Suggested Searches

April 2025

NASA Science Calendar Image of the Month. Image credit: Estrella Passerat de la Chapelle, Blue Marble Space Institute of Science

Satellite view of northwestern Africa showing the Sahara Desert, swirling ocean currents, and scattered clouds over the Atlantic Ocean; the Canary Islands are visible off the coast. NASA logo appears in the upper right corner.

April 2025 Image

Learn about April's amazing image. Explore related topics, activities, games, and download desktop wallpaper.

Air and Ocean Views

  • NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite, launched on February 8, 2024, collects data on microscopic life in the ocean and particles in the air, advancing researchers’ understanding of issues including fisheries' health, harmful algal blooms, air pollution, and wildfire smoke. With PACE, scientists also investigate how the ocean and atmosphere interact with each other and are affected by a changing climate. This image of West Africa and the Canary Islands was taken by PACE’s Ocean Color Instrument on May 4, 2024. In it are many elements the mission enables researchers to study—and that are represented in the PACE acronym. Blooms of phytoplankton (P) are seen as green colors off the coast. Tan dust aerosols (A) blow from western Africa over the Atlantic Ocean, which is dotted with white clouds (C), some of which show distinctive von Kármán vortices to the southwest of the Canary Islands. Minerals carried within the dust deliver key nutrients, such as iron, to sustain life at the base of the ocean ecosystem (E).

    Learn More about Pace

    Satellite image of northwestern Africa and the Atlantic Ocean displayed on a desktop computer screen, with visible ocean currents, swirling clouds, and desert terrain; NASA logo in the corner.

Discover More about our Air and Oceans

Map of the United States displaying air quality data, with color-coded concentrations of pollutants. A large search bar in the center reads 'Enter city or zip.' High pollution areas appear in red and yellow, while cleaner areas are shown in blue.

TEMPO Data Story

What is in the air you breathe? Explore detailed air quality data from NASA and Smithsonian's TEMPO mission.

This 2024 Earth Day poster is an ocean themed vertical 15x30 illustration created from NASA satellite cloud imagery overlaid on ocean data. The white cloud imagery wraps around shapes, defining three whales and a school of fish. Swirly cloud patterns, called Von K�rm�n Vortices, create the feeling of movement in the composition. The focal point is a cyclone in the upper third of the poster. At the center flies the recently launched PACE satellite. The ocean imagery � composed of blues, aquas, and greens � is filled with subtle color changes and undulating patterns created by churning sediment, organic matter and phytoplankton.

Our Oceans from Space

NASA's exploration of our oceans from space spans a rich history. Delving into the depths of our oceans unveils the mysteries of our own planet, our home. Therefore, NASA remains steadfast in leading the way in oceanic research.

Composite satellite image of ocean color data off the coast of southern Africa, showing swirling patterns in various color enhancements—natural color, chlorophyll concentration, and other ocean color metrics—to visualize phytoplankton and ocean dynamics.

Ocean Color Countdown with PACE

The color of our oceans, lakes and rivers can tell us a lot about what's going on just beneath the surface. With the new hyperspectral capabilities of the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission, we'll know more about the health of aquatic ecosystems and those impacts on human health and climate studies.

Visualization showing overlapping satellite data off the U.S. East Coast, with PACE satellite measuring ocean chlorophyll concentration in blue tones and SWOT satellite data overlaid in yellow and orange bands indicating sea surface height anomalies.

NASA’s PACE, US-European SWOT Satellites Offer Combined Look at Ocean

The ocean is an engine that drives Earth’s weather patterns and climate and sustains a substantial portion of life on the planet. A new animation based on data from two recently launched missions — NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) and the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellites — gives a peek into the heart of that engine.

View of Earth from space focused on the Americas, showing swirling ocean currents across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in white against a blue ocean background, highlighting global ocean circulation patterns.

Visualizing Ocean Currents with ECCO

By applying the laws of physics to data from multiple satellites and thousands of floating sensors, NASA scientists and collaborators built the ECCO model to be a realistic, detailed, and continuous simulation of the oceanthat spans decades. ECCO enabled thousands of scientific discoveries, and was featured during the announcement of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2021. You can find data visualizations using ECCO here.

Illustration of a NASA satellite with solar panels orbiting above Earth, capturing atmospheric and ocean data with the planet’s curvature and cloud patterns visible below.

NASA’s PACE To Investigate Oceans, Atmosphere in Changing Climate

NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem satellite launched in February 2024 to help us better understand tiny organisms in the ocean and particulates in the atosphere.

Explore our other featured images

Explore NASA's media galleries to view and download high-resolution images of the solar system, agency missions, and more.

A vivid aurora borealis in shades of purple, green, and pink illuminates the night sky, reflected on a calm body of water with a silhouette of rolling hills in the distance. NASA logo and text 'National Aeronautics and Space Administration' are visible in the upper corners.

January 2025

A digital NASA image depicting a sequence of asteroids arranged in a curved trajectory against a black background. The NASA logo appears in the upper right corner, and the text 'National Aeronautics and Space Administration' is visible in the upper left. The bottom left corner includes the URL 'www.nasa.gov.'

February 2025

Computer monitor displaying a vibrant scientific visualization with blue, red, and green cell-like patterns.

March 2025