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Earth Observatory Image of the Day

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

Tens of thousands of years after an historical super-eruption, the region is now covered with deep blue water and lush...

Lago de Atitlán, dark blue, is nestled into the landscape, with human settlements along the coast and Volcanos, covered in deep green foliage, around the lower coastline. Volcán Atitlán is labeled, near the bottom center of the image. Just above that and closer to the lake is Volcán Tolimán which base spreads increasingly gradually to the lake shore. On the left edge of Volcán Tolimán the municipality of Santiago Atitlán. A narrow strip of the lake separates this settlement from Volcán San Pedro. At the top of the lake are the river deltas of Rio Panajachel and Rio Quiscab

An impact crater in western Finland is a bucolic setting for agriculture and migratory birds—and its geometric shape resembles that...

In Finland, a circular region of land is completely divided into crop fields and labelled Söderfjärden. An airport is in the upper right corner. To the left of Söderfjärden the land is broken up by waterways and small islands covered in dense dark green foliage. There are more fields of crops between Söderfjärden and the airport that seem to follow valley's leaving higher elevations covered in dark green foliage. The fields are all a light green to beige color.

Fountains of lava burst from the Hawaiian volcano’s summit caldera during a December 2024 eruption.

An infrared overlay image of the Kīlauea Caldera and surrounding land. The left edge of the caldera show intense heatin a bright green and yellow, moving away from there to the right the infrared is a cooler orange to red. shows the active lava flow surrounded by previous black hardened flows. The Kīlauea Iki Crater to the right of the larger Caldera is nestled among green landscape with Volcano Village labeled in the upper right.

Airplanes passing through supercooled water droplets cause cavum, or hole-punch clouds.

A light blanket of white clouds cover the land north of Wichita. There are two cloud holes, the one on the right is labeled a Cavum.

A fast-moving fire in southeastern Australia raged through parts of Grampians National Park.

Smoke emanates from Grampians National Park and sweeps across Australia, mostly a light green color with patches of dark green. Halfway between the origin point and an obscured Melbourne is a PyroCb cloud. The Bass strait is seen at the very bottom of the image below Melbourne.

Dust clouded the sky in the Tigris–Euphrates basin in December 2024, degrading air quality and snarling travel in the region.

Amid a beige landscape ripples of lighter color beige dust between the Tigris and Euphrates. On the right edge of the dust region is Tikrit, and Baghdad on the southern edge of of it.

An astronaut photographed the structure of a burgeoning cumulus congestus near the shore of the Persian Gulf.

In the foreground of the earth image is the Qatar peninsula on the Persian Gulf. To the left of Doha is a single towering cloud amid other clouds. The surrounding land is a shade of brown, further in the background of the image the land is overcast in gray before the blue haze of atmosphere gives way to the darkness of space.

After being stuck for a second time in nearly four decades, the planet’s current-largest iceberg (A-23A) again floats free.

Visible through a layer of thin clouds, a patch of somewhat square shaped ice is visible on the dark ocean waters. It is labeled Iceberg A-23A just under the date label of December 16, 2024

The December 2024 blaze charred vegetation in the hills of the Southern California coastline.

The green mountainous coastline, with the near-black Pacific Ocean occupying the lower third of the image, is interrupted by a deep rust brown surrounding the Malibu area.

Southern California as seen from orbit, showing a plume of smoke arising from Malibu, CA

Arctic air surged across the Great Lakes and dumped feet of lake-effect snow in some locations.

The image is colored in blue, showing snow covered land as a light blue, and clouds as a light powder blue. Cloud streets form over the great lakes and stream across the land in this image of the great lakes. Lake Ontario is partially cut off, but the remaining lakes are all visible and mostly covered by clouds. The town of Munsing on the Upper Peninsula narrowly misses the cloud streets off of Lake Superior. The town of Gaylord in Northern Michigan is thoroughly obscured by cloud streets. Buffalo, at the right edge of the image is on the cloud cover edge. Chicago is under cloud cover, but more of a typical cloud than cloud streets.

Fueled by warm water in the Indian Ocean, the tropical cyclone caused widespread damage on the small archipelago.

A spiral of white clouds nearly covers the entire Mozambique channel. Madagascar appears in the lower right of the image, Indian Ocean to it's right, the channel to the left. Mainland Africa frames in the left side of the image. The border outlines of the Islands of Mayotte and Comoros are superimposed on top of the Cyclone clouds, near the dark spot eye of the cyclone, but above it on either side.

The onset of autumn reds and yellows was delayed across the country following several unusually warm months.

Two of the Kii Mountains, Hakkyō and Ōdaigahara, show peaks having a lustrous reddish brown color. Human settlements are clearly visible in the valley at the top left corner, Kazeya Reservoir is shown at the lower left, but above Mount Tamaki. Ocean occupies the lower right along with the coastal towns of Owase and further up the coast Kihoku.

The Cheleken Peninsula and its two parallel spits comprise the hammerhead-like landform that juts into the eastern Caspian Sea.

The Cheleken Peninsula, home to the town of Hazar, centers the image, with mainland to the right and Caspian sea left. The land is all a light beige color with dried lakes causing elongated swirling patterns of slightly darker land and dunes giving the land a textured look above that. Peninsula Kafaldja extends upward off of the Cheleken and the Dervish downward. Both peninsulas are extremely narrow . The waters at the top of the image, in the Türkmenbaşy gulf are a lighter shade, even a vibrant green near the peninsula. The Türkmenbaşy peninsula appears disconnected from land at the far left edge of the image. An Oil rig appears as a small dot in the middle of the shown portion of the Caspian Sea.

A dam on the Saint-Maurice River transformed the network of lakes and river valleys upstream.

Reservoir Gouin appears as jack ragged and narrow interconnected bodies of water among the surrounding green to yellow landscape. In the top left corner of the image, out of the reservoir area, is a burned area. Immediately to the right of the reservoir is a large patch of mostly yellow land which has been labelled as logged. Below that at the very edge of the image is the reservoir Dam. The town of Obedjiwan sits right on the coast of the reservoir on a peninsula of land just left and above the image center.

Accessible to the intrepid boater, Washington state’s northern San Juan Islands include a marine state park with abundant natural beauty...

The green covered Sucia Islands (left) and Matia Island (right) shown in the rich blue Salish Sea. Near the bottom of the image below Sucia is Parker Reef, a small white spec. Numerous boats are anchored in Fossil bay, one of the inlets at the bottom of Sucia Islands, and numerous other boats are active in the waters around. A ship is headed upward between these islands and can be seen leaving outbound waves and wake behind.

Two decades of satellite data show that the most destructive U.S. fires burn in grasslands and shrublands fanned by strong...

The image shows the Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas region with state border overlays. At the top of the image the Starbuck fire crosses from Kansas into Oklahoma. Just South of this fire is the 238 fire, to the east of which is the Selman fire. The Perryton fire is shown in the bottom left, almost entirely within the Texas border.

The rugged chain of islands is home to thousands of sheep and known for its white sand beaches.

Image of island chain arc in the dark blue Atlantic Ocean. The land is a blend of green to brown shades. The water that separates these islands from more mainland areas is labeled The Minch and The Little Minch. Skye and Rum are inland islands, shown right. The archipelago consists of Stornoway on the largest land section, Lewis, and downward from there is Harris, North Uist, South Uist and finally Barra.

A lunette dune fringing this dried Australian lake preserves relics from ancient times, while today’s grazing patterns create sharp visible...

A rust brown colored landscape is interrupted by a lighter brown Lake Mungo in the center of the image. Along the right edge of Lake Mungo are bright white Dunes. To the left of most of Lake Mungo is a Park boundary line that seems to separate a lighter shade of landscape on the left from a darker one on the right.

Fire activity in the South American nation was remarkably intense and widespread in 2024. Test link

satellite image with a color coded overlay indicating what areas of forest have burned in yellow and orange. While the vast majority is green, denoting forests, with some blue indicating surface water, it is consistently interspersed with yellows and red, particularly biased toward the lower portion of the image.

An astronaut’s sweeping nighttime photograph of Namibia and South Africa reveals the region’s lighted communities, many of which are centered...

Photo of Earth from the ISS shows the Atlantic Ocean in the foreground with some sporadic cloud coverage. Along the coast is the town of Oranjemund, Lüderitz and the Sand sea. Slightly inland is Springbok/Okiep. Near the end of visible Earth is Gaborone, Rustenberg, Witwatersrand, and Bloemfontein. Each of these settlements appear illuminated by human-made lighting. The Orange river is also illuminated by the peoples who live along the river.

Satellite observations at night indicate that oil, gas, and mining have expanded across Earth’s northern latitudes.

Map of the Arctic circle with an overlay of where human generated lighting can be found shows only increasing light coverage from 1992 to 2013. Increases are primarily in Scandinavian countries and western to central Russia.

The southern California reservoir refilled from historic lows after two above-average years of rain.

Lake Castias appears as a dark void in the image center. mountain peaks surround, more on the left side of the lake than the right. On the right the towns of Oak View and Casitas Springs appear to run vertically along the edge of a a riverbed.

The iconic trees and shrubs of the Florida Everglades are under increased stress due to more frequent, intense hurricanes.

a panel of 4 images of the same section of mangrove, both before and after images, the top two from 2004 and 2005 the bottom two images from 2016 and 2017. both left side images show the mangroves relatively healthy, although there is some area color coded as declining in 2016. The after images on the right show the mangroves after a major hurricane event where, in both instances much of the mangrove is color coded as disturbed. However, in 2017 significantly more of the mangrove habitat has been marked as in decline.

Colorful swirls of water reveal the presence of phytoplankton in the South Atlantic Ocean near the Falkland Islands.

Argentina frames the left edge of the image in which centers the South Atlantic Ocean. The Falkland Islands are just in frame in the center bottom of the image. The ocean itself contains swirling shades of blue and green above the Falkland Islands fed by a stream of the same colors traveling south parallel to the South American Coastline.

Late-November snowfall blanketed large portions of the country and deposited record-breaking accumulations in Seoul.

A satellite image of the Korean peninsula shows the land covered in white, highlighting the topography, especially of the eastern portion of the peninsula. Gyeonggi Bay labelled to the left, Seoul is labeled on the upper left of the South Korean section of the peninsula. Wonju is labeled in the center of the snow covered region.

After two particularly wet years, large ephemeral lakes in the Barkly Tableland region were still flooded as the 2024–2025 rainy...

Three images of the same region appear side by side, each taken roughly one year after the other, it shows the eventual formation of Tarrabool Lake and Sylvester Lake on what was mostly arid land beige to rust in color. The lakes appear very deep green in color.

Windswept rocks and sand take many forms in this arid salt desert.

Lines across the beige landscape are labelled Yardangs. To the right of those are a darker shade of earth, near orange, labeled Sand dunes.

Lake water has quickly filled the void left by a trio of retreating glaciers in the southern part of the...

Open ocean borders the bottom of the image, inland there are snowcapped mountains, glaciers and glacial lakes the empty into the ocean. Top left is Yakutat Glacier, terminating in Harlequin Lake. At the right of the image Alsek Lake is fed by Alsek Glacier. below that Grand Plateau Glacier feeds Grand Plateau Lake. The river from Alsek lake notably discolors the water where it meets the ocean to a seafoam shade.

Towering over the desert in southwestern Libya, the Messak Settafet plateau resembles the wall of a giant fortress, with its...

The Cretaceous sandstone of Libya’s Messak Settafet plateau shows signs of a modern oil field and Stone Age quarries and hunting sites.

In April 2024, NASA scientist Chad Greene flew aboard a Gulfstream III with a team of engineers, monitoring a radar...

A novel radar image reveals structural elements of Camp Century, an abandoned U.S. military base buried within the Greenland Ice Sheet.

At night, the Windy City transforms into a city of lights, illuminated by the orange and white hues of the...

Orange, yellow, and white lights span Chicago at night, illuminating its gridded downtown and tracing its sinuous rivers and parks.

Research suggests that airborne particles called aerosols contribute to longer-lasting outbreaks of fog.

The satellite image shows Northern Italy valley with dense fog coverage. At the top of the image are the snow covered alps, at the bottom the Ligurian Sea. Milan is labeled under the northern edge of the fog.

Damaging winds from the strong storm knocked out power for thousands of people in Washington state.

Dense swirling clouds are shown, centered off the coast of Washington State. The Dense clouds channel into the coastal region around Northern California and nearly fully obscure Washington and Nevada.

The volcano’s first snow of the season fell in early November 2024—the latest in a 130-year record—only to apparently vanish...

A top down view of Mount Fuji. In the exact center is the crater which matches the color of the surrounding circular field of slopes, primarily light brown. To the lower right the color takes on a more faded black look. Sparse clouds occupy the lower right of the image beyond the volcanic slopes. The remainder of the image gives way to deep green foliage and lighter patches, possibly farmed fields, primarily on the upper right portion of the image.

The blue underbellies of icebergs were spotted floating near the Amery Ice Shelf.

The coastline of Antarctica shows snow covered land on the left and with icebergs interrupting the snowfield on the right, some dark in color, as they have flipped over. Penguin guano is also marked on the upper middle coastline.

The exceptionally long high-mountain glacier in Central Asia ranges from snowy white near the mountain peaks to dusty brown at...

The Fedchenko Glacier and snow fields that contribute to it are visible, interspersed with mountain peaks. There is a small cloud and it's shadow near the image center, both over the glacier. On the top left is a debris covered glacier and the top right is where the Fedchenko Glacier exits the image. Within that region are two distinct dark lines labelled Moraines

A series of explosive eruptions from Mount Lewotobi lofted ash to the cruising altitudes of jets.

Indonesia spans the image horizontally covered in medium green foliage. The Flores Sea is above the land and the Savu Sea beneath it on this image. On the right edge of the shown land is Laki-Laki, which has a narrow conical stream of white colored smoke that moves to the upper left corner of the image.

November snows piled up on the plains and peaks of Colorado and New Mexico.

The satellite image focuses on Colorado and surrounding states, the state lines are superimposed on the landscape along with state names. The landscape is bright white where snow covers the ground, and elsewhere is a deep brown color.

Windswept sand formations known as star dunes, or pyramid dunes, are a distinctive feature of the Sahara Desert in northern...

Erg Chebbi and the many Star dunes that comprise it can be seen in this satellite image stretched across open light brown landscape. This is a significant contrast to the rich orange brown sands of the Erg along the edges of which are camps on the upper side of the image and the Palm groves that border the town of Merzouga