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Earth Observatory Image of the Day

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

The white roof of the Superdome stands out against the surrounding neighborhoods in this satellite image of New Orleans.

A very built up landscape along a meander in the Missisippi River includes Downtown New Orleans and the round top of the Ceasars Superdome.

The dormant volcano in northern Iran lies in the Alborz Mountains, which separate the region’s wet coastal lowlands from the...

The tan landscape is covered with significantly mountainous terrain which shades the side of each peak that is nearer to the bottom of the image. At the very bottom these shadows give way to green coloration from Forestation. Snow peaked Mount Damavand centers the image as part of the Alborz Mountains. A canyon runs veritcally alongside, to the left of Mount Damavand. A Reservoir sits just up and to the right of the mountain. Another reservoir is labeled in the top right in a relatively flat desert valley. The leftmost section of the valley is sparsely interrupted by a green-brown color labeled irrigated agriculture.

NASA radar imagery revealed that the active area of a decades-old landslide has grown following periods of heavy rainfall in...

The image is grayscale of a coastal landscape with an overlay of land movement colored in shades of pale yellow to red. The image is centered on a spot that shows significant landside movement on the provided scale, which is as much as 10 centimeters per week. There are buildings labeled in this area or Rancho Palos Verdes and the region of movement expands outside of the 2007 boundary labeled by California Geological Survey.

Cool water has welled up in the tropical Pacific in winter 2024–2025. But it may not stick around for long.

Map of the Earth centering the Pacific Ocean with a color-coded overlay of the sea surface heigh anomaly. neutral is white and increased height are increasingly darker shades of red, while lower heights are blue. The max deviation from neutral is 12.5 cm. The lowest deviation is at the equator with alternating bands of higher and lower heights with the most significant height just above the equator on the Asia side of the Pacific

A slow-moving storm dropped unusually large amounts of rain on the Australian state in summer 2025.

A rainfall data color gradient is overlayed over Queensland Australia. The range of rainfall data spans zero to 100 or more centimeters. The corresponding colors range from light blue to dark red. The coastal region, including the cities of Cairns, Tully, and Townsville are encompassed in a dark red blob of precipitation that mostly precipitated over the Coral Sea to the right.

Tucked away on a remote island in the Pacific, the volcano has recently been pinpointed as the likely source of...

Simushir, a longitudinal island lush green with foliage, separates the Pacific Ocean, right, from the Sea of Okhotsk. The waters connect at the top and bottom of the image, and is universally dark blue. The island includes multiple peaks, the second from the bottom is labelled the Zavaritskogo caldera. The island is tilted diagonally from bottom left top right.

Water levels—and the compositions of brines—have varied over time at Searles Lake and the adjacent lakes.

The Snow covered Sierra Nevada peaks frame in the left side of the image. To the right are a series of valleys and additional snow covered peaks. Owens Valley and Owens lake border the Sierra Nevada. At the bottom of the image and further right Are the China and Searles Lake. Searles Lake, despite very similar color to the surrounding brown terrain bears water. The valley to the right of Searles is Panamint Valley, which also holds some water in this image, though only a tiny amount. The next valley over is Death Valley, also bearing water in this photo, and just on the California side of the border with Nevada, included as an overlay in this image.

Warmer-than-usual weather brought melting and a lack of snowfall to parts of the state in winter 2024–2025.

Two side by side images of Bristol Bay and surrounding land, including Kina Salmon Alaska, show the distinct lack of snow coverage on January 26, 2025, right, compared to January 22 of the year prior, left. The left image is entirely white apart from the deeper water areas of Bristol Bay. The right shows considerable bare land, with white snow pack only appearing at the higher elevations around the edge of the image.

Florida’s largest open-water estuary is known for its shallow, calm, blue-green waters.

The heavily built up Saint Petersburg, center, and Tampa, top right, are divided by Old Tampa bay, top, and connected by the Howard Frankland Bridge. Two other bridges appear to connect the two, but are unlabeled. The southern edge of Tampa houses an Air Force Base which separates the Hillsborough Bay from Tampa Bay. The lower edge of Tampa bay meets the waters of Little Manatee River, center right, and the aquatic preserve lower center. Just above the preserve the Sunshine Skyway bridge connects additional human settlements to Saint Petersburg. At the mouth of Tampa bay a spit of land is shown with significant human settlement density labeled Anna Maria Island, which separates the Bay from the Gulf of Mexico, lower left. Waters are all blue green, increasing in shades of green as you look further inland.

Evaporite minerals from Searles Lake have similarities to minerals found on the asteroid Bennu.

In a valley between the Argus Range, left and the Slate Range, right, is the Searles Lake. The lake is partitioned into numerous sections where Evaporation ponds, seen along the bottom of the lakebed region leave evaporite minerals, white in color, in sectioned off lake fields. Actual water body is seen on the left side of the Searles Lake, below the labeled settlement of Trona. A road leads in to this region from the bottom left.

The buildup of vegetation and a rapid shift from wet to dry conditions played a role in the destructive blazes.

A map of Los Angeles with a vegetation difference to average overlay, where darker green shades indicate increased vegetation, and brown shades mean less, peaking at thirty percent difference to the average on either side. The map shows few spots of brown and an almost universal increase in average vegetation, the one notable holdout in the Angeles National Forest to the right of Altadena. The Pacific Palisades and Santa Clarita on the left of the image are both surrounded in medium to dark shades of green, indicating some of the highest rise in total vegetation coverage.

Hot, dry, and windy weather fueled fires in two of Australia’s national parks.

The South Coast of Australia shows Melbourne, right, with the Grampians National Park centered over the Bass strait. Smoke streams toward the top of the image from there as well as Little Desert National Park, left of center.

Toward the end of a late-January cold spell, snow and lake ice blanketed the landscape.

Greater Chicago is shown, left, appearing a translucent pale white color with Lake Michigan, right, also covered near the coast by a sweeping pale white ice layer. The water in the top right is ice free and appears near black, while coastal waters appear lighter and blue-green.

On this Japanese island, fertile plains are sandwiched between mountain ranges that were mined for gold and silver.

Two parallel mountainous stretches are partially connected by a shared valley between them surrounded by the medium blue sea of Japan. Lake Kamo sits near the coast of the Valley Gold and Silver Mines are labeled on the lower portion of each mountain stretch.

Winds lofted dust from the arid landscape across the Gulf of Oman.

Multiple plumes of dust stretch out over the Gulf of Oman at bottom of the image from Iran and the Hamun-e Jazmurian occupying the top of the image. It is a stretch of land that seems relatively flat and without vegetation. lighter in color than the surrounding region.

Seasonal Santa Ana winds helped fuel a large fire near Ensenada, Mexico.

The dark blue of the Pacific Ocean, left, is partially obscured by a stream of smoke emanating from the coastline just South of Ensenada. The smoke moves from opaque to translucent as you increase distance from the origin.

A multitude of mining and agricultural activities surround the Western Australian town, southeast of Perth.

The town of Boddington sits nestled among lush green landscape and meandering rivers. To the left of the town the Boddington Bauxite mine appears golden brown, interrupting the green fields surrounding. Directly above that by some distance and on the edge of what appears to be forest cover, is the Boddington Gold mine, a menagerie of earthen colors. up and right from there is the tailings pond. which appears primarily off white, and greenish where water currently pools. a small road to the gold mine interrupts the dark swath of foliage, and terminates at a mine camp, just outside of the forest and town of Boddington.

A rare winter storm brought frigid temperatures and heavy snow to states from Texas to North Carolina.

Clouds cover the lower Gulf of Mexico in this image of the Gulf Coast. Houston the coastal portion of these states and more inland Alabama appear white due to snow cover. This includes Houston, New Orleans, and Pensacola.

Satellites detected unusually low numbers of crop fires in Punjab and Haryana in 2024, and scientists are trying to understand...

A Satellite image of India, a swath of smoke follows the contour of the snow capped Himalayas obscuring Punjab, Haryana, New Delhi and more of India before dispersing amid clouds at the bottom right of the image.

A series of images captured by NASA’s TEMPO sensor show the shifting location of nitrogen dioxide as destructive fires raged...

four images of greater Los Angeles representing January 6,7,9, and 12 have an overlay of Tropospheric NO2 levels. Each of the images show elevated levels in comparison to the surrounding region, the 6 and 12 dates with the largest covered region, the 7th with an isolated Palisades fire plume.

The concentric rings of an ancient, extinct volcanic system stand above the island nation’s relatively flat central highlands.

Most of the landscape in the image is light brown, indicating a lack of forest cover. In contrast, greener areas farther west (along the left third of the image) retain more of the original forest of Madagascar’s central highlands. Amid that region is a light colored patch of land labelled recently ploughed land. Fault lines run vertically on the image to the right of the volcanic complex. Hills separate the fault from the complex and a black area in the middle of it is labeled the burned area.

This U.S. national monument, rich in geological and cultural heritage, displays Northern California’s fiery past.

A mostly green region of California in interrupted by a black bit of land labeled burnt lava flow. Directly above that with some foliage between is a gray area labeled Glass Mountain. To the left of glass mountain is more foliage and another gray area labelled Little Glass Mountain. Medicine lake also sits equidistant between the two mountains.

Blue puddles of water were visible atop this East Antarctic ice shelf after periods of record melting.

vibrant blue streaks sppear on the Amery Ice shelf. The image of East Antarctica is otherwise white with snow cover, including the Fisher Glacier at the top, the Mellow Glacier on the left, and the Lambert Glacier on the lower left. These three all converge at the Amery Ice Shelf. There are some exposed rocks visible as well, a line of them, labeled rock outcrop at the bottom of the image, runs parallel to the ice shelf.

A NASA airborne instrument captured images of the fire’s aftermath in and around Altadena.

The image shows Los Angeles Altadena area with JPL labeled on the left burned developed areas, appearing near black, to the right of JPL and the Eaton Canyon Trailhead just right of the burned area in the image center. The Angeles National Forest appears orange in this image and is labeled burned as well. Sierra Madre is farther right.

The perpetually restless and occasionally explosive volcano in New Zealand has been emitting steam, volcanic gases, and a bit of...

Whakaari is shown in the medium blue waters of the Bay of Plenty. The island is emitting whitish smoke, which is drifting to the right side of the image. The island is mostly bare and gray with some green foliage on the slopes of the upper end of the island.

Several plumes billowed from Los Angeles-area fires in the days after their ignition.

Southern California coastline centers Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific fills the lower left half of the image with the coastline running diagonal. To the left of central Los Angeles is the Palisades fires. Smoke emanating from those hills streams out over and disperses over the Ocean. Above the Los Angeles label in this image is the Eaton fire. This more inland fire is generating less smoke than the palisades, but it also disperses toward the coast.

The older and newer cities of the Greater Cairo region look very different at night when viewed from above.

The dark image is filled with city lights. 6 October city shows up in amber lights on the left. A dark patch between that and Giza is labeled pyramids of Giza. A dark line, the Nile River separates the area of white light, Giza Left and Cairo right, in the center of the image. In the bottom right is more amber lighting and it it labeled New Cairo. The airport is just above New Cairo.

Patches of forest thrive on a plateau that straddles the border between North Dakota and Manitoba.

A completely white image with some oblong discoloration in the upper left and in the center. The center spot is labeled Turtle Mountains, and on the edge is an area known as and labeled Belcourt. Devils Lake is labeled in the lower right and Pelican Lake is labeled directly above Belcourt in the image.

The Kumani Bank mud volcano in the Caspian Sea suddenly manifested an island in early 2023 that had nearly disappeared...

Three side-by-side images labelled by date, November 18, 2022 left, February 14, 2023 center, and Decmber 25, 2024 right, show the appearance of Kumani Bank from where there was nothing but the Caspian Sea. In the most recent image there is only a spec of land remaining, though sediment continues to drift away, suspended in the water and lightening it in color.

The first major, widespread winter storm of 2025 delivered snow, ice, and frigid temperatures to a large swath of the...

A picture of the United States with state and national borders superimposed. There is also an air temperature gradient superimposed on the map ranging from negative 25 degrees C to 25 degrees C. The color gradient goes from dark blue to white at 0 and then to dark red where blue is cold and red is hot. The Midwest is medium to dark blue and aside from the west coast and coastal southern states the majority of the United States is in the white color temperature region.

Lush green hillsides turned brown after Cyclone Chido hit the islands in December 2024.

The image features an island with sporadic cloud coverage and primarily covered in a neutral green foliage. The settled parts of the island are primarily around the coast and appear white. This includes Mamoudzou on the right side of the image. The surrounding waters are a moderate navy blue except a thick line in the upper right parallel to the shore which is turquoise and labeled as coral reef.

Microscopic floating organisms proliferated to turn surface waters bright green and milky blue around the Falkland Islands.

Swirling distinct shades of light and medium blue as well as green are suspended in the deep blue Argentine sea all around the Falkland Islands in the lower right. Some thin cloud coverage appears in the upper left and one opaque white cloud sits in the lower right corner.

Logging, farming, and fires have contributed to the loss and degradation of forest reserves in the West African country.

A vibrant green landscape is broken up by a few precise borders of darker green foliage. In the bottom left one of those areas is Bia National Park, darker in color than any other part of the picture. A few spots and streaks appear a very light green or yellow as they are regions cleared for human settlement, Kenyasi and Goaso on the right side of the image are the two labelled areas where this is seen.

The volcano, located on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, displays numerous depressions that collect meltwater during the warmer months of the year.

In a depression surrounded by mountains on all sides are Klyuchevoye Lake and Shtyubela Lake, the former of which is a light shade of blue and larger than the dark Shtyubela Lake. Shtyubela Lake is also connected to Khodutka River which exits the image up and to the right. The landscape varies from deep green foliage, primarily to the lower left and around the river to bare beige rock. Thin streaks of snow appear in the many valleys around the Stubel Crater that holds these lakes.

The construction of a small hydroelectric power station in the northern part of the state helped form this V-shaped lake.

The V shaped Scopan Lake, oriented with the open end up, is surrounded by green, relatively flat land. To the left of the lake the Aroostook River runs from the top before meandering to the left in the center. Another branch of the river proceeds to the bottom of the image. A sawmill is labelled in some cleared land along the river in the center left of the image.

The salt-producing ponds of southern France are feeding grounds for pink flamingos.

Along the left bank of the Rhône River, orange to white rectangular salt pans are interwoven with coastal marsh along the Gulf of Lion at the bottom of the image. Additional gridded land along the coast, potentially also salt pans, vary in color from burnt orange, to seafoam and verdant green stand apart. To the right of the Rhône River is Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône. The shipping port and human settlement area landscape appears streaked with gray and white around the gray concretes and brown roofed buildings.

Unburdened by the weight of thick ice, land has been rising around the Gulf of Bothnia, creating hectares of new...

Finland's coast along the Gulf of Bothnia, which is near black in color, is shown. There are numerous islands along the coast, most notably Björkö. The land on the islands and much of mainland Finland is covered in a somewhat dulled shade of green. Streaks of land appear lighter in shade, beige to light green, where people are farming the land. Among them, near the mainland coast below Björkö is the City of Vaasa with Vanha-Vaasa, labeled more inland.

A surge of newly installed solar panels is transforming the Kubuqi Desert in Inner Mongolia.

There are numerous fields of solar panels, dark gray in color divided by lines and dots of soil in the mottled beige landscape of the Kubuqi Desert in China. Toward the bottom of the image the land takes on a darker shade and at the top a road runs the length of the image, above which seems to be distinct fields, also primarily beige. At the bottom left are some perfect circles of land, seemingly smoother than the surrounding terrain and mostly lighter in color than their surrounds. Two separate clusters are all close to the point of potentially overlapping.

Water levels were low in Razazah Lake when an astronaut snapped this photograph from the International Space Station.

Razazah Lake, pink in shade in the main body, and green in the lower narrow U-shaped bend, are surrounded by land that appears to have a marbled effect. The land is primarily a beige sandy color. To the lower left are numerous crop fields in perfect circles. These circles are all darker in shade, mostly appearing dark brown. In the bottom right is the city Karbalā, where the settlement appears the land appears grayer further right of that the land is dark with foliage, a canal runs to the city from the right edge of the image.

A large-scale project in Egypt aims to transport water to the desert west of the Nile in a push to...

In the sandy landscape of Egypt a canal in the upper left connects to a water treatment plant lower down. A highway runs mostly diagonal across the image from the upper left to the lower right, and very near to the plant. On either side of the Highway are circles of gridded new farmland with varying shades of darker tans in circular patterns from irrigation. Along the right side of the image there remain circular patterned fields of crops, but also many more dark rectangular fields of new farmland. The entire right edge of the image is covered in farmed land.