The waters around this Italian city provide a study in how humans affect the seas and how the seas affect human settlement.
Published Jun 2, 2014
Crews on the International Space Station seldom see the southern tip of Argentina and Chile in such clear weather.
Published May 26, 2014
Planted in Japan for at least the last four centuries, greenbelts protect coastlines from storms and sand movement; they are increasingly providing recreation areas as well.
Published May 19, 2014
The world’s deepest lake was shedding some of its ice cover when the space station passed over in April 2014.
Published May 12, 2014
Off the coast of northern Japan and eastern Russia, a swirl of currents push ice around in a clash of winter and summer currents.
Published Apr 28, 2014
Near the city of Little Rock, the river has meandered for decades, leaving its marks across the landscape.
Published Apr 21, 2014
You can almost sense the invisible tectonic forces within the Earth when you look at this geological icon from space.
Published Apr 14, 2014
Sitting inside barrier islands of the eastern and southern United States—and cutting through them in points—the waterway provides a safer passage for shipping commerce.
Published Apr 7, 2014
The lack of soil and vegetation allows parallel lines and sweeping curves of geological structure to appear quite clearly.
Published Mar 31, 2014
Snow and ice cover the landscape around this basin of Lake Michigan.
Published Mar 24, 2014
Bolts light up Earth’s atmosphere 4 million times a day. Scientists hope to observe a few.
Published Mar 23, 2014
The Green River in eastern Utah once carved soft sediment into meanders on a floodplain. Then the land and mountains rose and the river dug deep, preserving those meanders in stone.
Published Mar 17, 2014
Southwesterly winds pull strands of land-fast ice out into the lake from Washington Island and Detroit Island.
Published Mar 10, 2014
Straddling the southern Andes Mountains in Chile and Argentina, these glaciers have thinned significantly in the past four decades.
Published Mar 3, 2014
Night lights illustrate dramatically the relative economic activity of cities and countries.
Published Feb 24, 2014
An astronaut snapped this image of lines of gas flares at an oilfield in southern Iraq at night.
Published Feb 22, 2014
This small town at the foot of the Swartberg Mountains is a productive oasis in the Karoo semidesert, rich with olive groves, sheep and ostrich ranches, and (lately) tourists.
Published Feb 20, 2014
Astronauts who held the Olympic flame just three months ago now look down on it from space.
Published Feb 17, 2014
Small islands in the Crozet Archipelago of the southern Indian Ocean disturb the air flow above.
Published Feb 10, 2014
Two volcanic calderas dominate Nicaragua’s Chiltepe Peninsula, not far from Managua.
Published Feb 3, 2014
The Island of Hawaii is a vast canvas of environments from desert shores to rain forests to frozen mountain heights.
Published Jan 29, 2014
Dry mesas and dunes, as well as rare clouds, give color and texture to a plateau in the Sahara.
Published Jan 27, 2014
Twenty months after a slurry of debris swamped villages and killed dozens of people, scientists have pieced together the events that caused the deadly flood.
Published Jan 24, 2014
The cone-shaped summit is dissected by radial channels that appear like the spokes of a wheel.
Published Jan 20, 2014
The meandering Missouri River doubled back on itself and formed this U-shaped lake.
Published Jan 13, 2014
It is the capital of Utah, headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and “the crossroads of the West.”
Published Jan 6, 2014
The human landscape of Arabian cities stands out clearly when you see the lights.
Published Dec 30, 2013
You know the photo, but do you know the story behind it? A new video explains the circumstances that gave rise to the famous Apollo “Earthrise” photo while recreating the experience with modern data.
Published Dec 24, 2013Image of the Day Atmosphere Land Water Snow and Ice Remote Sensing
Though the volcano has not erupted for thousands of years, scientific evidence suggests it could become active again someday.
Published Dec 23, 2013
Four volcanoes double as islands in Alaska’s Aleutian chain.
Published Dec 16, 2013
