Data collected by a sensor on the Aqua satellite reveals the global distribution of clouds.
Published May 8, 2015
This photo-like image paints a picture of the movement of air and weather over the Ural Mountains in southern Russia, with the western mountains covered with snow and the eastern plain dry. The image also illustrates the influence of the mountains on cloud formations.
Published Nov 21, 2008
Noctilucent clouds float high enough in the atmosphere to capture a little bit of stray sunlight even after the Sun has set below them.
Published Dec 2, 2016
A striking display of high-altitude clouds over the Pacific Ocean are clearly cirrus, but further classification remains elusive.
Published May 29, 2015
By the afternoon, clouds ring the volcanoes on the Indonesian island of Java.
Published May 28, 2017
Air masses passing over the Appalachian Mountains created waves in the atmosphere—and these distinctive clouds.
Published Apr 22, 2018
Whether a patch of clouds contains open or closed cells offers a clue about whether rain is falling below.
Published Feb 6, 2016
Actinoform clouds pop up off the western coast of Australia.
Published Feb 7, 2020
An image from the remote South Sandwich Islands shows how volcanic emissions can create clouds, while the islands themselves deform those clouds.
Published Jun 23, 2012
As spring turns to summer in the northern hemisphere, unusual streaks of clouds form high in the atmosphere around sunset.
Published Jun 27, 2019
As winds streamed past the South Sandwich Islands, the disrupted flow created an interlocking series of wave clouds.
Published Feb 28, 2020
It is not difficult to imagine that a gigantic volcanic eruption spewing thick clouds of ash and gas high into the atmosphere would change the weather. But these satellite images show that a small, steady, simmering eruption also affects the atmosphere.
Published Jan 31, 2008
A vertical profile of wispy, icy clouds reveals their complex structure.
Published Jul 15, 2015
Low, moist ocean clouds outline South American country’s coastal desert.
Published May 31, 2014
Also known as nacreous clouds, they play an important role in the depletion of stratospheric ozone.
Published Feb 9, 2011
The island itself is almost too small see in this image, but it serves as the starting point for the clouds that flow toward the northeast in a giant V shape. Amsterdam Island is a volcanic summit, the northernmost volcano on the Antarctic tectonic plate.
Published Dec 30, 2005
Extremely cold and wet conditions in the mesosphere have led to abundant noctilucent clouds.
Published Jul 9, 2020
In August 2014, MODIS captured an unusual view of mature pyrocumulus clouds billowing up from a fire along the border of California and Oregon.
Published Aug 6, 2014
The wave-like appearance of clouds over Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska are the result of colliding air masses.
Published May 18, 2017
The setting sun highlights cloud patterns—as well as the Pacific Ocean surface itself—in this photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station.
Published May 28, 2012
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