Latest Features
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
Earth's Temperature Tracker
November 5, 2007NASA scientist James Hansen has tracked Earth's temperature for decades, and he is confident the global warming trend of 0.9 degrees Celsius observed since 1880 is mainly the result of human-produced greenhouse gases. Read More
2012
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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