Earthdata

The symbols on this map show current locations of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) sites that provide data of varying temporal time spans and latency. NASA’s Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS) supports the International GNSS Service (IGS) as a Global Data Center.

GNSS sites provide data in daily (red), hourly (yellow), sub-hourly (blue), and/or real-time (orange) increments. Hourly, sub-hourly, and real-time data allow analysts to generate products for applications needing more frequent updates, e.g., positioning, navigation, timing, and disaster monitoring.

This image from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer’s (MISR's) vertical viewing camera shows New Delhi under a thick haze. The towering Himalayas stretching across the north (swath displayed horizontally) prevent pollutants from blowing northward.

This image shows aerosol optical depth from 0 (dark blue) to 1.0 (red), and measures the abundance of aerosols. Optical depths for the area around New Delhi have not been calculated because the haze is so thick that the algorithm classified the area as a cloud.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument's Snow Cover product shows the percent of snow cover over land and inland water bodies. Blue colors indicate 1-30% snow cover; orange/red colors indicate 80-100% snow cover.

The MODIS Snow Cover product is available from both the Terra (MOD10) and Aqua (MYD10) satellites. These data are available through NASA's National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC).

This false-color Sentinel-1A image of the South Carolina coast shows inundation days after Hurricane Matthew made landfall in October. Much of the orange represents flooding--a mix of green from volumetric scattering of radar off trees and red from surface scattering off floodwaters and tree trunks.

Through an agreement between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA’s Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center (ASF DAAC) distributes the complete ESA archive of Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. Image credit: Copernicus Sentinel data 2016.

The Marinelli Glacier at the tip of South America has retreated about 15 kilometers in the last hundred years. A recent LP DAAC “Data in Action” story highlights a project that has produced a global database of glaciers using various remote sensing data sources, including Terra ASTER.

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument provides data for observing features such as volcanoes, natural disasters, and glaciers. ASTER’s visible and near infrared bands at 15 m spatial resolution allow for detailed observations of glaciers.

On Oct 13-14, 2016, Crescent City, CA (near the border with Oregon) had over 5 inches of rain during one atmospheric river event leading to the second wettest October on record with over 4 times the typical October amount. This event was enhanced by the remnants of Typhoon Songda.

Atmospheric rivers are narrow regions of high water vapor that are visible in passive microwave imagery such as the F17 SSMIS data from GHRC shown here as a red/orange line stretching west into the Pacific. These events can deposit as much as 50% of an area’s annual precipitation.

This image shows average global January air temperature at 2 meters above the surface, averaged over the period 1981-2015, acquired from the Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications – 2 (MERRA-2) data set. The temperature range is -41°C (dark blue) to 34°C (dark red).

MERRA-2 data are featured in a presentation at the 2016 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, Dec. 12-16: “Exploring and Analyzing Climate Variations Online by Using MERRA-2 data at GES DISC.” Variations in air temperature, precipitation, ozone, and atmospheric aerosols are examined.

NASA’s Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS) supports the International GNSS Service (IGS) Real-Time Service. The symbols on this map indicate the current locations of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) sites providing real-time “streams.”

The CDDIS “caster” disseminates both data and derived products, such as corrections for GNSS satellite orbits and clocks in real-time. These data and products enable precise point positioning and related applications such as time synchronization and disaster monitoring.

The Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) sensor on NASA’s Terra satellite measures the amount of energy emitted by Earth’s surface, oceans, and atmosphere. The Indian heat wave shown here was among the five deadliest on record, claiming more than 2,500 lives by 4 June 2015.

In this image, emitted radiation is depicted in shades of purple and is measured in watts per square meter. Warmer areas emitting the most longwave radiation are lighter; cooler areas emitting less radiation are darker.

NASA's Gridded Population of the World (GPW) v4 collection provides global population count and density distribution estimates for the years 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 in a gridded format that can be easily combined with satellite imagery and Earth science data.

The world's population is unevenly distributed. Areas of higher population, indicated by darker colors in GPW v4, tend to be located near reliable sources of fresh water, fertile soils, and hospitable climates. Very hot or cold locations and deserts tend to have much lower populations.

NASA and university scientists developed a new way to use GRACE measurements to track changes in Atlantic Ocean currents. This opens a path to better monitoring and understanding of how ocean circulation is changing and what the changes may mean for future climate. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission accurately maps variations in Earth's gravity field. GRACE maps Earth's gravity field by making accurate measurements of the distance between the two identical orbiting GRACE satellites using GPS and a microwave ranging system.

Tropical Storm Ma-on formed from a tropical depression on 10 November and briefly had tropical storm-level winds of about 64 kph/40 mph. Tropical Storm Ma-on is one of many events you can search using the new Worldview/EONET Events feature.

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) collects measurements of clouds, aerosols, ocean color, surface temperature, fires, and albedo. VIIRS is one of 5 instruments aboard the joint NOAA/NASA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) spacecraft.

Sentinel-1 is a European Space Agency mission that creates images using synthetic aperture radar (SAR). SAR provides all-weather, day-and-night imagery of Earth’s surface. Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B data are available through NASA's Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center (ASF DAAC).

The extinct volcano in this Sentinel-1A image is Emi Koussi, which rises to 3,415 m. The curved lines are ridges shaped by desert winds. The false colors indicate surface type. For example, blue indicates radar scattering off a smooth surface such as sand. Credit: Copernicus Sentinel data 2016.

The green swirls in this image off the Falkland Islands are phytoplankton being carried by the Malvinas current. The Malvinas current travels north, mixing cold water from the Southern Ocean into the subtropical waters of the Argentine coast.

This image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), which is one of six instruments aboard NASA’s Aqua Earth observing satellite. MODIS measures physical properties of the atmosphere, and biological and physical properties of the oceans and land.

The Junkins Fire started on October 17 and burned more than 17,000 acres. This fire is one of more than 30 natural events you can view using the new Events tab on Worldview. The Events tab is a collaboration between Worldview and the Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET).

EOSDIS Worldview allows you to interactively browse global, full-resolution satellite imagery and then download the underlying data. Most of the 200+ products available through Worldview are updated within three hours of observation.

This image is part of the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE). ABoVE seeks a better understanding of the vulnerability and resilience of ecosystems and society in Arctic and Boreal regions. ABoVE data are available through NASA's Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC).

The colors on this image show how wildfires progressed from 6 June (yellow areas) to 22 September (red areas) in 2014. Wildfires can be detected and tracked in near real-time using data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument aboard NASA's Terra and Aqua Earth observing satellites.

NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite was launched 31 January 2015 to measure surface soil moisture and freeze-thaw state. SMAP data are available through NASA's National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs).

The bands of color in this image indicate areas scanned by SMAP's radiometer during the passage of Hurricane Matthew. Blue colors indicate areas of increased soil moisture; yellow and green colors indicate areas with less soil moisture; areas without colored bands were not scanned.

The VIIRS Land Science Investigator-led Processing System is reprocessing and forward processing VIIRS land environmental data records to produce high quality land products, which are expected to be available in Oct/Nov through NASA’s Level 1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS).

This 8-day composite VIIRS image shows surface reflectance at 1km resolution. Brown areas are desert/sparse vegetation, green areas are vegetated, and white areas are either clouds or snow-covered mountains.

This image shows radar backscatter from the Airborne Microwave Observatory of Subcanopy and Subsurface (AirMOSS) radar instrument rendered as a color image. AirMOSS uses an ultra-high frequency synthetic aperture radar to measure root-zone soil moisture.

The AirMOSS radar is a P-band fully polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that can penetrate through vegetation canopies and soil to depths of approximately 1.2 meters. AirMOSS data are available through NASA’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC).

The MEaSUREs 2006 Vegetation Index and Phenology (VIP) collection is now being distributed by NASA's Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC). This data collection provides users with global vegetation information from 1981 to 2014.

This image shows vegetation using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) layer of the VIP 7-day product. Vegetation “greenness” ranges from sparser vegetation in light green to healthier vegetation in dark green. Brown areas are those with little to no vegetation (such as deserts).

On August 28, 2016 two tropical cyclones, Madeleine and Lester, approached the Hawaiian Islands. This rare event raised concerns for flash flooding and high surf for several of the eastern islands. Both storms skirted the Hawaiian Islands, bringing only high waves and rain.

This LANCE near real-time daily columnar water vapor retrieval image was derived from measurements taken by the AMSR2 instrument aboard the GCOM-W1 satellite. These data are available through the Rain and Ocean data product at NASA’s Global Hydrology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center (GHRC DAAC).

Hermine was the first hurricane to make landfall in Florida since 2005. This image combines Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) rainfall data (color map) with North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) wind speed data (black arrows) at the time of Hermine’s landfall, approximately 2 AM EDT on September 2, 2016.

The Giovanni web application provides a simple, intuitive way to visualize, analyze, and access vast amounts of Earth science remote sensing data without having to download the data. This image was made with a new Giovanni analysis feature: overlay maps. This feature is in its final development phase and will be available to the public shortly.

The symbols on this map indicate the current network locations of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS; red), Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR; green), and Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS; orange) sites along with Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI; blue) antennas.

The ITRF is an accurate, stable set of station positions and velocities that allows researchers to measure change and link measurements over space, time, and evolving technologies. A new version was released in 2016 by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) based on measurements from this geodetic network.

The Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) on the International Space Station (ISS) provides profile measurements of atmospheric clouds and aerosols. This image shows mean ice cloud top heights between March 2015 and March 2016. Green, yellow, and red colors indicate higher cloud tops; blue areas indicate lower cloud tops.

Between March 2015 and March 2016, CATS detected mean ice cloud tops as high as 17 to 18 km (about 10.5 to 11 miles high). Higher ice cloud top heights are most commonly seen in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) along either side of the equator (broad green areas).

The Global Amphibian Richness Grids represent the number of amphibian species at a 1-km grid cell resolution. Dark green areas indicate a high number of amphibian species; white areas (such as in the Sahara Desert) indicate no species. Map credit: CIESIN Columbia University, July 2016.

This map is part of NASA's Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center's (SEDAC's) Gridded Species Distribution collection, which shows the global distribution of amphibians and mammals. Species are grouped by class and family, as well as into three major threat categories: critically endangered, endangered, and vulnerable.

Sea surface temperature anomaly is the difference between current conditions as defined by the Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Ice Analysis (OSTIA) and normal conditions as defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Pathfinder mission V5 climatology.

In this image, temperature anomalies range between +3 degrees Celsius (red) to -3 degrees Celsius (purple). SST anomalies are returning to normal in Tropical Pacific, with large positive anomalies still in the Northern Pacific.

In this false-color Sentinel-1A SAR image, bare surfaces such as soil or rock are shown as red and orange. The buildings of Anchorage at the right side of the image are yellowish. Vegetation is green. Blue indicates calm water, ice, or other smooth surfaces. Copernicus Sentinel data 2015.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Sentinel-1A satellite launched on April 3, 2014. Through an agreement between NASA and ESA, NASA's Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center (ASF DAAC) distributes the complete ESA archive of Sentinel-1A SAR data.

The Lava Mountain Fire in Wyoming covered more than 10,000 acres when this image was captured by the ASTER instrument aboard NASA's Terra Earth observing satellite. ASTER's thermal infrared band shows active fire hotspots in yellow. Image: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument aboard NASA's Terra Earth observing satellite images Earth in 14 spectral bands, from visible to thermal infrared wavelengths. ASTER is managed by a joint U.S./Japan science team.

Sunglint is the reflection of sunlight off the surface of water that is captured by a detector aboard a satellite. Scientists use sunglint to help detect phenomena such as the seepage of methane gas from the ocean floor and oil slicks on the water surface. Image: Norman Kuring, NASA/GSFC Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG).

Sunglint in images captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA's Aqua Earth observing satellite are slightly to the west of the swath's center line since Aqua crosses the equator in the early afternoon when the sun is west of the sensor.

This surface soil moisture image is created from observations from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission and are merged with soil moisture estimates from a land surface model. Oranges, yellows, and greens show areas of low soil moisture; blues and greys indicate high levels of soil moisture.

Large parts of Central California are rated as experiencing Extreme or Exceptional Drought. However, dry conditions are typical this time of year. The high moisture levels across the Midwestern states are likely a result of heavy rains that fell during this week, providing relief to some areas of the upper Midwest that are rated as Unusually Dry.

This Moderate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) true-color image of the Pacific Northwest shows northwestern Washington state along with the southern tip of Vancouver Island, Canada. Most of the white over the land is snow, with fog and marine stratocumulus clouds over the Pacific Ocean just offshore.

The MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra and Aqua Earth observing satellites captures data in 36 spectral bands between 0.405 and 14.385 µm, and acquires data at three spatial resolutions -- 250m, 500m, and 1,000m. MODIS views the entire Earth's surface every one to two days.

Cooler land surface temperatures (LSTs) of rural areas appear green while warmer impervious surfaces (such as concrete and asphalt) in cities appear red. The difference in LST between cooler rural areas and warmer urban areas is easily seen in major cities located near the Great Lakes, such as Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Toronto.

This image is a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 8-day composite of daytime LST. MODIS provides both daytime and nighttime LST data that are produced from thermal infrared (TIR) bands that detect the heat of Earth’s surface.

This mosaic was created using images of liquid and frozen cloud particles taken during the Mid-latitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E). MC3E was a NASA Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) ground validation field campaign to validate data collected by the joint NASA/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency GPM satellite mission.

Clouds contain both liquid (rain) and frozen water (ice crystals). Rain drops in clouds are not teardrop shaped, but are shaped more like hamburger buns. Similarly, ice crystals in clouds do not always resemble typical snowflakes. Frozen water takes on a variety of hexagonal shapes called habits, which rarely are perfectly shaped.

NO₂ is a pollutant produced from road traffic, fossil fuel combustion processes, and natural events such as wildfires. NO₂ is a major component of acid rain and can lead to breathing difficulties. The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura satellite is one tool NASA uses to collect data about air quality.

This image shows a weekly summary of total tropospheric column NO₂. Areas with high levels of NO₂ are indicated in red and brown. Even though no continental outlines or country borders are shown, the high emissions of NO₂ from cities and industrialized countries make it easy to discern the U.S. and Europe.

The green icons are the network of more than 40 Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) sites providing laser ranging data to the LAGEOS satellite. Red dots indicate all stations that have tracked LAGEOS since its launch on 4 May 1976. LAGEOS data are archived at NASA's Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS).

SLR data provide extremely high location accuracy at a global scale, and are used for positioning tracking stations, monitoring the motion of Earth's rotational pole, determining Earth's gravitational field, and improving modeling of tides.

The colors on this map indicate land surface temperature using the Kelvin (K) temperature scale. Warmer areas are shown in yellow and orange; cooler areas are in green and blue. Unlike air temperature, this measurement shows the temperature of whatever is on the Earth's surface.

Kelvin (K) is the primary temperature unit of measure in the physical sciences. 0K is the theoretical temperature at which molecular motion stops. To convert kelvin to degrees Celsius, simply subtract 273.15 from the kelvin value. Water boils at 373.15K, which is 100°C.

This image was acquired by the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft. In this image, the the massive Rim Fire measures 380 by 346 km (236 by 215 mi).

This wildland fire, called the Rim Fire, started in a remote canyon in the Stanislaus National Forest, and was the third largest wildfire in California's history.

This map displays net migration estimates over northern Europe from 1990-2000 at 1-km resolution. Net migration is estimated by subtracting the natural increase (births minus deaths) in population from the overall population change over the decade.

Migration occurs in response to many environmental, economic and political reasons. Here we see the cities of northern Europe grow and rural areas shrink during the 1990s. Since many cities are near coasts, this migration poses challenges as sea levels rise.

The "blob" is the name given to an area of unusually warm sea surface temperature in the Northeast Pacific (indicated by red, warm water south of Alaska). The blob was first detected in 2013 and persisted through 2015.

The image is comprised of 12-year statistics from the Multi-scale Ultra-high Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (MUR SST) data, called the fourth empirical orthogonal function (EOF), showing some of the dominant patterns of changes in surface temperature.

Each full color cycle, or fringe, indicates motion of 8.5 cm (3.35 in) caused by the 4/16/2016 Kumamoto earthquake. Image credit: Franz J. Meyer, 2016; contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016. The radar image was combined with NASA/USGS Landsat images in Google Earth (© 2016 Google).

Through an agreement between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA's Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center (ASF DAAC) distributes the complete ESA archive of Sentinel-1A synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data.

Tropical Cyclone Amos formed on April 20. On April 22 (the date of this image), Amos had sustained winds of 105 mph/169 kph with gusts to 125 mph/201 kph and was moving east at 9 mph/14.5 kph toward Pago Pago, American Samoa.

Instruments on NASA satellites, such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra and Aqua Earth observing satellites, are used to track tropical cyclones, wildfires, dust storms, and other events 24/7.

The swirls of blue and green in this image are high concentrations of microscopic organisms called chlorophyll. The Patagonian Sea in the southwest Atlantic Ocean is one of the most biologically productive regions in the global ocean.

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a scanning radiometer that collects visible and infrared imagery and radiometric measurements of the land, atmosphere, cryosphere, and oceans.

The age of Arctic sea ice can be determined using sensors on Earth observing satellites. Old sea ice (4-5 years old or older) is generally thicker and whiter, and shows more relief. Young sea ice is generally thinner and flatter, and has a blueish tint closer to that of the open sea.

Arctic sea ice reached a record low seasonal maximum extent of 14.52 million square kilometers (5.607 million square miles) on March 24, 2016. The average Arctic sea ice extent for March 2016 was 14.43 million square kilometers (5.57 million square miles), the second lowest in the satellite record.

The complete ASTER archive is now available at no charge through NASA’s LP DAAC. ASTER is a partnership between NASA; Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI); Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST); and Japan Space Systems (J-spacesystems).

NASA’s Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) created the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Level 1 Precision Terrain Corrected Registered At-Sensor Radiance (AST_L1T) product by applying modified Landsat geometric algorithms to ASTER Level 1 data.

AOD is a measure of how much particles in the air (aerosols) prevent light from passing through the atmosphere. Areas in yellow and red (such as over India) indicate areas with high concentrations of aerosols that can limit visibility.

This image was created from data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA’s Terra Earth observing satellite. MODIS Level-1 atmosphere and select land data products are available through NASA’s Level 1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS).

The lightning climatology reveals Earth’s lightning hotspot, located over Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. This area experiences very localized and persistent thunderstorms, which account for the observed high flash rate density.

The LIS Very High Resolution Climatology datasets were derived from 16 years of lightning observations collected by the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS). This data presents a higher resolution gridded lightning climatology dataset than previously available, allowing lighting trends and hotspots to be studied.

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission provides global observations of rain and snow. The IMERG "Late Run" data set is a near real-time data product combining observations from several different satellites that are inter-calibrated with radar instruments on the GPM Core Observatory satellite.

As shown in this image of IMERG data, averaged over March 7 - 9, 2016, with the NASA Giovanni system, heavy rain fell in central and southern Arkansas and along the Arkansas/Louisiana border (indicated by the red to yellow color). The heavy rain led to major flooding.

The red dots on this map indicate the more than 200 GNSS sites that provide real-time data to NASA's Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS). GNSS data provide precise global positions using a fleet of orbiting satellites and a global network of ground-based receivers.

Real-time GNSS data enable precise point positioning (PPP) and related applications, such as time synchronization and disaster monitoring, at worldwide scales. PPP uses precise clocks and satellite orbits to provide position information to within a few centimeters for nearly any location on Earth.

In this false-color Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image, bare surfaces (such as soil) are red and orange; vegetation is green. The large dark spots are glaciated areas that are smooth and have little radar backscatter. Copernicus Sentinel data 2015.

Through an agreement between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA's Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center (ASF DAAC) distributes the complete ESA archive of Sentinel-1A SAR data.

This Earth image is from approximately 1 million miles away, and was captured by the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). DSCOVR is a NASA/NOAA/U.S. Air Force partnership.

Images from the EPIC instrument allow scientists to study daily variations in vegetation, ozone, aerosols, and cloud height and reflectivity across the entire globe.

PM2.5 refers to fine particulate matter (less than 2.5 microns in diameter) in the atmosphere. The high PM2.5 concentrations over the Arabian Peninsula are mainly due to naturally occurring dust or sea salt.

High PM2.5 concentrations (areas in orange and red) are known to cause or aggravate respiratory and heart problems. Air pollution is the cause of the very high PM2.5 levels over parts of India.

The sea surface temperatures in this image are from data collected by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instrument. Yellow, red, and crimson colors indicate areas of warmer sea surface temperatures.

El Niño is the name given to a period of unusually warm sea surface temperatures that develop in the central to east-central tropical Pacific Ocean. The current El Niño is one of the strongest ever recorded.

One-quarter of the carbon released from fossil fuel burning is taken up by vegetation and even the soil. NASA is developing new technologies and techniques, such as the Carbon Monitoring System (CMS), to better monitor and understand global carbon uptake.

Brazilian tropical forests contain approximately one-third of the global carbon stock in above-ground tropical forest biomass. Orange and red areas in this image indicate trees extending above the surrounding canopy.

January 24 was a clear day along much of the East Coast, so the white in this image is snow left behind by a powerful winter storm. According to the National Weather Service, this storm produced record snowfall in many East Coast cities, including Richmond, VA; Baltimore, MD; Harrisburg, PA; Newark, NJ; and Central Park in New York City.

Unlike clouds, snow tends to follow terrain features. This is clearly seen in this Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) image from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite, where the snow neatly follows the ridges of mountains in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania and stops exactly at the coastline.

Rosario, Argentina, is located 300 km (186 miles) NW of Buenos Aires, and sits on the western shore of the Parana River. Since 2015, heavy rain has displaced tends of thousands of residents from their homes in Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil.

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument collects data in 14 spectral bands, from the visible to the infrared. Its high spatial resolution makes it a key tool for monitoring surface changes.

The Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a key instrument on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi-NPP) satellite. The VIIRS fire product detects areas of high heat from wildfires, oil refineries, and other sources and these are depicted as red triangles.

Scientists use data from VIIRS to study a wide range of Earth processes, including cloud and aerosol properties, ocean color, sea and land surface temperature, ice motion and temperature, fires, and the Earth's albedo. VIIRS launched aboard the Suomi-NPP satellite on October 28, 2011.

Measurements of SST are used for a wide range of applications and research, including forecasting weather, managing fisheries, analyzing ocean acoustic communication, and studying climate and marine life. Cooler temperatures are indicated by blues and greens; with warmer temperatures indicated by yellows and reds.

This image is a Multi-scale Ultra-high Resolution Sea Surface Temperature, or MUR SST, map of the Earth, and is made by combining measurements from multiple instruments on different satellites. It is produced by the Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST).

Data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite were used to create this image. AIRS, in conjunction with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), senses emitted infrared and microwave radiation to provide a three-dimensional look at Earth's weather and climate.

Widespread forest fires led to high levels of carbon monoxide over Indonesia in mid-October, indicated by the red, brown, and purple colors in this image. These high carbon monoxide concentrations led to large parts of Indonesia being placed in a state of emergency.

Satellite-borne sensors play a key role in studying glaciers, which often are in remote areas. This image from the ASTER instrument is part of a study looking at changes in glaciers around Lake Chem in the northwestern Tibetan Plateau, China. All glaciers in this area have decreased in size over the past 39 years.

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument launched aboard the Terra Earth observing satellite in 1999, and is a cooperative effort between NASA, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and Japan Space Systems.

This interferogram shows the displacement of land after an 8.3M earthquake occurred near Santiago, Chile, on 09/16/2015. Each complete color cycle equals 8.5 cm of motion. Image: F. Meyer, W. Gong 2015; contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2015.

The European Space Agency Sentinel-1A satellite was launched on 04/03/2014, and carries a C-band SAR. Sentinel-1A data are available through NASA's Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center (ASF DAAC).

The colors in this image from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) represent elevation, with higher elevation indicated by yellows, reds, and whites. Mount Kilimanjaro is the large white area on the right, and has an elevation of 5,895 meters (19,341 ft).

NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) SRTM 1-arc-second data were used to create this shaded relief image of Mount Kilimanjaro.

The Database of Road Transportation Emissions (DARTE) shows that urban areas accounted for 63% of total vehicle CO2 emissions in the continental U.S. in 2012. Areas with the highest CO2 emissions are in red; areas with lower CO2 emissions are in green and white.

DARTE is part of NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS), which is designed to make significant contributions in characterizing, quantifying, understanding, and predicting the evolution of global carbon sources and sinks through improved monitoring of carbon stocks and fluxes.

This Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Aqua image, acquired on November 18, 2015 shows the Rocky Mountains following a powerful weather system that dropped more than 0.3 meters (12 inches) of snow along portions of the Front Range. Wind gusts of 112 km/hr (70 mph) and higher were measured during this early-season blizzard.

MODIS is a key instrument aboard NASA's Terra (1999 launch) and Aqua (2002 launch) Earth observing satellites. MODIS provides observations for the entire Earth's surface every 1 to 2 days, acquiring data in 36 spectral bands. MODIS and other remote sensing data are improving our understanding of Earth's interrelated systems.

The swirling bluish-green colors around Iceland are living organisms called phytoplankton, which form the base of the ocean food pyramid. Satellite images of ocean color make it easy to detect these large phytoplankton blooms.

The joint Suomi-NPP Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) collects visible and infrared imagery and radiometric measurements of the land, atmosphere, cryosphere, and oceans. VIIRS data are used to measure cloud and aerosol properties, ocean color, sea and land surface temperature, ice motion and temperature, fires, and Earth's albedo.

SEDAC's Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks 178 countries on 20 performance indicators in 9 policy categories: health impacts, air quality, water and sanitation, water resources, agriculture, forests, fisheries, biodiversity and habitat, and climate and energy. Map credit: CIESIN Columbia University, November 2014.

NASA's Socioeconomic Data & Applications Center (SEDAC) is one of 12 discipline-specific Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). It is hosted by the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University.

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a quasi-periodic fluctuation of warmer than normal ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific and can clearly be seen in this image by the dark red colors stretching to the west off the coast of South America. According to NASA's PO.DAAC, this year's El Nino is one of the strongest on record.

Sea Surface Temperature (SST) is a measure of the energy due to the motion of molecules at the top layer of the ocean. SST measurements are taken by instruments aboard several orbiting satellites, including NASA's Terra and Aqua.

Category 5 Hurricane Patricia is expected to make landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast near Puerto Vallarta the evening of October 23 with estimated winds of 322 km/h (200 mph), then rapidly weaken as it moves inland.

Category 3 Hurricane Olaf, with winds of 193 km/h (120 mph), is expected to stay east of the Hawaiian Islands as it slowly churns NNE and weakens to a tropical storm by early next week.

Data from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument are used to create detailed maps of surface temperature, reflectance, and elevation. Image: NASA/GSFC/METI/Japan Space Systems & U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.

The Ural Mountains stretch roughly 2,500 km (1,600 miles) across western Russia, from the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. The Urals form the boundary between the continents of Europe and Asia.

This image shows averaged atmospheric carbon dioxide between Oct. 1 and Nov. 11, 2014, and is the first global map from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2). Red and orange colors indicate higher carbon dioxide concentrations. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

NASA's OCO-2 satellite launched on July 2, 2014, to collect measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide with the precision, resolution, and coverage necessary to characterize the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide and quantify the variability of carbon dioxide over seasonal cycles.

This image of estimated precipitation from 9/26 through 10/5 is generated from the Integrated MultisatellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) data product. Parts of South Carolina received more than 600 mm (24 in) of rain during this period. Image: SSAI/NASA GSFC.

The joint NASA/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory collects global precipitation data from 65˚ north and south latitude, and can collect data about storms as they form in the tropics and move to more temperate latitudes.

This precipitation image is generated from the Integrated Multi-SatellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) data product, which provides daily images of global precipitation. Data for this image are collected by the joint NASA/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory.

Based on 30-year climatology, four named storms typically form in the Atlantic in September, with two or three storms becoming hurricanes and one or two reaching major hurricane strength (like Hurricane Joaquin).

The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) was one of five instruments aboard NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), which orbited from 1997 to 2015. LIS detected the distribution and variability of total lightning occurring in tropical regions. A LIS is scheduled for launch in 2016 for installation on the International Space Station.

This image is a composite of lightning data collected by the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) between January 1998 and October 2014. Over more than 16 years, the sensor recorded more than 1.16 billion lightning events and more than 22 million lightning flashes. Darker colors (grays and blacks) indicate areas of heavy lightning activity.

This synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image was made using a phased array L-band synthetic aperture radar (PALSAR). The false colors on the image represent types of vegetation: green is tree canopy, pink is crops or pasture, black is wet soil, and gray is low vegetation. Image credit: ASF DAAC, ORNL DAAC 2010; includes material © JAXA/METI 2010.

This image is from the SAR Data for Terrestrial Ecologists project, a collaboration by the ASF DAAC, the National Snow and Ice Data Center, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory DAAC to provide SAR images from terrestrial ecology and meteorological monitoring networks. Image credit: ASF DAAC, ORNL DAAC 2010; includes material © JAXA/METI 2010.

On August 30, unusually warm sea surface temperatures and favorable conditions off the western coast of Africa provided the fuel necessary for a tropical depression to grow into a hurricane in about one day. Hurricane Fred roared over the Cape Verde islands on August 31 leaving behind flooding and extensive wind damage.

This image is a near real-time product from the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE). LANCE near real-time images are generally available within three hours of a satellite overpass, and can be viewed using the EOSDIS Worldview data visualization client.

Darker areas indicate higher population densities. The darkest areas on the map indicate population densities of 1,000 or more people per square km(parts of India and China). Lighter areas indicate population densities of 0 to 24 people per square km (across much of Canada and Russia).

NASA socioeconomic data are available through the Socioeconomic and Data Applications Center (SEDAC), which is one of the 12 EOSDIS Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). DAACs process, archive, and distribute discipline-specific data collections (such as socioeconomic data). SEDAC is located at Columbia University in New York City.

The NASA CMS aims to characterize, quantify, understand, and predict the evolution of global carbon sources and sinks through the monitoring of carbon stocks and changes.

The CMS data set provides global estimates of carbon fluxes associate with annual crop NPP and harvested biomass, annual uptake and release by humans and livestock, and the total annual estimate of net carbon exchange from these carbon fluxes.

Mastheads

The Global GNSS Network

Pollution in New Delhi

Sensing Snow Cover

Sensing South Carolina Flooding

Observing Glaciers Using ASTER

Atmospheric Rivers

MERRA-2 Average Surface Temperature

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)

Deadly Heat Wave in India

Gridded Population of the World (GPW) Version 4

Tracking Ocean Currents from Space

Tropical Storm Ma-on

Sensing Saharan Mountains

Phytoplankton in the Falklands

Worldview Events Tab

ABoVE

Soil Moisture & Hurricane Matthew

VIIRS Land Products

Sensing Soil Moisture Using AirMOSS

Looking at Global Vegetation

Two Tropical Cyclones Head Toward Hawaii

Hermine Comes Ashore

Data for Positioning and Earth Rotation

Sensing Ice Clouds

Looking at Global Amphibian Density

Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly

Sensing With SAR

Lava Mountain Fire

Sunglint in the Red Sea

Soil Moisture in the US

Sensing the Pacific Northwest

Sensing Land Surface Temperature

Mid-latitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E)

Monitoring Nitrogen Dioxide

Data for Positioning & Earth Rotation

Land Surface Temperature

California Rim Fire

Global Estimated Net Migration Grids By Decade, v1 (1970 – 2000)

The Blob

Japan Earthquake 2 May 2016

Tropical Cyclone Amos

The Color of Ocean Life

Sensing the Age of Arctic Sea Ice

Easier ASTER Access

Assessing Aerosols

Lightning Trends and Hotspots

Observing Heavy Rain

Data for Pinpoint Positioning 7 Mar 2016

Sentinel-1A

An EPIC View of Earth

Sensing Particulate Matter SEDAC 15 Feb 2016

El Nino PODAAC 8-2-2016

The Carbon Monitoring System ORNL 2-1-2016

Historic East Coast Snow

Flooding in Argentina

Another Tool for Detecting Hot Spots

Global Sea Surface Temperature 1-4-2016

Monitoring Global Carbon Monoxide

Studying Glaciers in Remote Areas

Chilean Earthquake Interferogram

Mount Kilimanjaro

Cities, Traffic & CO2

Blizzard Blankets the Rockies

Phytoplankton in the North Atlantic

Global Environmental Performance Index

Masthead Nov 2 2015 SST

Hurricane Patricia and Hurricane Olaf

Earthdata Masthead Oct 19 2015 Ural Mountains

OCO-2

Precipitation from Hurricane Joaquin

IMERG global precipitation image

Looking at Lightning

Niwot Ridge

Hurricane Fred

Global Population of the World, version 4

Looking at Global Carbon Production