NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image over the eastern United States on December 11, 2017. It reveals a heavy band of snow deposited by a recent snowstorm. Stretching from Alabama to Delaware, the band contains snow over six inches deep, even in southern states.
Joshua Stevens, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response at NASA/GSFC
The Landsat 8 satellite captured these images of the Thomas Fire in Ventura County, California on December 9, 2017. The true-color image (left) shows the fire’s thick smoke plumes. The false-color image (right) reveals the active fires (orange), burn scar (brown, bottom right), and vegetation (green).
A fast-moving brush fire, the Thomas Fire started on December 4. It was fanned by the Santa Anna winds and burned at a rate of almost an acre per second. By the time it was contained on January 8, 2018, it had consumed 281,893 acres and destroyed 1,063 structures.
Joshua Stevens, USGS
Taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station, this photograph reveals a dark shadow over the continental United States. The dark shadow is the Moon’s shadow, cast during the 2017 Solar Eclipse.
A Solar Eclipse is when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, making the Moon cast a shadow on the Earth. The shadow from this year’s eclipse moved across 14 U. S. states, starting in Oregon and ending in South Carolina.
NASA
NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of Hurricane Harvey off the coast of Texas on August 24, 2017. Harvey made landfall the following day in the town of Rockport as a Category 4 storm (wind speeds measured at 130 mph). Over the next four days, it traveled over south and eastern Texas. Depositing more than 40 inches of rain over most areas, Harvey is the wettest tropical cyclone on record in the contiguous United States. The resulting flooding has been catastrophic. Hundreds of thousands of homes are mostly underwater, and more than 30,000 people are homeless.
Jesse Allen, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response, NASA/GSFC
Taken by the GOES-13 satellite, this image reveals Hurricane Irma over southern Florida and Cuba. Irma made landfall in the U.S. as a Category 4 storm (wind speeds measured at 130 mph) on September 10, 2017. It first hit the Florida Keys, either damaging or destroying every house there. Moving north, Irma flooded streets and knocked down power lines. Georgia and South Carolina were also impacted by storm surge and flooding.
Joshua Stevens, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response, NASA/GSFC
Taken by the Landsat 8 satellite, this image reveals a swirl of sediments (white arrow) in the Arabian Sea. The sediments were most likely transported, from Pakistan’s dry coastal area to the sea, by the Hingol River (red arrow).
When rare rains fall, sediments can be washed out to the sea because there is no vegetation to stop it. Currents in the water move the sediments along the shore. The pattern of flow is likely influenced by underwater terrain.
Joshua Stevens, USGS
Created using images captured by the Suomi-NPP satellite, this full-disc view reveals the Earth at night. The bright clusters of light are from large cities and towns. In this nighttime composite you can see where people live in Asia.
Joshua Stevens, Suomi NPP, NASA/GSFC
An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this image of Crater Lake in southwest Oregon. The lake formed inside a volcanic crater, known as a caldera. Approximately 6,000 to 8,000 years ago, the Mount Mazama volcano exploded and collapsed, leaving behind a crater several miles wide. At a depth of about 2000 feet (600 meters), Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States and ninth deepest in the world.
Wizard Island (red arrow) is a cinder cone formed by an eruption within the caldera.
ISS CEO Facility and the ES&RS Unit, NASA/JSC
In this image, taken by the Suomi NPP satellite, a new iceberg is seen detaching from Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf. About the size of Delaware, the iceberg broke off sometime between July 10 and July 12. Scientists have been monitoring that crack in the shelf for years, but only recently did it accelerate and extend northward causing the iceberg to break away.
Joshua Stevens, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response, NASA/GSFC
The Landsat 8 satellite captured this image over Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Sandy Hook is a barrier spit (white arrow), that extends into the Atlantic Ocean from the northern end of the Jersey Shore. To the west is Sandy Hook Bay and Leonardo Piers (yellow arrow). Resembling a pitchfork, Leonardo Piers is a U. S. Navy facility.
Sandy Hook’s landscape is a combination of sand dunes, beaches, coastal woodland, salt marshes, and holly forests. This environment creates a pleasant passageway for the 300 bird species that fly through. The oldest continuously operating lighthouse (red dot) in the United States is located there too.
Jesse Allen, USGS
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station took these day and nighttime photographs of Chicago. A network of rivers and canals, the Chicago River (arrows) runs through the center of the city.
In the nighttime image, the city lights outline almost every street and cross-street. The lights show us how people are distributed and allow us to see details that are often difficult to see in daytime images.
ISS CEO Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA/JSC
These maps reveal the maximum extent of Arctic Sea Ice. The ‘extent’ is the total area in which ice concentration is at least 15 percent. Every year, the Arctic sea ice melts during the spring and summer and grows in the fall and winter. The maximum extent occurs between February and April.
In 1983, the maximum extent was about 15.46 million square kilometers (5.96 million square miles). In 2016, it was 14.52 million square kilometers (5.607 million square miles), making it the smallest maximum extent since satellite measurements started in 1979.
Jesse Allen, using data from the GCOM-W1 satellite and the Nimbus-7 satellite.
Jesse Allen, using data from the GCOM-W1 satellite and the Nimbus-7 satellite
An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this image over Morocco on May 2, 2016.
Shaped by plate tectonics, the rugged landscape reveals a wide range of colorful rock outcrops.
ISS CEO Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA/JSC
In February 2016, the Sally Ride EarthKam camera captured this image over Venezuela’s Paraguana Peninsula.
Sally Ride EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) is a NASA educational outreach program run by Sally Ride Science and founded by the late astronaut. It uses a digital camera mounted on a downward-facing window aboard the International Space Station.
Since its inception, the EarthKAM camera has captured over 93,000 images of the Earth. They are used to support classes in Earth science, space science, geography, social studies, mathematics, art, and communications. This collection of images can be accessed through the program’s online image gallery.
Sally Ride EarthKam
Once Bolivia’s second-largest lake and an important local fishing resource, Lake Poopó has dried up. The Landsat 8 satellite captured these before and after images of this shallow and salty lake located high in the Andes Mountains.
Shallow lakes depend on rain and inflowing rivers to recharge themselves. Drought and the diverting of lake water for agriculture and mining are believed to be the reasons for the lake’s disappearance.
Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey
On March 9, 2016, the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) captured this image of the Moon’s shadow on the Earth. The shadow was created by the only total solar eclipse of 2016. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun and blocks the Sun’s light. A total solar eclipse occurs when the solar disc is completely blocked.
DSCOVR is positioned about 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Earth and maintains a constant view of our planet’s sunlit face.
DSCOVR EPIC Team
On February 14, 2016, NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of cloud streets along the east coast of the United States. Cloud streets are rows of clouds that form when cold air from the land blows over the open ocean. The water in the air freezes, creating tiny clouds, and the force of the wind arranges them into neat rows.
Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response.at NASA/GSFC
On January 23, the Suomi NPP satellite acquired this image (left) of the storm system informally named “Snowzilla” over the east coast of the United States. In this nighttime image, city lights, like those of Washington, D.C. (arrow) are visible.
The Landsat 8 satellite captured this image (right) over Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. (arrow) on the following day. Most areas were blanketed with at least 46 to 61 centimeters (18 to 24 inches) of snow.
Jeff Schmaltz and Joshua Stevens, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response at NASA/GSFC & Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey
On December 14, 2015, the Landsat 8 satellite captured this image of Noor 1, a new solar plant near the Moroccan town of Ouarzazate. Construction started in 2013, and the plant went online in December 2015. It covers 2,500 hectares (6,178 acres).
Noor 1 uses 12-meter-tall parabolic mirrors to focus the sunlight onto a fluid-filled pipeline, which in turn heats water to create steam. Since heat from the fluid can be stored, the plant can deliver energy at night or when clouds block the sun.
The plant is the first phase of the Noor Solar Project. By 2020, subsequent phases will have more than tripled its current power-generating capacity of 160 megawatts.
Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey
The latest ocean monitoring satellite, Jason-3 was launched on January 17, 2016. Its radar altimeter will measure global sea surface height. Scientists will use the data it collects to study global and regional changes in sea level, tropical cyclones, ocean circulation, and climate change. The mission will last three to five years.
Jason-3 is an international partnership consisting of the following agencies: NOAA, NASA, the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES)—France’s space agency—and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites.
Jason-3 continues the sea surface height measurements collected by the joint NASA/CNES TOPEX/Poseidon mission in 1992, the NASA/CNES Jason-1 mission in 2001, and the Jason-2 mission in 2008.
NASA
NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image (left) and its close-up (right) on January 6, 2016. They reveal dark plumes of smoke rising from fires at oil production and storage facilities on the coast of Libya.
According to news reports, five oil storage tanks, which contained 420,000 to 460,000 barrels of oil each, were burning. The particulate matter and chemicals in the smoke can cause respiratory and other health problems.
Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response at NASA/GSFC
These images were created using data collected by the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite and the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellite. The colors indicate differences in sea surface height, which reflect differences in temperature. Higher areas (red and white) are warmer. Lower areas (pink and purple) are colder.
The red band cutting across the Pacific indicates an El Niño, the warming of waters in the tropical Pacific. An El Niño occurs every three to seven years and is linked to changes in air pressure and high-level winds. It affects weather worldwide and normally develops during March-June, reaches peak intensity during December-April, and then weakens during May-July.
The 1997-98 El Niño is the strongest on record and 2015's is just as strong.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
After two years of quiet, Sicily’s Mount Etna began to erupt on December 2, 2015. The Landsat 8 satellite captured this image over the volcano on the following day. A plume of gas and ash rises from the summit.
Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey
