As green chlorophyll fades from trees and plants each autumn, other pigments color the Earth’s landscapes. Satellites take leaf-peeping to a whole new level.
Torrential rain in southern British Columbia and western Washington spurred deadly floods and mudslides that have damaged infrastructure and isolated communities.
Image of the Day Water Floods Severe Storms Human Presence Remote Sensing Landslides
The Inland Delta of the Niger River is one of the world’s most productive wetlands.
Published Nov 28, 2021
Mount Sundoro and Mount Sumbing are symmetrical, cone-shaped peaks in Central Java.
Published Nov 27, 2021
The oldest desert on Earth also gives rise to some of the planet’s tallest dunes.
Published Nov 26, 2021
Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Plymouth, England, share a historical connection even older than the first Thanksgiving.
Published Nov 25, 2021
The hot springs at Pamukkale, Turkey, have produced the world’s largest deposit of travertine.
Published Nov 24, 2021
The Daintree region of Queensland, Australia, is home to one of the world’s oldest forests and hosts a vast range of unique species.
Published Nov 23, 2021
Suspended limestone offshore hints at a 66-million-year-old story.
Published Nov 22, 2021
Perito Moreno is one of the few glaciers on Earth that are not retreating.
Published Nov 21, 2021
Wisps of sea ice have started to appear in the western Bering Sea amid cooler temperatures and shorter sunlit days.
Published Nov 20, 2021
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.
These maps depict how much hotter or cooler an ocean basin was compared to the long-term average. Temperature anomalies can indicate changes in ocean circulation or the arrival of patterns like El Niño and La Niña.
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
Smoke from crop fires in northern India blanketed the populous city and contributed to soaring levels of air pollution.
Published Nov 18, 2021
Scientists used satellites to parse where and how agriculture is changing atmospheric concentrations of the chemical.
Published Nov 17, 2021Image of the Day Atmosphere Land Human Presence Remote Sensing
Airborne aerosols can cause or prevent cloud formation and harm human health. These maps depict aerosol concentrations in the air based on how the tiny particles reflect or absorb visible and infrared light.
NASA satellites document how our world—forests, oceans, human landscapes, even the Sun—changes over months, seasons, and years.
Published Apr 29, 2009
Your challenge is to tell us what we are looking at, where it is, and why it is interesting.
Published Nov 16, 2021
12 months of high-resolution global true color satellite imagery.
Published Oct 13, 2005
These maps show the ‘metabolism” of Earth’s plants and trees. Net primary productivity is the difference between the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed during photosynthesis minus the amount released by respiration.
Novel geochemical dating techniques show that Norse people were in L'Anse aux Meadows exactly 1,000 years ago.
Published Nov 16, 2021
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.
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
50 Years. 9 million scenes. One champion.
Published Sep 7, 2021
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
Summer is beach season in the northern hemisphere. But even if you're a regular at your local swimming hole, you probably haven't seen too many beaches from this perspective. See the satellite and space-station views of various shorelines from across the United States. No sunblock necessary.
Published Jul 22, 2021
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.
Clouds can be a nuisance when scientists are trying to observe features on Earth's surface. But at other times, clouds are exactly what they want to see. These images highlight some of the more unusual and beautiful clouds observed in recent years from space.
Published Jun 21, 2021
Since 1999, Earth Observatory has published images and stories from all over our planet. Now you can explore more than 11,000 images in a different way: by location.
Published Jun 2, 2021
NASA has a unique vantage point for observing the beauty and wonder of Earth and for making sense of it. The images in this book tell a story of a 4.5-billion-year-old planet where there is always something new to see.
Published Apr 28, 2021
