geography

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite image taken in January 2024 provides insights into Dubai’s growth and its iconic artificial islands. Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGOHighlighting Dubai’s development and artificial islands, a false-color Sentinel-2 image reveals the city’s rapid urban expansion and distinctive coastal features, including the Palm Islands and Jebel Ali Port, through advanced imaging techniques.This false-color image acquired by the Copernicus…

By NASA Earth Observatory February 3, 2024Aladaghlar Mountains in northwestern Iran photographed on September 19, 2023, by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station.Tectonic forces over millions of years have folded the region’s layers of colorful rock. Erosion has since exposed them.An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of the rugged landscape of the Aladaghlar Mountains in northwestern Iran. Ridges cast shadows in the valleys and other low elevation areas, creating a…

Ground displacement on the Noto Peninsula in northwestern Honshu, Japan caused by the Earthquake on January 1, 2024.Some parts of the peninsula rose up to 4 meters (13 feet), shifting the position of coastlines and leaving some ports dry.The first day of 2024 brought catastrophe to parts of Japan. At 4:10 p.m. Japan Standard Time (07:10 Universal Time), the land on the Noto Peninsula in northwestern Honshu began to lurch, shaking violently for about 50 seconds. The 7.5 magnitude mainshock was followed by dozens of strong…

Satellite image of the Kufrah district captured on May 26, 2022, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite.The remote and arid Kufrah district in Libya lies on top of one of the largest irrigation projects in the world.The remote Kufrah district in southern Libya sits at the heart of the Sahara Desert. Filled with sand dunes and rugged plateaus, much of the district is extremely arid. But it wasn’t always so dry. Buried beneath the shifting sand dunes is a vast fossil aquifer and…

Satellite image of Ålfotbreen glacier in Norway, captured on August 23, 2003.Satellite image of Ålfotbreen glacier in Norway, captured on September 4, 2022.Resting atop a shingled sandstone landscape, the Norwegian glacier has been in decline since the late 1990s.Ålfotbreen glacier rests on ledges of sandstone among the fjords of Norway’s western coast. The ice cap is vulnerable to changing temperatures and has been in decline since the late 1990s.Unique Geological FormationÅlfotbreen, which is Norway’s 25th largest…

Volcanic activity map of the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland from data acquired on January 16, 2024, by the Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 on the Landsat 9 satellite.The latest round of eruptions on the Reykjanes peninsula destroyed homes in the town of Grindavík.Volcanic activity reawakened on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland with a pulse of eruptions in mid-January 2024. Over the course of about two days, new fissures released lava near the town of Grindavík. A human-constructed barrier diverted…

Satellite image of splotches of blue and green swirling through surface waters of South Australia’s Bonney Coast on January 10, 2024.Cool, upwelling water supports an array of marine life and draws the occasional filmmaker to the Bonney Coast region.When satellites passed over South Australia’s Bonney Coast in January 2024, they captured images showing splotches of blue and green swirling through surface waters. These colorful filaments of phytoplankton were blooming right on time. The microscopic plant-like organisms…

A few years ago, a couple of Google employees reached out to a Minnesota scientist with an unusual proposal: What if they could teach computers to spot beaver habitats from space? "They wanted to know if I thought it was possible to find beaver wetlands from aerial imagery myself, and then if that could be scaled up with machine learning," Emily Fairfax, a University of Minnesota beaver researcher and assistant professor of geography, told As It Happens guest host Megan Williams.Fairfax knew that beavers' sprawling dams…

Satellite image of Snowshoe Lava Field and the surrounding volcanic terrain captured on October 26, 2023, by the Operational Land Imager-2 on Landsat 9.Features in this northern British Columbia volcanic area draw their names from a few of our favorite wintry things.Pack some winter footwear and a couple of hot beverages for this volcanic tour in northwestern Canada. The Snowshoe Lava Field, with landmarks such as Coffee Crater and Cocoa Crater, is part of the Mount Edziza volcanic complex in British Columbia. The…

Satellite image of Cabo Frio’s diverse coastline captured on September 16, 2023, by the Operational Land Imager-2 on Landsat 9.People have long noticed that the waters around Cabo Frio are unusually cool.When European explorers first surveyed the coastline of what is now the state of Rio de Janeiro in the early 1500s, they encountered white sands, turquoise waters, shallow lagoons, and lush green mountains rising from the sea. The waters in one area, however, were unusually cool—so much so that the promontory in…