From Paris to Tahiti, the venues of the 2024 Summer Olympics showcase some of France’s iconic landmarks.
The storm delivered rainfall totals of more than a foot to parts of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas before marching toward the mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
Dams along the ephemeral river help protect Benghazi against floodwater coming from the wadi and its watershed.
Published Aug 11, 2024
The city’s urban heat island could add to the challenge for Olympic marathoners.
Published Aug 10, 2024
Despite overall declines in the thickness and extent of Arctic sea ice, shipping routes along the northern coast of North America have become less navigable in recent years.
Published Aug 8, 2024
Debris from a landslide in British Columbia blocked the river’s flow for several days before water found a way through.
Published Aug 6, 2024
The Category 1 storm battered the Big Bend region and is forecast to dump intense rainfall over the U.S. Southeast.
Published Aug 5, 2024
Currents, tides, and winds arrange the basin’s floating ice into intricate patterns during the summer melting season.
Published Aug 5, 2024
Bold hues paint the landscape around this Brazilian river.
Published Aug 4, 2024
Tales about the southern English town and its conspicuous hill date back to the Middle Ages.
Published Aug 3, 2024
Satellite images of Earth at night have been a curiosity for the public and a tool of fundamental research for at least 25 years. They have provided a broad, beautiful picture, showing how humans have shaped the planet and lit up the darkness.
Published Apr 12, 2017
Fresh powder fell on the country’s tallest peaks and popular ski resorts.
Published Aug 1, 2024Image of the Day Land Severe Storms Snow and Ice Temperature Extremes
Sea salt, volcanic ash, dust, wildfire smoke, and industrial pollution are types of airborne aerosols. Natural aerosols tend to be larger than human-made aerosols. These maps show when and where aerosols come from nature, humans, or both.
Greenness is an important indicator of health for forests, grasslands, and farms. The greenness of a landscape, or vegetation index, depends on the number and type of plants, how leafy they are, and how healthy they are.
Criss-crossing boat wakes left their mark in a phytoplankton bloom drifting near Block Island.
Published Aug 1, 2024
NASA satellites document how our world—forests, oceans, human landscapes, even the Sun—changes over months, seasons, and years.
Published Apr 29, 2009
In southeast British Columbia, Canada, a cluster of wildland fires surrounding Slocan Lake threatened villages and blanketed the region in smoke.
Published Jul 30, 2024
The Northern California blaze expanded at lightning speed amid record heat and high winds, leaving behind a vast burned area.
Published Jul 29, 2024
12 months of high-resolution global true color satellite imagery.
Published Oct 13, 2005
Ocean temperatures can influence weather, such as hurricane formation, and climate patterns, such as El Niño. These maps show the temperature at the surface of the world’s seas and oceans.
A journey that began in boreal Quebec continued to Arctic Greenland, where scientists collected data from a burned area to help them quantify the fire’s emissions.
Published Jul 29, 2024
Your challenge is to tell us the location of the satellite image and why it is interesting.
Published Jul 23, 2024
Land surface temperatures rise and fall with the heat of the Sun, and they represent how hot or cold the surface would feel to touch. These maps show daytime land temperatures as measured from space.
Hurricane season in the basin runs from June 1 to November 30.
Published Jul 1, 2024
People have developed systems to harvest and store energy from sources such as wind, sunlight, and tidal action. Many of these installations are visible from orbit.
Published May 10, 2024
From ground-level ozone to particulate matter to nitrogen dioxide, an array of gasses and particles can affect the air people breathe, with implications for human health.
Published Apr 8, 2024
Chlorophyll is used by algae and other phytoplankton--the grass of the sea--to convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into sugars. These maps show chlorophyll concentrations in the ocean, revealing where phytoplankton are thriving.
What do you do when presented with a new satellite image? Here's what the Earth Observatory team does to understand the view.
Published Nov 18, 2013
Warmer-than-average temperatures are showing up locally and globally, with consequences for people, landscapes, and ecosystems.
Published Mar 26, 2024
Whether sparked by lightning, intentional land-clearing, or human-caused accidents, wildland fires are burning longer and more often in some areas as the world warms.
Published Feb 27, 2024
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a different part of the world? What would the weather be like? What kinds of animals would you see? Which plants live there? By investigating these questions, you are learning about biomes.
Published Aug 28, 2020
Warmer-than-average temperatures are showing up locally and globally, with consequences for people, landscapes, and ecosystems.
Published Aug 15, 2023
