Fire Burns Through Olympic Wilderness

The Bear Gulch fire spread through dense forest and filled skies with smoke in northwestern Washington state.

Image of the Day Fires Remote Sensing

Ash Streams from Klyuchevskaya Sopka

One of the most active volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsula is erupting yet again.

Image of the Day Atmosphere Land Volcanoes

SWOT Spots Tsunami Wave After Kamchatka Quake

Data provided by the water satellite are helping to improve tsunami forecast models.

Image of the Day Water

Browns Canyon National Monument

The remote and rugged landscape in central Colorado is known for outdoor recreation by day and exceptional stargazing by night.

Image of the Day Land

Sprawling Gifford Fire Scorches California

The fast-growing blaze charred more than 100,000 acres in the span of a week.

Image of the Day Land Fires

Lost Towns of the Quabbin

Forests play a key role in filtering the waters of a reservoir in central Massachusetts that’s home to submerged towns and nesting eagles.

Image of the Day Water

Nighttime Over the Eastern Pacific

A long-exposure photo taken from low Earth orbit captured the brilliant illumination coming from airglow, lightning, and stars.

Image of the Day Atmosphere

Bloom Time in the Barents Sea

Arctic waters near Norway’s Bear Island teemed with tiny plant-like organisms that painted the seas turquoise-blue and green.

Image of the Day Water

Wildfire Sweeps Through Southern France

The Aude fire rapidly burned around 16,000 hectares in August 2025, becoming the country’s largest fire since 1949.

Image of the Day Fires Human Presence

Fleeting Glimpse of Rare Snow

A short-lived storm dropped some of the largest accumulations in decades on Australia’s Northern Tablelands.

Image of the Day Severe Storms Snow and Ice Temperature Extremes

Aerosol Size

Sea salt, volcanic ash, dust, wildfire smoke, and industrial pollution are types of airborne aerosols. Natural aerosols tend to be larger than human-made aerosols. These maps show when and where aerosols come from nature, humans, or both.

Atmosphere

How to Interpret a Satellite Image: Five Tips and Strategies

What do you do when presented with a new satellite image? Here's what the Earth Observatory team does to understand the view.

Remote Sensing

Mission: Biomes

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a different part of the world? What would the weather be like? What kinds of animals would you see? Which plants live there? By investigating these questions, you are learning about biomes.

Land Life

Widespread Smoke from Canadian Fires

Fires burning in boreal forests created hazy skies across North America in summer 2025.

Image of the Day Heat Fires Remote Sensing

Carbon Monoxide

When fuels such as coal, wood, and oil burn incompletely, they produce carbon monoxide. The gas is spread by winds and circulation. These maps show monthly averages of CO in the lower atmosphere.

Atmosphere

Dust Engulfs Coastal Peru

Skies turned orange across the city of Ica as winds, locally known as Paracas winds, lofted dust from the coastal desert region.

Image of the Day Land Dust and Haze

July Puzzler

Your challenge is to tell us the location of the satellite image and why it is interesting.

2024 North Atlantic Hurricane Season

Hurricane season in the basin runs from June 1 to November 30.

Atmosphere

Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly

These maps depict how much hotter or cooler an ocean basin was compared to the long-term average. Temperature anomalies can indicate changes in ocean circulation or the arrival of patterns like El Niño and La Niña.

Heat Water

Earth at Night

Satellite images of Earth at night have been a curiosity for the public and a tool of fundamental research for at least 25 years. They have provided a broad, beautiful picture, showing how humans have shaped the planet and lit up the darkness.

Atmosphere Land Human Presence Remote Sensing

Renewable and Alternative Energy

People have developed systems to harvest and store energy from sources such as wind, sunlight, and tidal action. Many of these installations are visible from orbit.

Land Human Presence

Blue Marble Next Generation

12 months of high-resolution global true color satellite imagery.

Atmosphere Land Water Snow and Ice

Air Quality

From ground-level ozone to particulate matter to nitrogen dioxide, an array of gasses and particles can affect the air people breathe, with implications for human health.

Atmosphere Human Presence

Aerosol Optical Depth

Airborne aerosols can cause or prevent cloud formation and harm human health. These maps depict aerosol concentrations in the air based on how the tiny particles reflect or absorb visible and infrared light.

Atmosphere

World of Change

NASA satellites document how our world—forests, oceans, human landscapes, even the Sun—changes over months, seasons, and years.

Atmosphere Heat Land Life Human Presence Snow and Ice

Temperature Extremes 2024

Warmer-than-average temperatures are showing up locally and globally, with consequences for people, landscapes, and ecosystems.

Heat

Land Surface Temperature

Land surface temperatures rise and fall with the heat of the Sun, and they represent how hot or cold the surface would feel to touch. These maps show daytime land temperatures as measured from space.

Heat Land

2024 Fires in the Northern Hemisphere

Whether sparked by lightning, intentional land-clearing, or human-caused accidents, wildland fires are burning longer and more often in some areas as the world warms.

Atmosphere Land Human Presence

Temperature Extremes 2023

Warmer-than-average temperatures are showing up locally and globally, with consequences for people, landscapes, and ecosystems.

Heat

Fire

Whether started by humans (farming, logging, or accidents) or by nature (lightning), fires are always burning somewhere on Earth. These maps show the locations of fires burning around the world each month.

Land