ALI data courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team, data from NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and the U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team, and GEOS data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC. Astronaut photographs provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. Video by Kathryn Hansen. Music, “Inspire,” by Liborio Conti.
