Satellites Reveal a Greener Antarctic Peninsula

Scientists are beginning to unravel what comes next, after the ice moves out and vegetation moves in.

Image of the Day Land Snow and Ice

Western Australia’s Capital City

Perth, the only city along the country’s western coastline with more than 1 million people, displays widespread urban infrastructure alongside the Swan and Canning rivers.

Image of the Day Human Presence

Saturated Northern Australia

After two particularly wet years, large ephemeral lakes in the Barkly Tableland region were still flooded as the 2024–2025 rainy season got underway.

Image of the Day Water

Iran’s Lut Desert

Windswept rocks and sand take many forms in this arid salt desert.

Image of the Day Heat Land

Alaska’s Fast-Growing Glacial Lakes

Lake water has quickly filled the void left by a trio of retreating glaciers in the southern part of the state.

Image of the Day Snow and Ice

Human Fingerprints on an Ancient Landscape

The Cretaceous sandstone of Libya’s Messak Settafet plateau shows signs of a modern oil field and Stone Age quarries and hunting sites.

Image of the Day Land

New View of the “City Under the Ice”

A novel radar image reveals structural elements of Camp Century, an abandoned U.S. military base buried within the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Image of the Day Human Presence Snow and Ice

Windy City of Lights

Orange, yellow, and white lights span Chicago at night, illuminating its gridded downtown and tracing its sinuous rivers and parks.

Image of the Day Human Presence

Snow Cover

Snow and ice influence climate by reflecting sunlight back into space. When it melts, snow is a source of water for drinking and vegetation; too much snowmelt can lead to floods. These maps show average snow cover by month.

Snow and Ice

Blue Marble Next Generation

12 months of high-resolution global true color satellite imagery.

Atmosphere Land Water Snow and Ice

Global Freshwater Abruptly Declines

The amount of freshwater stored on land and underground has plummeted in the past decade, which might indicate that Earth’s continents have entered a persistently drier phase.

Image of the Day Water

A Hazy, Foggy Day in Italy’s Po Valley

Research suggests that airborne particles called aerosols contribute to longer-lasting outbreaks of fog.  

Image of the Day Remote Sensing

Land Surface Temperature

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.

Heat Land

World of Change

NASA satellites document how our world—forests, oceans, human landscapes, even the Sun—changes over months, seasons, and years.

Atmosphere Heat Land Life Human Presence Snow and Ice

Net Radiation

Net radiation is the balance between incoming and outgoing energy at the top of the atmosphere. It is the total energy available to influence climate after light and heat are reflected, absorbed, or emitted by clouds and land.

Heat

Extratropical Cyclone Whips Over the Pacific Northwest

Damaging winds from the strong storm knocked out power for thousands of people in Washington state.

Image of the Day Atmosphere Severe Storms Temperature Extremes

Mission: Biomes

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.

Land Life

Earth at Night

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.

Atmosphere Land Human Presence Remote Sensing

Vegetation

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.

Land Life

November Puzzler

Your challenge is to tell us the location of the satellite image and why it is interesting.

2024 North Atlantic Hurricane Season

Hurricane season in the basin runs from June 1 to November 30.

Atmosphere

Land Surface Temperature Anomaly

These maps depict anomalies in land surface temperatures (LSTs); that is, how much hotter or cooler a region was compared to the long-term average. LST anomalies can indicate heat waves or cold spells.

Heat Land

Renewable and Alternative Energy

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.

Land Human Presence

Air Quality

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.

Atmosphere Human Presence

Temperature Extremes 2024

Warmer-than-average temperatures are showing up locally and globally, with consequences for people, landscapes, and ecosystems.

Heat

How to Interpret a Satellite Image: Five Tips and Strategies

What do you do when presented with a new satellite image? Here's what the Earth Observatory team does to understand the view.

Remote Sensing

2024 Fires in the Northern Hemisphere

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.

Atmosphere Land Human Presence

Temperature Extremes 2023

Warmer-than-average temperatures are showing up locally and globally, with consequences for people, landscapes, and ecosystems.

Heat

Cloud Fraction

In addition to making rain and snow, clouds can have a warming or cooling influence depending on their altitude, type, and when they form. These maps show what fraction of an area was cloudy each month.

Atmosphere