Earth Observatory

2007 – 2020Critical infrastructure is threatened as sinking land amplifies global sea level rise.In many parts of the U.S. East Coast, rising seas driven by melting ice and the thermal expansion of warming water is only part of what threatens coastal areas. The land is also sinking. This geologic two-step is happening rapidly enough to threaten infrastructure, farmland, and wetlands that tens of millions of people along the coast rely upon, according to a NASA-funded team of scientists at Virginia Tech’s Earth Observation…

The Arctic and North Atlantic oceans have seen an increasing number of days when precipitation falls as rain, not snow.The Arctic is known for its cold temperatures, which allow precipitation to fall as snow. But as temperatures warm, that snow is being replaced by rain. These changes can affect sea ice in the Arctic and weather patterns throughout the Northern Hemisphere.NASA scientists examined rainfall trends over the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans from 1980 to 2016 and found an increase in the frequency of rainy…

Sea surface temperature anomalies off the coast of eastern Australia on March 4, 2024, based on data from the Multi-scale Ultra-high Resolution Sea Surface Temperature) project.Weeks of warmer-than-average ocean temperatures caused extensive bleaching in the world’s largest coral reef system.Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has been hit by widespread coral bleaching caused by heat stress, government officials confirmed on March 8, 2024. This is the fifth mass bleaching of the reef since 2016.Aerial surveys of over 300 reefs…

Satellite image of Sau Reservoir captured on March 3, 2023, by Landsat 9.Satellite image of Sau Reservoir captured on March 4, 2024, Landsat 8.The large reservoir in Catalonia shrank to 1 percent of capacity in March 2024.Three subsequent years of record low precipitation have taken a toll on northeastern Spain’s Catalonia region. Satellite images show one of the region’s largest reservoirs dried to a trickle in March 2024.Historical Drought Patterns and Current ImpactAccording to the Meteorological Service of Catalonia,…

Satellite image of the burn scar left on the Texas Panhandle landscape captured on March 2, 2024, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite.Ranchers in the Texas Panhandle recently faced a fire that charred more than 1 million acres.The Texas Panhandle is a sparsely populated region of rolling hills, oil and gas wells, and grazing lands. By some estimates, 85 percent of the 12 million cattle raised in Texas live on ranches in the Panhandle.Following a period of record winter heat, a…

This image shows SWOT satellite data for water surface height in part of Mendocino County, Northern California, on January 15, before several atmospheric rivers arrived, and on Feb. 4, after the first storms. Light blue and green indicate the highest water levels relative to mean sea level. (Inland water heights include the underlying ground elevation.) Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechThe Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite provides a new view of water on land, at the coast, and in the ocean.A series of atmospheric…

Carbon dioxide emissions surged to record levels in 2023, with fossil fuel combustion and deforestation pushing total emissions to 40.9 billion metric tons, threatening global climate goals.Scientists’ annual checkup on Earth’s carbon cycle found that burning oil, coal, and natural gas is impeding progress to limit climate change.Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels rose again in 2023, reaching record levels, according to estimates from an international team of scientists. The continued rise in emissions from the…

Satellite image of the Great Lakes captured on February 24, 2024, by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite sensor aboard the Suomi NPP satellite.The effects of a warm winter in the upper Midwest are evident in the lack of lake ice.Ice coverage on the Great Lakes typically reaches its annual peak in late February or early March. But at that time in 2024, the lakes were conspicuously free of ice. Owing to warmer winter weather and above-average surface water temperatures, ice cover stood at historic lows.Since…

Satellite image of smoke streaming from several fires southwest of Boa Vista (the capital of the Brazilian state of Roraima) captured on February 22, 2024, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite.Huge understory fires are spreading throughout the state in northern Brazil as drought and heat turn the rainforest into tinder.Roraima—Brazil’s northernmost state—has a wet climate, which helps rainforests thrive and suppresses the natural occurrence of forest fires, even during the dry…

Satellite image of Corbassière glacier in Switzerland captured on August 23, 2001, by Landsat 5.Satellite image of Corbassière glacier in Switzerland captured on August 20, 2023, by Landsat 8.The surface melting of a high-elevation glacier in the Alps has rendered it unusable for scientific research.Glaciers are natural archives of past climate. In their frozen layers lies evidence of Earth’s changing temperature and atmospheric composition. But as the climate warms, some of the longest records of our changing planet are…