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Earth Observatory Image of the Day

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

The severe weather delivered large hail and damaging wind to parts of the state.

Image of the Gulf and gulf coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. Cloud cover spans the land from left of Louisiana across all the land to the right. State borders and names are superimposed on the landscape. New Orleans is labeled near the image center, an overshooting top is labeled amid dense clouds just left of New Orleans. Mobile is labeled up and right of center. A cloud center with two overshooting tops is south of the coastline and disconnected from the land based cloud cover, allowing the medium blue waters of the gulf to show through.

In the Gulf of Oman, eddies drew seasonal phytoplankton blooms into mesmerizing whirls.

swirling deep green in a field of near black blue Gulf of Oman. The center of the swirl is labeled bloom.

Several wildland fires burned amid dry and windy conditions in the country’s southeast.

The Korean peninsula is shown, dark waters of the sea of Japan to the right, blue green of the Korea strait mixes directly under the peninsula and left of Korea. Korea appears brown in color, with distinct regions of increased elevation appearing darker. Changwon is a labeled town on the lower coast on the right. A steam of smoke emanates directly left of Changwon. Seoul resides in the top left corner and Andong in the center right of the country. Another stream of smoke emanates directly below Andong.

Buoyant photovoltaic systems, also called floatovoltaics, have been deployed across a reservoir in central India.

Blue rectangles sit in the midst of a dammed reservoir. The dam is labelled in the upper left and the Narmada river enters the photo from the top center. The land below the reservoir is largely green with foliage, and the upper portion of the image is dark gray and rocky.

The Italian region displays a network of lines—and one nearly perfect circle—that connect inland settlements and agricultural areas with the...

Bitonto is a built up human settlement in the center of the image. Three major roads radiate out from the city, one headed down, one left and one up diagonally toward the coast of the Adriatic Sea and airport shown in the upper right. A circular ring road surrounds the city, Giovinazzo is another settlement along the coast in the upper left. On the upper right is Santo Spirito and Palese.

As winter turned to spring, ice cover on the lake diminished to reveal colorful billows of sediment and phytoplankton.

This image of Lake Erie shows the right side of the lake covered in ice, the waters on the left are bluegreen in color. The surrounding land is brown in color and along the lower coast Erie is labeled on the right edge of the image.

A major weather system spawned wind-fueled fires and dust storms in the state before moving east.

satellite view of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas with state lines overlaid on the landscape show sweeping light orange haze of dust encompassing Lubbock Texas and sweeping up and to the right over Stillwater Oklahoma. Multiple streams of smoke emanate from the region around Stillwater and show light gray drifting toward the top right corner of the image. White clouds populate most of the top left corner and the very edge of the upper right.

The remote South Sandwich Islands can disrupt passing clouds in ways that shed alternating rows of cloud spirals.

Swirling white clouds blanket the image with thin edges giving a glimpse of the blue waters below. The right side of the image is labeled Scotia Sea. The middle of the left labels an iceberg in the region that has the thinnest cloud layer. A line of islands spanning the image vertically is the point at which clouds begin to swirl as the density increases to the right.

A salt-encrusted landscape surrounds the Colorado River where it empties into the Gulf of California.

the Colorado River meets the blue-green Gulf of California. The Mexicali Valley in the upper left includes the San Luis Río Colorado on the edge of the Desierto de Altar sandy region across the top of the image. At the edge of the gulf the land is white with salt. Below the salt is a light brown land region with light sand around it labeled Sierra last Pintas.

Torrential rains set off dangerous flash flooding in the Argentinian port city.

The upper portion of the image is bright green with a human settlement labeled Bahía Blanca above the river seen across the bottom of the image with wide marshes. Ingeniero White port sits along the dark blue river, and flooding is labeled between this and the city center.

A digital camera on the Blue Ghost lander looked back at Earth and captured this ethereal image.

The upper portion of the image is filled with black space and a blue-gray circle labeled Earth. The foreground shows the expanse of the bright gray and dark shadowed moon, including the shadow from the lander taking the photo which has two distinct legs.

Using NASA data, researchers can track vegetation changes around the planet, not just in forests but also in grasslands and...

Fields in Brazil are primarily divided into rectangles but include circular fields of vibrant green. The right side of the image has far fewer fields and is filled with a craggy naturally foliated landscape.

The tropical cyclone took a sharp turn toward Australia’s east coast, bringing flooding and other hazards to an area that...

A yellow dotted line meanders off the coastline, land left, Coral Sea right, of Australia the starting point dated as Feb 22 6:00 UTC and ending Mar 7 12:00 UTC at Brisbane.

The turquoise waters of Ngangla Ringco add vivid color to the otherwise brown landscape in this part of the Tibetan...

Turquoise waters are surrounded by sandly landscapes. A dark spot is shown as a cloud shadow in the upper left. The waters in the lower right are darker and distinctly swirl into a mix where they meet. Label Ngangla Ringco is over the darker blue waters.

A new analysis suggests that a large freshwater plume in the hurricane’s path helped fuel its extraordinary growth.

This map of the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding land show the hurricane patch tracks Idalia and storm intensity between Aug 26 between the Yucatan peninsula and Cuba, to Aug 31 off the coast of North Carolina. The path takes it across Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina in a steady arc once landfall is made. The storm intensity that is only became a category 3 and 4 hurricane when crossing a Low-salinity river plume that follows the United States coastline. This is shown with a salinity gradient overlay which shows 33 and below psu blue and 37 and above as vibrant yellow. The region of intensification is over the blue.

Antarctic iceberg A-23A has slowed its drift and appears stuck in the shallow waters off the British overseas territory.

Topographic depiction of the ocean floor around South Georgia Island with outline of A-23A location located below and left of the island on the edge of a 350 topographic line.

A powerful mid-latitude storm fueled dust storms, tornadoes, blizzards, and downpours across the country.

Satellite view of the West border of Texas. Sweeping dust extends from Mexico to San Antonio at the right edge of the image. Another more dense dust cloud is Labeled between Pecos Texas, directly South of Roswell New Mexico over and extending slightly past San Angelo. Clouds cover the top of the image above the dust

Satellites have documented lakes on the “roof of the world” becoming larger and more numerous over the past three decades.

Changhong Lake is nestled in the upper left of this image filled with numerous small lakes on the otherwise barren landscape without foliage. In the lower right is another named lake, Yongbo Lake.

Following a record dry month, a fire near Ofunato spread to become the country’s largest in decades.

Smoke emanates from the coastline below the coastal city of Ofunato over the deep blue Pacific Ocean on the right. The land on the left is largely covered by snow further inland and reflects a vibrant white. The city of Sendai is labelled at the bottom left of the image.

February 2025 was a scorcher, with record temperatures in parts of Brazil and notable heat in Argentina.

South America is depicted with a temperature overlay color gradient from 0 to 38 degrees C. Outside of the mountain range on the left coast the entirety of the continent shown falls at or above the center point.

Penguins outnumber people on this remote, mountainous island in the southern Atlantic Ocean.

A snowy mountain range on the sea, the right side of the image is deeply shadowed. Mount Paget is in the center of the range and seems to be the tallest peak. Grytviken and King Edward point share a region on the coastline. Annenkov Island is situated in the shadowy ocean on the right side of the image.

Airborne dust is common over the West African country, but its source can affect the appearance of plumes.

A yellow cloud of Dust is seen over the dark Atlantic Ocean off the coast of sand covered Mauritania. The capital, Nouakchott, is labeled on a the smooth curved portion of the coast. A patch of slightly different colored land, just off the coast above the capital, also seems to be putting dust into the atmosphere parallel to the yellow dust cloud, it is lighter in color than the yellow dust plume.

An unusual number of tropical storms churned across the planet’s southern oceans simultaneously in February 2025.

A brightness temperature gradient overlay brightens cold spots and cloud to a blue white, while warmer areas of the map are orange to yellow. The image features centers the Indian Ocean near the West Australian coast. To major storms, Honde and Garance are seen at either end of Madagascar. A smaller storm is near the West coast of Australia. Off the northeastern coast of Australia two storms, Alfred and Seru. All of these storms are bright blue and have extended tails of darker blue sweeping from them.

Wildfire burned through unique landscapes and disrupted scientific research on this remote island in the southern Indian Ocean.

Amsterdam Island is centered, surrounded by the deep blue Indian Ocean. There is some cloud coverage on the lower portion of the island, opposite Martin-de-Viviès research facility at the upper right part of the island. The mottled green foliage of the island is interrupted, particularly closer to the coastline, by dark brown burned areas.

Bright snow topped the island’s thick ice sheet, while a swirling display of sea ice hugged the southeast coast.

The image shows bright white snow covered Greenland, occupying the upper and left portion of the image with the near black waters of the North Atlantic Ocean in the lower and right side of the image. Along the coastline, right of Greenland, swirls of Sea ice are visible all the way to the tip.

Bits of pulverized rock carried by Alaska’s glacial streams into the shallow, productive estuary transform the bay’s color and can...

Glaciers appear in the bottom right and flow toward Kachemak Bay which occupies the center of the image diagonally with the mouth being at the bottom left. One of the glaciers terminates into Grewingk Creek before entering the bay. Another stream empties sediment into the bay at the bottom of the image, exactly opposite from the town of Homer across the bay. The land on that side of the bay and between glaciers is all green with foliage. The waters of the bay are a mix of blue shades, but all relatively light in color.

Iceberg A-84 has spent part of the Southern Hemisphere’s summer zipping along West Antarctica’s coastline.

Nighttime lights reveal the structure of Turkmenistan’s capital city.

The image shows the bright lights of the city and major roadways of Ashgabat. A highway entering the city and surrounding streets are also somewhat illuminated. The Airport is centered in the image with the city mostly residing below and right of it. A significant amount of the land surrounding the city is completely dark.

The elevation changes may seem small, amounting to fractions of inches per year, but they can increase or decrease local...

Map of California where elevation change is color coded, subsidence is color coded in shades of blue, darkest correlating to 50 millimeters annually, uplift maps to a max of 5 millimeters of rise annually. The map shows the central valley sinking most, particularly the southern part. The majority of the state is in a light blue with the mountainous regions showing some rise.

Even with global temperatures well above normal in February 2025, a blast of frigid Arctic air spilled south into the...

Map of North America with a temperature gradient overlay and state boundary lines. Saskatoon, Bismark and Dallas are all labelled. The color gradient ranges from -30 degrees C to positive 30 C, with white being 0 and cold being shades of blue, warm, shades of red. The center of north America is all in the blue shade, with a significant portion showing up in white. The labeled cities are all in a distinctly blue area of the map.

Lava coursed down the snowy slopes of Europe’s tallest volcano in February 2025.

Snow covered Sicilian land shows an infrared signature, a bright red line moving in a straight line away from the plume in the center of the image. Ash-stained snow encompasses the region to the right of the plume with the region surrounded by bright white clouds. Around the edges of the image some land with vegetation is visible between the cloud cover.

A storm system that swept through the U.S. Southeast brought damaging winds, torrential rain, and destructive flash floods to several...

Image shows land in a vibrant green, surface water in blue. The Mississippi RIver meanders across the image vertically with various rivers feeding it from the right, such as the Obion River entering the image from the top right. The other major river entering the image is adjacent to Dyersburg and unlabeled. These rivers appear vibrant blue due to the volume of suspended sediment and are exceptionally wide. A large swath of land parallel to the Mississippi River on the left is primarily light blue in color.

More and more, mountain snow in the Mount Everest region is vanishing into thin air.

Deeply craggy land, including Mount Everest and numerous glaciers, includes a significant amount of bare rock, light brown. Glaciers include, from left to right, Bhotekoshi Glacier, Nojumba Glacier, and Khumbu Glacier. The Rongbuk Glacier is located directly above the Khumbu glacier. Mount Everest is in the lower right of the image.

Urban structures and the city’s Great Mosque stand out amid the hilly, desert landscape of western Saudi Arabia.

The light brown sandy region centers a bright white building labelled Mosque. There are sprawling major roadways across the region with significant human settlements around them. In the lower part of the image are tunnels, directly below the Mosque. and the lower right shows large blocks of white labeled tents.

The farms and gardens of Mount Vernon played a central role in the life of America’s first president.

Image centers the Potomac River running primarily horizontal across the image. Below the river the land is mostly green including open fields and the National Colonial Farm. Fort Washington Park and sprawling suburbs are seen at the edge of a wide fork in the river. Above the River is more green land labeled Mount Vernon and Fort Hunt Park to the right. The land around this area shows signs of significant human settlement.

A small island in Tonga built by an underwater volcano in 2022 has grown larger.

A small island, labeled home reef, is the origin of a thin translucent smoke stream that becomes puffy clouds as it streams toward the bottom of the image.

One frozen, one salty, and hemispheres apart, two very different lakes share a Valentine shape.

Two side by side photos of heart shaped lakes. Lake Saint Clair, left, is ice covered and slightly blue in color, surrounded by snow covered land. The lake on the right is Salinas Las Barrancas. This lake appears white and pink in color surrounded by farm fields.

Warm, dry conditions in February 2025 fueled fast-burning fires in the northwestern part of the Australian state.

Tasmania centers in this image the the dark blue Bass Strait above and Tasman Sea to the right. Smoke streams from the green land in the upper left of Tasmania, down and left. The dense gray color of smoke disperses to a translucent shade before disappearing under and into clouds. The left coast and off coast appear to have many thinner sheets of cloud cover. As you move to the right in Tasmania the clouds become dense bright white clumps. The town of Hobart along the South coast is labelled.

Strong winds and high temperatures fueled summer fires in Argentina.

Smoke emanates from the Agentina Chile border region, just above Lanin Mountain. This white-gray smoke drift to the bottom right over the arid landscape of Argentina.

Scientists are using the DSCOVR satellite to make more frequent measurements of the height of dust over the Atlantic Ocean.

A grid of four images of the same region with an overlay of color coded wet season dust height ranging from light orange to deep purple. The right side of each image shows a grayscale Africa with country borders overlayed. Each image is labeled by time, 8 a.m. top left, 10 a.m. top right, 1 p.m. lower left, 3 p.m. lower right. the 10 am image shows the darkest colors indicating the highest dust elevation.