An unusually intense start to Canada’s wildfire season filled skies with smoke in May 2023. Then, at the beginning of June, scores of new fires raged in the central Canadian province of Quebec, some of which were ignited by lightning.
Cape Cod’s Famous Hook
The peninsula extends about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the mainland of southern Massachusetts where it serves as a natural land barrier between Cape Cod Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
Algae in the Andes
The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite captured this image of an algal bloom on Lake Villarrica in Chile on May 2, 2023. Ground-based observations and analysis of additional satellite images suggest that cyanobacteria make up the light blue-green swirls in the natural-color image.
Oceans In Hot Water
Adding to the grim list of record ice losses, record air temperatures and record droughts, which have all hit the headlines recently, the temperature of the surface waters of our oceans is also at an all-time high.
NASA, Rocket Lab Launch First Pair of Storm-Observing CubeSats
Two NASA CubeSats designed to study tropical cyclones, including hurricanes and typhoons, are in orbit after successfully launching on May 8, 2023.
Plumes from Popocatépetl Volcano
Popocatépetl is one of Mexico’s most active volcanoes. During the mountain’s current period of eruption, ongoing since 2005, volcanic emissions frequently billow from its summit crater.
Trailblazing Aeolus Mission Winding Down
On April 30, 2023, all nominal operations of Aeolus, the first mission to observe Earth’s wind profiles on a global scale, will conclude in preparation for a series of end-of-life activities.
Curious Tracks Across an Icy Fjord
Greenland lacks an obvious human fingerprint when viewed from space. Instead of sprawling cities or geometrically organized agriculture, an enormous ice sheet spans much of the island. But there is a fjord along the island’s southern perimeter where seasonal ice has temporarily revealed the presence of people.
Silhouette of a Solomon Island
Rennell Island is part of the Solomon Islands, a nation in the western Pacific Ocean located northeast of Australia and east of Papua New Guinea. Rennell, also known as Mu Nggava Island, lies 210 kilometers (130 miles) south of Guadalcanal—the nation’s main island.
Belize Coral Reef Risk
Using two decades of NASA satellite measurements stored in the cloud, scientists recently assessed the vulnerability of Belize’s renowned coral reefs to bleaching and collapse.
