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Earth Observatory Image of the Day

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

Far above the Arctic Circle, the landscape around Utqiaġvik, Alaska, transforms from a frozen tundra to a mosaic of ponds...

Alaska beige land is spotted with countless stretched lakes, top to bottom toward the coastline at the top of the image. Point Barrow is the northernmost point of land and borders Elson Lagoon. Utqiagvik is the lone human settlement in frame. Along the right edge of the image is Admiralty bay, filled with brown water and slightly separated from the blue ocean by barrier islands. Some white specs of ice are seen scattered in the upper left of the image.

Much of the Goyder impact structure has eroded away, but there are remnants in Australia’s Northern Territory.

an orange dashed circle outlines the Goyder impact structure on the beige-brown landscape. Inside this circle is a darkened valley with stream label pointing at it. Just below and left of that stream is land labeled central uplift remnants. On the outer edge of the circle interior the darker land gives way to the lighter beige, particularly on the left side of the circle. This is labeled as a Sandstone ring.

Plumes choked Siberian skies as early-season wildland fires burned near a city in eastern Russia.

Smoke streams diagonally across the image to the lower right from numerous points along the opposite diagonal. The city of Chita is surrounded by smoke origin points on the lower, left and right. Above Chita in this image is a relatively smoke-free Buryatiya region, outlined with a gray overlay in the top left corner.

Severe weather swept across the U.S. Midwest and Mid-Atlantic in May 2025, spawning destructive twisters in several states.

South of the city of Marion, seen top just right of center as a region with gridded roadways and more dense building coverage, is a discolored streak across the landscape labeled tornado track. This area appears to be covered in deep green foliage and paler farmed fields. The track is near perpendicular to Highway I-57 that runs through the image vertically. A dark region on the landscape in the upper left is labeled Crab Orchard Lake.

NASA’s Jack Kaye enabled decades of Earth scientists, including those who are unveiling the atmospheric ties between New York City...

Long island centers in the image, the deep blue Atlantic Ocean below, and the Long island sound, lighter in shade, above. Citi Field is marked on the far left of Long Island and Malverne slightly further right of that. Scanning across the image left to right the island goes from densely settled and gray in color to gradually more green.

The Rwenzori Mountains in eastern Africa are renowned for their water resources and endemic plants and animals, but like elsewhere...

The Rwenzori Mountains stand more than 5,000 meters (16,000 feet) above sea level in eastern Africa. The prominence is visible for miles around and even from orbit, provided it is not hidden by clouds and mist.

Roanoke, Virginia, is the largest city in the Blue Ridge Mountains and a stopover along a historic, scenic road.

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station photographed Roanoke, Virginia, a city in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The mountains are a segment of the greater Appalachian Range, which extends from northern Georgia to southern Pennsylvania. The Roanoke River flows from the northwest to the southeast and is visible along the southern portion of the city.

Researchers used NASA satellite data to detect swarms of red-tinged copepods, a key food source for the endangered marine mammals,...

Image focused on the Gulf of Maine, Nova Scotia spans the upper right to upper center, Maine's coastline is in the upper left and Massachusetts center left. These landmasses are depicted in grayscale and the water is a light blue. In the water are speckles of red shades, from light salmon color to near-black red. The densest area of red speckles is parallel to the southern coast of Nova Scotia. In the waters

The Hawaiian volcano has been spewing fountains of lava with remarkable frequency.

The gray landscape along the coastline includes Mauna Loa, in the upper left, a crater with streaks of darker land coming away from it, and Mountain View, which is expansive green tinted space. Between them and slightly lower and closer to the coast is a bright orange spot, Kilauea, labeled as an infrared signature. The Pacific Ocean is in the lower right and appears black in this image. The zoom in box in the lower left shows the infrared signature of Kilauea is in the lower left corner of the Kilauea Caldera. This is labeled Halema‘uma‘u.

The largest iceberg currently at sea is parked off the coast of South Georgia Island and showing signs of fragility.

The deep near black sea is seen dotted with white specs and three major white structures. South Georgia island is an arced snow covered and craggy landscape. To the left of there is Iceberg A-23A, which is mostly square in shape and on a diagonal orientation to the image. It also occupies about as much space in the image as South Georgia Island. A-23C is much smaller and in the lower right.

Wintry conditions swept across the mountains, while destructive wind and flooding hit some of the country’s largest cities.

a long fairly narrow island, with water on either side stretches diagonally from bottom left to upper right. Off the shore to the right of the island the waters are turquoise, labeled as sediment. The city of Christchurch resides just right of center on the coastline. Mount Hutt is directly left of Christchurch in the white snow covered mountains. The land between and near the right coastline is largely green in color. In the lower left Lake Tekapo is labeled among the snow covered mountains.

Many growers have been forced to replant as a prolonged flood killed off crops in the Arkansas Delta.

The Cache River moves across the image on a diagonal from the upper right to the lower left. The water well exceeds it's normal banks and spans across what is typically farmland. Another parallel river in the upper left appears to well exceed it's banks. The land between these rivers and in the lower right is primarily gridded fields, some are blue as they are likely intentionally flooded, but primarily they are shades of beige.

In northern Chad, the tallest peak in the Sahara Desert is topped with a patch of salt, not snow.

The deep brown color of the Emi Koussi stand out from the beige landscape it stands out from. Rising from the beige sands in the lower left and lower right the land is cragged with channels and even a canyon at the top center of the image. At the Summit the crags give way to a relatively smooth surface inside the Caldera rim. Near the center of the caldera is a visible, albeit fairly small, white spot labeled salt. There is a label, Tarso Ahon at the very top left of the image.

A late-season herring spawn in a British Columbia inlet created a vibrant patch of turquoise water.

The densely vegetation covered islands of Nootka (upper left and Vancouver (lower right) are separated by a relatively narrow strait off the pacific ocean, labeled lower left. just off the coast of Nootka island is a dot that appears to glow with vibrance with how much brighter it is than the surrounding deep blue Pacific. That part of the image has a pop-out zoom it which labels it as Herring spawn.

Heavy rain in Queensland sent floodwaters coursing through the Australian Outback. Carpets of green emerged in their wake.

Vibrant green fills the low lands, brighter green veins highlighting the lowest points where water pooled and enabled more vegitation growth, on either side of Cooper Creekwhich runs vertically to the left of center. Durham is labeled on the land left of Cooper Creek surrounded by a moderate green shade.

Satellite-derived maps of nighttime lights in southern Spain revealed power outages that persisted across rural areas as the region was...

A dark image with an outline border for the country of Spain dividing it from the Alboran Sea at the bottom of the image. Left to right the following cities are labeled Mérida, Seville, Córdoba, Linares, Jaén, Granada, and Almería. The city lights of these cities are all less bright than normal, Linares lights are completely missing.

Spring and early summer in the Chihuahuan Desert are dusty, but El Paso and the Borderplex region are experiencing one...

The U.S. Mexico border region is shown with a country and state border overlay including Chihuahua in the lower right Sonora in the lower left Arizona in the upper left and New Mexico at the top. Texas appears in the center right as well. El Paso is labeled at the meeting point of the borders between Texas, Chihuahua, and New Mexico. Las Cruces is labeled up and left of El Paso in New Mexico. Smoke emanates from a single spot in Sonora, it, dust, and clouds all stream diagonally up and right from the point of origin.

Detailed fire maps, produced in minutes with data from a NASA airborne sensor, enabled firefighters in Alabama to limit the...

amid an image full of a variety of shades green of foliage there is a dark swath labeled burned area outlined by a bright red and yellow colored area labeled active fire via infrared heat signature. The more upper right portion of the image has the widest and most vibrant red and yellow active fire

The national park west of mainland Florida includes a smattering of islands, but the vast majority of the park’s acreage...

rich blue waters of the Southwest channel give way to turquoise and pale green as the shallows surrounding a few islands in this image peak out above the high water mark. Loggerhead key and the surrounding sizeable shallows stretch diagonally across in the upper left corner. White shoal mirrors the direction of loggerhead key in the middle of the Southwest Channel that separates Loggerhead and Bush Key. The shallows around Bush key mostly follow the same diagonal direction, but there are some distinct shallow regions jutting into the channel. Fort Jefferson on Garden Key is part of the same dry stretch of land. Hospital Key is a small spec of dry sand in the upper right corner.

A sprawling natural amphitheater interrupts the green slopes of this mountainous area.

rusty brown land features stands out, labeled Potrero de la Aguda, surrounded by sage green landscape. The upper and right sides of this feature end in cliffs. Seasonal rivers are visible as veins of lighter brown spreading across the landscape In Sierra de Las Quijadas National Park.

A high-elevation camp in the Colorado Rockies served as a training area for specialized high mountain troops who later fought...

The image shows snow covered mountainous landscape with the land more gray slopes than white blankets of snow. An open pit mine is labeled in the lower right section of the image, and Camp Hale is labeled just left of center at the peak of a ridgeline. Camp Hale has a broad degree of snow coverage compared to the remaining left side of the image. Ski trails are labeled in the lower middle of the image.

Fires in these coastal forests can rejuvenate ecosystems but also threaten large numbers of people and homes in the densely...

A large dark burned area with a bright orange infrared signature resides left of the Township of Lacey, a coastal settlement nestled between the Garden State Parkway and Barnegat Bay on the right edge of the image. The land is bright green in color where not burned.

The volcanic features and otherworldly landscape of Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve are apt training grounds for...

An orange line outlines the Caters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. Mountainous regions occupy the land up and right of the preserve with some farmed land on the border between it and the mountains. Lava fields darken the brown landscape in the preserve. Two small arrows point to Kipukas in the upper portion of the preserve.

A national recreation area and state park protect an archipelago made of glacial debris in eastern Massachusetts.

Image of Boston and the Harbor, the city center and Long Wharf is in the upper left and land wraps around in a rough arc to the lower right. There are many islands in the harbor with an orange outline around them all labeled Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park. Long island stretches vertically through the near center of the image. Fort Warren is right of that and the final islands before the open ocean includes Boston Light. Peddocks Island is one of the larger islands and located below Fort Warren.

The peaks in Guadalupe Mountains National Park—some of the highest in Texas—are made of a well-preserved fossil reef formed more...

satellite image along the Texas (right) and New Mexico (left) border. An orange border overlay outlines the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in which McKittrick Canyon resides and is in the center of the image. Diagonally down and left on this dark colored mountain range is El Capitan, and to the left of that are light colored smooth formations labeled dunes. In the upper right corner of the image is another orange outline for Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

Despite its stately and serene appearance, the Alaskan volcano has shown signs of activity since spring 2024.

Snow covered mountainous terrain, Mount Spurr label is centarlly located in the image. Crater peak is lower and slightly right of that and is where the brown land starts to peak through the snow in streaks. In the lower left corner there appears to be a body of blue-green water.

The large metropolis, fringed by scenic coastline, stretches across two continents.

The Black Sea frames in the top of the image with it's dark waters. The Bosporus strait connects it to the slightly less dark blue Sea of Marmara at the bottom of the image. On either side of the strait are landmasses, Europe is labeled left and Asia right. Both landmasses have more forested region in the northern latitudes and more human settlement on the lower coast.

The Channel Islands off the coast of southern California support diverse ecosystems, with some plants and animals found nowhere else...

Major landmass, including the cities of Santa Barbara and Ventura, occupy the center top of the image to the center right of the image. Four islands reside off the coast and separate the Santa Barbara Channel from the Pacific Ocean. From right to left the islands are San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz (the largest) and Anacapa (the smallest) islands. Santa Barbara island is another very small island, comparatively distant from the other four, in the bottom right corner of the image.

A thick dust plume in the Middle East dimmed skies and sent thousands to the hospital in April 2025.

A light shade of dust in an arc sweeps across Iraq along the border with Saudi Arabia. The land below is a darker shade of beige than the dust. Iraq shows a significant brown and green shade of landscape. Saudi Arabia in the lower left appears more reddish. Kuwait City in the lower right sits on the coast, mostly obscured by cloud cover that frames the image, except for the lower left. An Najaf resides on the northern end of the dust and green region of Iraq. Al Başrah resides directly North of Kuwait City in Iraq.

Folds of rusted rock neighbor the Bighorn Canyon’s deep scar in the western United States.

The meandering Bighorn Canyon enters the image at the top center and joins Bighorn lake in the lower right. The landscape surrounding it id beige with reddish strips.

A major embayment in West Antarctica saw new sea ice growth in autumn 2025 amid older sea ice that had...

West Antarctica's blanket of white ice occupies the majority of the image. The center to lower left is a mix of the Amundsen Sea water and various types of sea ice. The Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf is labeled in the lower right, bordering Multi-year sea ice and new sea ice, a darker color of ice by comparison. The Pine Island Glacier is in the upper center right and terminates at the Amundsen Sea as well.

NASA scientists employed a pixel-tracking method to reveal how much the ground shifted during one of the largest documented surface...

A map image with red pixels indicate northward motion, while blue pixels show movement to the south. The data highlights ground displacements of more than 3 meters (10 feet) along portions of the fault, for a total offset of more than 6 meters in some places. Distinctly right along the dashed line overlay of the fault the dots are overwhelmingly blue on the right and red on the left. There is some color mixture farther away from the fault, but the highlighted city lower on the fault, Nay Pyi Taw shows a distinct color barrier. Concentric circles along the fault line indicate the location of the Mainshock and Aftershock, 7.7and 6.7 magnitude respectively. Sagaing is nestled directly between them with Mandalay just right and up from there. Chiang Mai, Thailand, is also labeled on the far right edge of the image.

An astronaut orbiting over Southeast Asia captured a colorful photo of the lights from boats, ports, and other lit infrastructure.

The Johore Strait separates Singapore (south) from Peninsular Malaysia (north). The urban area of Singapore encompasses the country’s main island, Singapore Island, in addition to numerous smaller islands scattered throughout the Johore and Singapore straits. Two illuminated bridges, the Johor Causeway in the central region and the Second Link toward the west, connect the two countries. The Strait of Malacca on the top-left side of the image appears dark, lacking much light from boats or land, whereas the right side is lined with small villages of mainland Malaysia.

One of the largest islands in the Mediterranean, this region of Italy has developed a cultural and natural heritage all...

The green island of Sardinia centers in the image, a few wisps of clouds in the lower right, but otherwise surrounded by navy blue seas. Sassari is labeled in the upper left corner of the island that appears roughly twice as tall as wide. Along the right center of the island is Puna La Marmora. The lower coast is home to Cagliari which is the coastal end of a valley that stretches up and right. The extent of the reach up is Planu sa Giara, where the land is a deep green color with foliage.

The colorful North Atlantic waters visible around the archipelago in April 2025 are likely due to a mix of phytoplankton...

Satellite image of the UK, Ireland, and northern France. The Irish Sea between the two large island countries is labeled and light in color compared to the surrounding deep blue waters. The English Channel at the bottom of the screen is also light in color when compared to the North Sea toward the right of the UK. Clouds swirl over the ocean surrounding the two island nations.

Following destructive fires in March 2025, satellite imagery showed burned land stretching more than 80 kilometers toward the coastline in...

a strip of brown marks the landscape and terminates at the coast. Otherwise the brown strip is surrounded by green vegetation, the brown is labeled burned area. North of the burn is Andong, on the opposite side of the burn from Andong is Ulsong. Chongsong is closer to the coast and appears to be just within the burned region's boundaries.

In a seasonal spectacle, a spring dust storm swept through the dry, barren basin in western China.

The Takla Makan Desert is covered in a light beige dust partially covered in white clouds, mostly at the left of the image. China is labelled at the bottom right corner of the image.

Sunglint brightened river and lake water in this photograph of southeastern Chad.

I near white Lake Iro centers the image just below Boum Kabir. Smoke is in the upper left corner, but appears only a wispy haze. The region left of the lake is a vibrant green. Wetlands and a road are labeled to the lower center of the image, with the road being visible as a thin discolored line amid the green/brown landscape. Bahr Salamat is a river meandering through the image, vibrant with sunglint below lake Iro.

France’s La Grande Dune du Pilat, the tallest sand dune in Europe, was 4,000 years in the making.

off shore is Banc d' Arguin, a sand bar that prominently sits above the water, it is surrounded by shallow covered sandbars. La Grande Dune du Pilat is a region of light beige sands on the coast opposite. The land based dune is wide and long, with green landscape to the right, human settlements above and blue waters on the left.

Tracks of damage extended dozens of miles after 18 tornadoes plowed through several parts of the state.

Two dust colored lines run parallel across the landscape in this satellite image from lower left to upper right. The land is otherwise an amalgam of dark green patches and farmed fields around Mesa along route 98. An RV resort is located in the path of the longer streak in the lower left. Tylertown is just outside of the path in the lower right.