Latest Features
The Gravity of Water
September 12, 2012Scientists are using novel measurements of gravity to gather indispensable information about Earth’s water supplies. The GRACE mission can see water flowing underground. Read more
Notes from the Field Blog: Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study (SPURS)
August 28, 2012A group of scientists are headed to the saltiest spot in the North Atlantic Ocean. They will spend six weeks at sea studying what's driving changes in the salt content of the ocean and how these variations relate to an acceleration of the global water cycle and climate change. Read more
Greatest Hits from Landsat
July 31, 2012Landsat 1 was launched in July 1972, starting the longest continuous observation of Earth's land surfaces from space. Here are some of the memorable scientific and societal contributions from the 40-year-old program. Read more
Dry Times in North America
September 25, 2000Recurring droughts are common in the American West, and a 2008 report from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program cautions that they may become more common (press release). This article from 2000 describes how scientists use data from satellites and rain gauges along with tree-rings and lakebed sediments to understand and predict drought in North America. Read more
2012
Landsat Looks and Sees
July 23, 2012The world’s longest-running Earth-observing satellite program has collected more than three million images, showing two generations of planetary evolution and of human imprints on Earth. The Landsat archives tell an unparalleled story of our land surfaces. Read more
Notes from the Field Blog: Siberia 2012 - Embenchime River Expedition
July 11, 2012A dedicated team of scientists has returned to the remote boreal forests of northern Siberia to study how the boreal ecosystem moderates Earth's climate by storing carbon and the implications of a warming climate on those forests. Read more
World of Change: Columbia Glacier, Alaska
May 16, 2012Since 1980, the volume of this glacier that spills into the Prince William Sound has shrunk by half. Climate change may have nudged the process along, but mechanical forces have played the largest role in the ice loss. Read more
Looking Back on Ten Years of Aqua
May 4, 2012Launched on May 4, 2002, NASA's Aqua satellite and its six instruments have provided a decade's worth of unprecedented views of our planet. Here are a few of our favorites. Read more
Where Is the Hottest Place on Earth?
April 5, 2012Satellite research shows that the world’s hottest spot changes, though the conditions don’t. Think dry, rocky, and dark-colored lands...and cities. Read more
Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami: Looking Back from Space
March 9, 2012In 2011, the fourth largest earthquake in history rocked the coast of Japan, spawning a devastating tsunami. Satellites and scientists had an unprecedented view of both. This gallery offers a glimpse of the broad scale of the destruction, of the recovery a year later, and of some new scientific understanding that emerged. Read more
Top 11 from 2011
January 23, 2012The most-visited images published in the Earth Observatory from 2011 are featured in this gallery. Read more
Seeing Forests for the Trees and the Carbon: Mapping the World’s Forests in Three Dimensions
January 9, 2012Earth has a carbon problem, and some think trees are the answer. Would it help to plant more? To cut down fewer? Does it matter where? Scientists are working to get a better inventory of the carbon stored in trees. Read more
Browse Topics
World of Change
Satellite images showing how our world— forests, oceans,
cities, even the Sun— has changed in recent decades.
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Blue Marble
Composite satellite images of the entire Earth.
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Experiments
Hands-on educational activities.
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Visible Earth
A catalog of NASA images and animations of our home planet.
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NASA Earth Observations
View, download, and analyze imagery of Earth science data.
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NASA Global Climate Change
Vital signs of the planet.
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Earth Science Picture of the Day
Photos of Earth processes and phenomena.
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