NASA's Earth Observatory

NASA Earth Observatory

• Earth from the Moon
  Orbiting the Moon 372,335 kilometers away from Earth, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of Earth on June 12, 2010.
  
  
• Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico
  Acquired July 28, 2010, this natural-color image shows possible oil patches near the Mississippi Delta.
  
  
• Flooding in Pakistan
  Acquired on July 30, 2010 (top), and June 5, 2010 (bottom), these images show flooding along the Indus River in Pakistan.
  
  
• Fires in Eastern Siberia
  Acquired July 30, 2010, this natural-color image shows fires burning north of the Kamchatka Peninsula.
  
  
• Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico
  Acquired July 28, 2010, this natural-color image shows possible oil patches near the Mississippi Delta.
  
  
• Fires and Smoke near Moscow
  Acquired July 28, 2010, this natural-color image shows fires east of Moscow blanketing the region in thick smoke.
  
  
• Bull Fire in California’s Sequoia National Forest
  Outlined in red in this true-color image from July 27, 2010, the Bull Fire produced thick plumes of smoke as it burned near the southern edge of the Sequoia National Forest in southern California.
  
  
• Plume from Nyiragongo
  A blue-tinged pall completely obscures Nyiragongo Volcano in the Congo.
  
  
• Dominic Point Fire, Montana
  Taken July 25, 2010, this astronaut photograph shows the Dominic Point Fire burning in the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana.
  
  
• Dust Storm over the Red Sea
  Acquired July 24, 2010, this natural-color image shows dust plumes blowing off the coast of Africa, over the Red Sea, and toward the Arabian Peninsula.
  
  
• Severe Storms Strike U.S. East Coast
  Acquired July 25, 2010, this image shows storm clouds traveling toward the east, passing over Washington, DC.
  
  
• Dust off Western Africa
  Acquired July 25, 2010, this natural-color image shows a dust plume hundreds of kilometers long over the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
  
  
• GOES-13 Satellite Sees Severe Storms Strike U.S. East Coast
  The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite captured a series of images of the storm activity on July 25, 2010.
  
  
• Study Finds Amazon Storm Killed Half a Billion Trees
  A single, huge, violent storm that swept across the whole Amazon forest in 2005 killed half a billion trees, according to a new study funded by NASA and Tulane University, New Orleans.
  
  
• NASA Goddard Felt July 16 Quake
  A small earthquake, centered near Germantown, Md., occurred at 5:04 a.m. EDT on July 16, and its vibrations were felt from West Virginia to Connecticut.
  
  
• Supercomputer Reproduces a Cyclone's Birth, May Boost Forecasting
  NASA's Pleiades supercomputer has helped develop a simulation of tropical cyclone Nargis, which devastated Myanmar in 2008.
  
  
• First-of-its-Kind Map Depicts Global Forest Heights
  Using NASA satellite data, scientists have produced a first-of-its kind map that details the heights of the world's forests.
  
  
• NASA Goes Deep in Search of Extreme Environments
  An expedition has discovered the deepest known hydrothermal vent in the world, nearly 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) below the surface of the western Caribbean Sea.
  
  
• NASA Satellites' View of Gulf Oil Spill Over Time
  This updated video shows a series of images that provide a space-based view of the burning oil rig and the ensuing oil spill, now with additional footage through July 14.
  
  
• Cutting Into Arctic Sea Ice
  Throughout NASA's ICESCAPE mission, an icebreaker ship "parked" amid an ice floe and teams of ice scientists stepped foot on the floating ice for a close up look.
  
  
• Antarctica Traced from Space
  The point where ice separates from land is called the "grounding line," and for scientists, an accurate map of the grounding line is a first step toward a complete calculation of how much ice the continent is losing.
  
  
• Arctic Voyage Illuminating Ocean Optics
  During NASA's ICESCAPE voyage to the Arctic, scientists have been looking at the phytoplankton in the Arctic's Chukchi Sea -- how many, how big and at what depths they are found.
  
  
• Gulf of Mexico Oil Slick Images: Frequently Asked Questions
  This FAQ explains why oil is more obvious in some satellite images than others and why the Earth Observatory doesn't post new images of the oil slick every day.
  
  
• Converging Weather Patterns Caused Last Winter's Huge Snows
  The extraordinarily cold, snowy weather that hit parts of the US East Coast and Europe was the result of a collision of two periodic weather patterns in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, a new study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters finds. (American Geophysical Union release)
  
  
• Key Compound of Ozone Destruction Detected
  For the first time, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) scientists have successfully measured in the ozone layer the chlorine compound ClOOCl which plays an important role in stratospheric ozone depletion. (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology release)
  
  
• Mountain Marmots Made Bigger by Climate Change, Says New Study
  Longer summers are causing large mountain rodents called to grow larger and get better at surviving, according to a 33-year study published today in Nature. (Natural Environment Research Council release)
  
  
• Warmer Climate Entails Increased Release of Carbon Dioxide by Inland Lakes
  Much organically bound carbon is deposited on inland lake bottoms and Swedish researchers have shown in a new study in Nature that carbon retention by sediment at lake bottoms is highly temperature-sensitive and that a warmer climate would result in increased carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. (Swedish Research Council release)