Suggested Searches

Earth Observatory Image of the Day

NASA's view of the Earth from the Earth Observatory.

The area of depleted ozone over the Antarctic ranked the seventh smallest since recovery began in 1992.

A map of Ozone coverage over shows the region over Antarctica in a light yellow to orange and a light red indicative of an Ozone hole.

Bald cypress and other trees are becoming pale, leafless snags as storms, droughts, and sea level rise kill off coastal...

A peninsula of land is shown, oriented with water at the top and along both sides of the image, shows green vegetation surrounded by dark water that becomes more blue green in the lower right. Two bridges connect this land to other areas at Manns Harbor at the top right and on the top left of the peninsula East Lake. A ghost forest runs down the coast from Manns Harbor to Stumpy Point.

Ash billowed from the stratovolcano, which has been active since 2005.

numerous small cumulous clouds can be seen approaching the peak of Popocatépetl from the lower left of the image. At the peak smoke, grayer in color compared to the white clouds, streams conically to the top right of the image.

A dam along the Sinnamary River created this artificial lake in northern French Guiana.

Dark water branch out into bright green landscape

The volcano’s central peak, an island within an island, stands above a reflective, water-filled caldera. View the full story

Krenitsyna peak features in the lower right of the image surrounded by Kol’tsevoye Lake surrounded by the cliffs of a caldera. The land gradually slopes down from the peak of the caldera, covered in dark green foliage before meeting the Pacific Ocean along the left side of the image

Visible atmospheric phenomena revealed springtime winds roaring over Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier.

A dark pool of sea water interrupts a field of ice on the Pine Island Glacier. Sea smoke can be seen as vapor clouds streaming over the image.

Autumn color still clung to northern parts of the state in late October 2024. View the full story

The image features the states of Michigan and surrounding lakes. Detroit is labeled in the lower right with Traverse City and Petoskey labeled in the top left on the coast of Lake Michigan. The northern region of the state near those two cities are a rich reddish brown color

Alpine glaciers around the world were advancing as recently as 1990. Now they’re melting fast. View the full story

The Image features a satellite view of Mount Baker and the Easton Glacier. The surrounding landscape includes some bare tan colored rock on the immediate edges of the white snowfields before giving way to deep green foliage. The image itself scrolls away to a more current version of the same region and shows significantly less snow and ice coverage, and more bare rock in it's place.

The city in southeastern New Mexico received four times more rainfall in a day than it usually receives in a...

an image of empty green tan land with a river in the center that is blue-green in color

A potent storm brought heavy rain and gusty winds to southwestern Canada and the U.S. state of Washington in October...

The West Coast of the U.S. and Canada are shown with an arc of dense cloud cover extending from the northern Pacific and obfuscating Seattle and Vancouver

Scientists are studying the rare filling of Sebkha el Melah for clues about past—and possibly future—greening of the Sahara Desert.

A washed out basin of gray land is surrounded by light beige yellow sand. The basin is about one third filled with green water labeled Sebka el Mehah.

Milton persisted as a potent hurricane-strength storm as it crossed over the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, and into the western...

A lightning-ignited blaze billowed smoke into the towns and valleys near Jackson. View the full story

smoke streams from and obscures brown colored mountainous land in the center of the image.

The storm rapidly intensified to Category 5 strength over warm gulf waters. View the full story

The image of the gulf coast, land in gray and ocean with a temperature gradient overlay with current cloud coverage shows Hurricane Milton. The ocean temperatures overlay shows all Gulf of Mexico waters in a shade of red. The range of color on the warm side of the spectrum ranges from pale yellow at 21 degrees C to a dark, near black shade of red, at 32 degrees C or more.

The active 2024 hurricane season comes to a head with several simultaneous hurricanes—an unusual sight for October. View the full...

This image shows the Earth from a distance centering on the Atlantic Ocean near Florida. Three storms are visible - Milton, Kirk, and Leslie. Milton is in the Gulf of Mexico, Kirk in the more northern Atlantic, and Leslie nearer the coast of Africa.

Larch-filled forests turned from green to gold around Lake Hövsgöl in September 2024. View the full story

Two images of the same lake side by side. The water is a dark blue in both images. The land on the left is covered in green foliage, whereas it is largely brown on the right and there is snow covered peaks along the left side of the lake.

Torrential rains from Hurricane Helene swamped communities in the mountainous western part of the state. View the full story

Amid sporadic cloud coverage there are three locations visible and zoomed in on with a pop-out bubble. They are Asheville, center left, shown with a brown swath interrupting the city streets. In the upper center the Burnett Reservoir shows the waters being a very murky brown. Black Mountain, center right, shows similar brown soil covers human settlement areas.

An astronaut photographed the atmospheric phenomenon, associated with lightning, during a stormy night over North America. View the full story

A view of the United States at night from the international space station shows equipment from the ISS in the foreground. On Earth a lightning storm brightly illuminates clouds in spots and city lights are visible in clear regions. Above a bright cluster of clouds a purple spot, labeled a sprite, is visible in higher atmosphere.

The heavy rains, high winds, and storm surge that devastated land also left a mark on the ocean. View the...

Satellite image of Florida with thin clouds interspersed over the land. The Cities of Pensacola, Perry and Tampa are marked along the Gulf Coast. The nearby Gulf Coast waters appear turquoise as far from the coastline as about half the width of Florida.

Once the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane, the typhoon weakened and stalled off the island’s southwest coast. View the...

Swirling white clouds center off the coast of China (top left) and Taiwan (near top center). Much of Taiwan has entered the top right corner of the storm and is the nearest landmass to the eye. The Philippines (lower center) are partially covered by the thinner outer edge clouds of the Typhoon.

The state faced widespread power outages after winds from Hurricane Helene snapped trees, tore off roofs, and toppled power lines....

The night satellite image of the greater Augusta area shows gray dark city streets across most of the image with small pockets of orange to purple coloration that indicate lighting.

The major storm brought heavy precipitation and destructive flooding to coastal Florida and southeastern states. View the full story

A map of the southeast United States in grayscale with a rainfall color scale overlay. The range of colors where rainfall was found spans light blue to pale yellow at 15 centimeters onto red, the darkest shade matching 30 centimeters or more. Much of the densest rainfall is off of the Florida coastline and immediately in the initial landfall region. The colors lighten over Georgia with a secondary red patch spanning from the southwest border of North Carolina into southern West Virginia.

Reflected sunlight highlights the water’s surface and flooded zones near Gee’s Bend. View the full story

The meandering Alabama river spans the image in a bright champagne color contrasts from the dark surrounding vegetation. There is a Lock and Dam along the leftmost section of the river. Dannelly Reservoir is just above the dam. The river loops down and at the bottom center of the image Gee's Bend, just below the town of Boykin, shows water extending into nearby fields. As the river bends back up Chilatchee creek is labelled and flooded.

A late-season storm covered the mountainous country and nearby provinces of South Africa in a blanket of white. View the...

Lesotho appears to be largely overlayed with vibrant blue color, indicative of snow. The snow extends into South Africa as well, though less dense than shown in Lesotho. The ocean appears in the lower right corner, appearing nearly black, and the city of Durban on the coastline is included in the snow cover. The city of Bloemfontein is marked on the left of the image.

The storm, which drenched coastal British Columbia and southeastern Alaska, may be among the region’s most intense in the past...

The Northern West Coast of the United States, up to Alaska are pictured. The cities of Bella Bella, Yakutat and Anchorage are labeled and a line of dense cloud cover extends across out into the Pacific Ocean and covers the coastline in clouds.

An active atmosphere at northern latitudes contributed to the highest monthly Arctic ozone concentrations measured in the satellite era. View...

Two maps of earth from the arctic polar with an overlay color gradient indicating amount of O-zone. The gradient ranges from red to pale yellow, which up to blue. Red would be an "Ozone hole" and pale yellow an acceptable level and dark blue would be high quantities. The left image is labeled as March 2020 and the right from March 2024. The image on the left shows a pale yellow over the arctic, surrounded by medium blue shade and pale yellow around the equator. The image on the right shows the arctic in a dark blue that becomes gradually lighter before reaching pale yellow at the equator.

A meandering river birthed an oxbow lake that happens to be shaped like the first letter of the English alphabet....

The image is primarily partitioned crop fields. In the center of the image is an Oxbow lake, and the Kura River meanders along the top of the image and down to the right. In the top center left the Varvara Reservoir, darkens the foliage above the river. On the opposite side of the river is the town of Varvara. An aquaculture facility is fed by and sits to the right of the Varvara Reservoir. On the right side of the image a point bar is created where the river meanders away from the side of the land.

Torrential rain from a stalled storm system caused flooding in countries such as Poland and Slovakia. View the full story

The Oder River moves through a verdant green Poland. The city of Wrocław sits on the banks of the river in the upper left corner. Opole on one of the branches in the lower right. The river stretches diagonally across the image between the two cities and is unusually wide, creating many islands of what is usually small meanders.

Water inundates the marshes along Delaware Bay, which provide protection against flooding and erosion, as well as habitat for migrating...

Vibrant green land borders both sides of the dark blue Delaware Bay The upper right land is New Jersey, the left side being Delaware. Dover is also labelled in the lower left. On Delaware's coast is the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, which appears a darker green color than the majority of the land, and has numerous waterways weaving through it.

Lights in Chile’s central city display an array of colors and densities, reflecting various land uses and differences between the...

The dark image shows the night illumination of the city of Santiago. Colina lights are at the very top of the image, detached from the heart of Santiago. on the left of the city the Airport is visible as slightly separated, but brightly illuminated. On the upper part of the city a dark region is labelled as a park. Maipú is in the lower left, El Bosque the lower center and La Pintana is just right of El Bosque.

The precise geometry of the protected area encompassing an iconic New Zealand volcano is unmistakable from space. View the full...

Mount Taranaki, capped white with snow, is the centerpoint for Egmont National Park. The borders of the park are clearly discernable from space as the land goes from primarily being the light green color of farmland to dark green forested in a perfect ring around the mountain peak. Smaller peaks to the upper left of the image are also forest covered, and some sections around the park remain forested as well, but the land is otherwise, primarily, light green.

Satellite imagery and local data helped researchers assess how landscape features, such as watering holes and vegetation, influence elephant movement....

A satellite image of Namibia with a color gradient overlay corresponding to vegetation coverage. Vegetation coverage ranges from dark brown to dark green with white being the average between them. The Etosha Pan, bottom right, and the Natukanaoaka Pan, center left, are the two biggest areas in the brown shade. The image is primarily a shade of green to white with scattered brown spots. The Ekuma river enters the image at the top center, and does also carry some brown coloration where the water covers the land.

An extratropical storm system dropped torrential rains on parts of Morocco and Algeria. View the full story

Satellite image of primarily beige landscape, a thin black line divides the image in a rough diagonal. The region above the line has a small amount of land appearing bright green and is labelled Morocco. The region below is labelled Algeria. In the middle right the town Abadla is labelled, in the lower right corner is Sebkha el Melah, where some topography shows through the sands. The Image centers on turquoise blue water pooling floodwater. There are also dark blue waters further left that are zoomed in on.

Images of nighttime lights reveal patterns in population and urban development. View the full story

A night image of the Korean Peninsula shows the Sea of Japan, with cloud coverage in the lower right, and the Yellow Sea on the left of the peninsula. The land highlights capital cities of Pyongyang in the North, and Seoul in the South. There is some illumination visible from Pyongyang, while Seoul is brightly illuminated. The city of Daejeon is also labelled and well illuminated. In the North, Yangdŏk is labelled and appears to have some night illumination as well. The DMZ border between the two countries is highlighted.

Under the cloak of darkness, Iceberg A-83 wiggled away from glue-like sea ice and drifted farther from the Brunt Ice...

The Antarctic is displayed on a thermal image cooler regions are white to blue, the warmest temperatures are yellow and the neutral color is purple. The Brunt Ice shelf on the right is very cold. The Iceberg A-83 is equally as cool and just offshore from the ice shelf. A couple orange spots peak through near the iceberg, one between it and the McDonald Ice Rumples. At the very bottom of the image the water is primarily purple. The remainder of the Weddell sea is comprised of sea-ice and appears a darker shade of blue.

Rugged terrain on New Zealand’s South Island gives rise to a distinctive lenticular cloud formation, known locally as the Taieri...

Coastal New Zealand is shown, the land is depicted left and the Pacific Ocean right. At the left edge of the image is a rusty brown colored land labeled Rock and Pillar Range. It ends before reaching the top of the image where the Kakanui Mountains descend from the top center diagonally down to the coast. A large cloud sliver appears between these two high elevation formations, casting a visible shadow onto the land below. At the bottom of the shadow the town of Middlemarch is labeled. Right of the cloud and below the Kakanui Mountains a mine is labelled and the color of the land is different in that spot. on the Southern coast the City of Dunedin is labelled.

Fueled by warm water in the Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane will be the third to make landfall in the...

Swirling white clouds appear centered over the Gulf of Mexico. The outer bands cover the U.S. Gulf Coast, though only the panhandle of Florida is pictured.

Intense blazes, including the Line fire, supercharged afternoon convective clouds. View the full story

grey to sand colored clouds billow and occupy most of the image. The bottom of the image is the only area where land can be seen. In the bottom left Seven Oaks Dam is labeled. In the bottom center CA 38 Highway is labeled. Slightly above the highway orange flames are visible and in the bottom right an orange spot is labeled an Active fire.

The glacier’s Main Branch pulled away from a stabilizing rocky outcrop, while melting along the West Branch exposed “new gravelly...

The image centers the waters of a fjord and surrounding mountains. Glaciers meet the waters at the top left, the west branch and top right, the Main Branch. The waters converge and make their way toward open ocean out of from at the bottom center. At the bottom center is Heather Island. Mountains at the bottom of the image are green with foliage, but peaked with snow coverage. Further up the image the land is nearly entirely snow covered. On the right edge of where the meltwater branches converge Great Nunatak is labeled. A rocky outcrop is labelled between Great Nunatak and the leading edge of the Main Branch.

Drought has amplified fire activity across the continent, contributing to exceptionally high carbon emissions in Bolivia and Brazil. View the...

A distant capture of the Earth focused over the Americas include significant cloud coverage, primarily over the oceans. However, a grayer shade of atmospheric coverage is obscuring much of the Amazon basin. This smoke also seems to travel south toward Argentina.