World Of Change

World of Change: Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada
Updated Apr 19, 2023

World of Change: Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada

Wet and dry years cause the snow cover to fluctuate.

Water Snow and Ice

World of Change: Global Temperatures
Updated Jan 13, 2022

World of Change: Global Temperatures

The average global temperature has increased by a little more than 1° Celsius (2° Fahrenheit) since 1880. Two-thirds of the warming has occurred since 1975.

Atmosphere Heat Land Water Human Presence

World of Change: Water Level in Lake Powell
Updated Jun 11, 2021

World of Change: Water Level in Lake Powell

Combined with human demands, a multi-year drought in the Upper Colorado River Basin caused a dramatic drop in Lake Powell. Wet and dry seasons lead to annual fluctuations, but the massive reservoir is still mostly below capacity.

Land

World of Change: Antarctic Sea Ice
Updated Apr 28, 2021

World of Change: Antarctic Sea Ice

Ice has more room to expand around the continent in winter. But it also stretches into warmer latitudes, leading to more melting in summer.

Water Snow and Ice

World of Change: Arctic Sea Ice
Updated Apr 28, 2021

World of Change: Arctic Sea Ice

Several record-setting summer lows, combined with poor wintertime recoveries, have fueled a persistent decline over the past few decades.

Water Snow and Ice

World of Change: Yellow River Delta
Updated Mar 23, 2021

World of Change: Yellow River Delta

Once free to wander up and down the coast of the North China Plain, the Yellow River Delta has been shaped by levees, canals, and jetties in recent decades.

Land Human Presence

World of Change: Coastline Change
Updated Sep 15, 2020

World of Change: Coastline Change

The shoreline of Cape Cod provides a visual case study in the evolution and dynamic motion of barrier islands and spits.

Land Water Human Presence

World of Change: Sprawling Shanghai
Updated Dec 10, 2019

World of Change: Sprawling Shanghai

If you could go back in time to the 1980s, you would find a city that is drastically different than today’s Shanghai.

Human Presence Remote Sensing

World of Change: Antarctic Ozone Hole
Updated Oct 19, 2019

World of Change: Antarctic Ozone Hole

In the early 1980s, scientists began to realize that CFCs were creating a thin spot—a hole—in the ozone layer over Antarctica every spring. This series of satellite images shows the ozone hole on the day of its maximum depth each year from 1979 through 2019.

Atmosphere

World of Change: Columbia Glacier, Alaska
Updated Aug 29, 2019

World of Change: Columbia Glacier, Alaska

Since 1980, the volume of this glacier that spills into the Prince William Sound has shrunk by half. Climate change may have nudged the process along, but mechanical forces have played the largest role in the ice loss.

Snow and Ice

World of Change: Burn Recovery in Yellowstone
Updated Jul 24, 2019

World of Change: Burn Recovery in Yellowstone

In 1988, wildfires raced through Yellowstone National Park, consuming hundreds of thousands of acres. This series of Landsat images tracks the landscape’s slow recovery through 2019.

Land

World of Change: Shrinking Aral Sea
Updated Nov 7, 2018

World of Change: Shrinking Aral Sea

A massive irrigation project has devastated the Aral Sea over the past 50 years. These images show the decline of the Southern Aral Sea in the past decade, as well as the first steps of recovery in the Northern Aral Sea.

Land Human Presence

World of Change: Padma River
Updated Jul 31, 2018

World of Change: Padma River

One of the major rivers of Bangladesh has been growing in size, transforming in shape, and changing in location for decades. Each twist and zigzag of the river tells a different geologic story about the power of erosion.

Land Water Remote Sensing

World of Change: Growing Deltas in Atchafalaya Bay
Updated Nov 16, 2017

World of Change: Growing Deltas in Atchafalaya Bay

While the sea overtakes much of the delta plain of the Mississippi River, sediment from the Atchafalaya River is building two new deltas to the west.

Land Water Human Presence

World of Change: Devastation and Recovery at Mt. St. Helens
Updated May 16, 2017

World of Change: Devastation and Recovery at Mt. St. Helens

The devastation of the May 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens and the gradual recovery of the surrounding landscape is documented in this series of satellite images from 1979–2016.

Land Life Remote Sensing

World of Change: Athabasca Oil Sands
Updated Oct 25, 2016

World of Change: Athabasca Oil Sands

The Athabasca Oil Sands are at once a source of oil, of economic growth, and of environmental concern. This series of images shows the growth of surface mines around the Athabasca River from 1984 to the present.

Land Human Presence

World of Change: Ice Loss in Glacier National Park
Updated Jun 14, 2016

World of Change: Ice Loss in Glacier National Park

Shrinking since at least the early 1900s, the ice cover in Glacier National Park is expected to keep declining until only insignificant lumps remain. These images show changes to the park's ice and surrounding landscape since 1984.

Land Snow and Ice Remote Sensing

World of Change: Mountaintop Mining, West Virginia
Updated Sep 29, 2015

World of Change: Mountaintop Mining, West Virginia

Based on data from the Landsat satellites, these natural-color images document the growth of the Hobet mine in Boone County, West Virginia, as it expands from ridge to ridge between.

Human Presence

World of Change: Development of Orlando, Florida
Updated Jul 21, 2015

World of Change: Development of Orlando, Florida

Theme parks and other development has turned Central Florida from swampland to the most visited tourist region of the United States.

Land Human Presence

World of Change: Amazon Deforestation
Updated Jan 29, 2014

World of Change: Amazon Deforestation

The state of Rondônia in western Brazil is one of the most deforested parts of the Amazon. This series shows deforestation on the frontier in the northwestern part of the state between 2000 and 2012.

Land Human Presence

World of Change: Managing Fire in Etosha National Park
Updated Apr 5, 2013

World of Change: Managing Fire in Etosha National Park

Prescribed fires should prevent blazes from raging out of control in one of Namibia’s most prized wildlife preserves.

Heat Land Human Presence Remote Sensing

World of Change: Green Seasons of Maine
Updated Feb 8, 2013

World of Change: Green Seasons of Maine

Not many places on Earth have year-round greenery and four distinct seasons. The images in this series show the four seasons of Maine, the most forest-covered state in the U.S.A.

Land Water Human Presence

World of Change: Drought Cycles in Australia
Updated Jan 13, 2012

World of Change: Drought Cycles in Australia

Drought has taken a severe toll on croplands in Southeast Australia during many years this decade.

Land Life

World of Change: Severe Storms
Updated Sep 28, 2011

World of Change: Severe Storms

This collection of images featuring the strongest hurricane, cyclone, or typhoon from any ocean during each year of the past decade includes storms both famous—or infamous—and obscure.

Atmosphere Land Water

World of Change: Seasons of the Indus River
Updated Sep 12, 2011

World of Change: Seasons of the Indus River

Fed by glaciers in the Himalayas and Karakorams — and by monsoon rains — the Indus River experiences substantial fluctuations every year. Because the river irrigates 18 million hectares of farmland, the landscape changes along with the river.

Land Human Presence

World of Change: Urbanization of Dubai
Updated Aug 9, 2011

World of Change: Urbanization of Dubai

To expand the possibilities for beachfront tourist development, Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates, undertook a massive engineering project to create hundreds of artificial islands along its Persian Gulf coastline.

Land Human Presence

World of Change: Seasons of Lake Tahoe
Updated Oct 20, 2010

World of Change: Seasons of Lake Tahoe

Perhaps the most familiar change in our changing world is the annual swing of the seasons. This series of images shows the effects of the seasons on the Lake Tahoe region between 2009 and 2010.

Land

World of Change: Solar Activity
Updated Jun 24, 2010

World of Change: Solar Activity

Images of sunspots and UV brightness document the 11-year cycle of solar magnetic activity. The series spans 1999-2010, capturing the most recent solar maximum and minimum, as well as the emergence of solar cycle 24.

Heat

World of Change: Collapse of the Larsen-B Ice Shelf
Updated Apr 7, 2010

World of Change: Collapse of the Larsen-B Ice Shelf

In early 2002, scientists monitoring daily satellite images of the Antarctic Peninsula watched in amazement as almost the entire Larsen B Ice Shelf splintered and collapsed in just over one month. They had never witnessed such a large area disintegrate so rapidly.

Water Snow and Ice

World of Change: Mesopotamia Marshes
Updated Mar 30, 2010

World of Change: Mesopotamia Marshes

In the years following the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi residents began reclaiming the country’s nearly decimated Mesopotamian marshes. This series of images documents the transformation of the fabled landscape between 2000 and 2009.

Land Human Presence

World of Change: El Niño, La Niña, and Rainfall
Updated Oct 23, 2009

World of Change: El Niño, La Niña, and Rainfall

For many people, El Niño and La Niña mean floods or drought, but the events are actually a warming or cooling of the eastern Pacific Ocean that impacts rainfall. These sea surface temperature and rainfall anomaly images show the direct correlation between ocean temperatures and rainfall during El Niño and La Niña events.

Atmosphere Water

World of Change: Global Biosphere
Updated Jun 5, 2009

World of Change: Global Biosphere

Earth would not be the planet that it is without its biosphere, the sum of its life. This series of images illustrates the variations in the average productivity of the global biosphere from 1999 to 2008.

Land Life Water