The ocean holds about 97 percent of Earth's water and covers 70 percent of our planet's surface. According to the United Nations, the ocean may be home to 50 to 80 percent of all life on Earth. Even if you live hundreds of miles from a coast, what happens in the ocean is fundamental to your life.
The 2024 NASA Earth Day poster is composited with real satellite imagery from NASA's Terra, Aqua, and Landsat missions. Download the poster and learn more about the imagery below.
Earth Day 2024
Download this year’s ocean-themed Earth Day Poster and learn about the science behind the artwork!
View the poster![The back and front of the earth day poster. This 2024 Earth Day poster is an ocean themed vertical 15x30 illustration created from NASA satellite cloud imagery overlaid on ocean data. The white cloud imagery wraps around shapes, defining three whales and a school of fish. Swirly cloud patterns, called Von Kármán Vortices, create the feeling of movement in the composition. The focal point is a cyclone in the upper third of the poster. At the center flies the recently launched PACE satellite. The ocean imagery – composed of blues, aquas, and greens – is filled with subtle color changes and undulating patterns created by churning sediment, organic matter and phytoplankton.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-earthday-poster-preview.png?w=4096&format=png)
Cloud Streets Over the Black Sea
The Aqua satellite captured this image of cloud streets over the Black Sea in January 2015.
Phytoplankton Factory in the Argentine Sea
In spring and summer, conditions are often just right for populations of the plant-like organisms explode into enormous blooms.
Season of Change in the Labrador Sea
The high-latitude region displays a beautiful palette of textures as the atmosphere interacts with the ice and water.
Mackenzie Meets Beaufort
Canada’s largest and longest river delivers vast amounts of fresh water and sediment to the sea.
Cloud Vortices Off Cheju Do, South Korea
Chains of swirling clouds stream behind Cheju Do island, South Korea.
Churning in the Chukchi Sea
The waters off of the Alaskan coast usually come alive each spring with colorful swirls of phytoplankton.
Sea of Okhotsk
Tucked between Siberia and Russia's frozen Kamchatka Peninsula, the Sea of Okhotsk was a field of ice in February 2007.