Search the Earth Observatory

Puffs of low-level clouds mingle with the volcanic terrain of Candlemas and Vindication islands in the remote South Atlantic.

A rare tropical cyclone dropped torrential rains on the Indonesian island, fueling extensive and destructive floods.

In its first documented eruption, the Ethiopian volcano sent a plume of gas and ash drifting across continents.

From Alaska’s Saint Elias Mountains to Pakistan’s Karakoram, glaciers speed up and slow down with the seasons.

Satellites have tracked development over the decades as a small city in southern Nigeria grew to more than 2 million people.

The ancient walls, ramparts, and ditches that wind through this Nigerian city are the longest known earthworks of the pre-mechanical era.

In southeastern Libya, Jabal Arkanū’s concentric rock rings stand as relics of past geologic forces that churned beneath the desert.

The tart berry and state fruit brings a red pop to holiday feasts—and to satellite images of Midwestern marshlands.

Over millions of years, water has sculpted limestone in northern Vietnam into an extraordinary karst landscape full of towers, cones, caves, and subterranean waterways.

Hurricane Melissa left the island nation’s forests brown and battered, but they won’t stay that way for long.

Satellites are helping land managers track ecological shifts as reserves reconnect and landscapes return to a more natural state.

Late-season reds and browns swept across the Ozark Highlands in the south-central U.S.

The volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula continues to erupt after centuries of quiescence.

A multi-year drought has put extra strain on farmers and water managers in the Middle Eastern country.

Drought in the Nueces River basin is reducing reservoir levels, leaving residents and industry in the Corpus Christi area facing water shortages.

Sea ice around the southernmost continent hit one of its lowest seasonal highs since the start of the satellite record.

An astronaut photographed the island’s striking mix of mountains, forests, and expanding urban areas.

A colorful ridge and winding glacial meltwater river meet amidst dune fields in western China.

The tropical cyclones are close enough in proximity that they may influence one another.

The colossal project created a valuable connection between the U.S. interior and the Atlantic Ocean when it opened in October 1825.

A Gulf Coast storm followed by snowmelt in January 2025 temporarily increased the Mississippi River’s outflow, sending a surge of sediment through the delta and into gulf waters.

In late September 2025, a continued lack of rainfall led to stunted vegetation, lowered water levels, and prompted early fall foliage.

The Guiana Shield’s rugged terrain shapes Guyana’s waterways, but mining has altered their clarity.

After a long, turbulent journey, Antarctic Iceberg A-23A is signaling its demise as it floats in the South Atlantic.

The super typhoon headed for Guangdong province after lashing Taiwan and northern Luzon in the Philippines.

Hillsides in Alaska’s interior showed their changing colors ahead of the autumnal equinox.

Satellite data show decades of gradual but persistent change to forests around one of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s largest cities.

Sediment from the riverbed, especially during periods of higher flow, helps shape the surrounding beaches and sandbars.

Astronauts and much of Earth’s population had a chance to view a coppery “Blood Moon” during a total lunar eclipse in September 2025.

Satellite data show that Arctic sea ice likely reached its annual minimum extent on September 10, 2025.

Another major tributary reached the Australian outback lake in 2025, extending the months-long flood of the vast, ephemeral inland sea.

Winding across the Jeannie catchment in northern Queensland, the river sustains diverse ecosystems on its way to the Coral Sea.

Smoke filled river valleys in northeastern Washington and parts of British Columbia.

A group of satellites with interferometric synthetic aperture radar makes it possible for geologists to detect how much and where land surfaces shift due to earthquakes.

The nighttime lightscape of Argentina’s largest metropolitan area reveals transportation corridors and variations in lighting types.

A moderately intense season of surface melting left part of the ice sheet dirty gray in summer 2025, but snowfall has since freshened its appearance.

Across the northeastern Siberian tundra, summer greens shift to vibrant reds, yellows, and browns as temperatures drop and days shorten.

Heavy rains and flooding across the country since June 2025 have displaced millions of people, devastated infrastructure, and submerged farmland.

Satellites have observed episodes of dust swirling across the basin in western China for decades.

The storm became a major hurricane while traversing the eastern Pacific but weakened as it approached the islands.

A landmass that was once encased in the ice of the Alsek Glacier is now surrounded by water.

The glow of city lights, the aurora, and a rising Moon illuminate the night along the northwest coast of North America.

Researchers are using satellites to study development patterns in this fast-growing city in Ethiopia.

A prolonged high-pressure weather system brought unusually warm September temperatures to British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.

Lightning likely ignited several large fires that sent smoke pouring over the Canadian province in early September 2025.

Images spanning nearly four decades reveal the shapeshifting nature of the Yarlung Zangbo River as it flows across the Tibetan Plateau.

Far from large urban areas, Great Basin National Park offers unencumbered views of the night sky and opportunities to study distant stars and exoplanets.

New York City’s Manhattan Island was the site of the nation’s first Labor Day parade on September 5, 1882.

An oblique photo from the International Space Station captured haze spilling from valleys in Italy and France and streaming south along the Italian peninsula.

An asteroid that struck the rainforest in Africa around 1 million years ago created Ghana’s only natural lake.Â