Search the Earth Observatory

A blanket of snow spanned Michigan and much of the Great Lakes region following a potent cold snap.

December and January brought a series of intense winter storms to the peninsula in far eastern Russia.

Tens of thousands of people fled to safety as blazes spread throughout the country’s Biobío and Ñuble regions.

The expansion of greenhouses in southern Ontario is changing the appearance of the land surface—and the night sky.

After marching from Selma, Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, and called for nonviolence in the fight for equality and justice for all Americans.

A vibrant display of phytoplankton encircled the remote New Zealand islands.

A collection of fish-shaped clouds hovered above the glacial lake in Patagonia in December 2025.

An increasingly flammable landscape combined with more lightning strikes is leading to larger, more frequent, and more intense fires than the landscape is adapted for.

Satellite-based maps show northern wildland fires becoming more frequent and widespread as temperatures rise and lightning reaches higher latitudes.

The category 5 hurricane stirred up carbonate sediment near Jamaica in what scientists believe is the largest such event in the satellite record.

Blazes spread across Los Alerces National Park, home to some of the world's oldest trees.

Low clouds blanketed the delta while parallel cloud bands rolled over the Bay of Bengal during a January cold wave.

After a four-decade run, the massive, waterlogged berg is leaking meltwater and on the verge of disintegrating.

Vivid green blooms form, drift, and fade in Hartbeespoortdam reservoir over the course of a year.

The Huíla plateau, bounded by dramatic cliffs and chasms, stands above the arid coastal plains in the country’s southwest.

The colorful formations found in this bowl-shaped escarpment in southwestern Utah are the centerpiece of Cedar Breaks National Monument.

Rounding out a remarkable year, the outback lake displayed distinct green and reddish water in its two main bays.

The Large Magellanic Cloud—one of our closest neighboring galaxies—is a hotbed of star formation that is visible to both astronauts and Earth-based stargazers.

Winds, waves, and ice near a remote town on the Chukchi Peninsula have sculpted a series of coastal inshore lagoons that resemble an icon of winter.

A weak La Niña emerged in the equatorial Pacific in late 2025, and scientists are watching how it may help shape weather and climate in the months ahead.

Scientists say the seasonal crop fires are burning later in the day than in previous years.

A potent atmospheric river delivered intense rainfall to western Washington, triggering flooding and mudslides.

The right combination of conditions allowed this distinctive low cloud to form in California’s Central Valley for weeks.

An astronaut photographed moonglint shimmering across the sea surface and the bright clusters of Florida’s cities at night.

The volcano in Hawaii is one of the most active in the world, and NASA tech makes it easier for volcanologists to monitor new developments.

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.