NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, currently on a year-long mission on the International Space Station, took this photograph of a sunrise and posted it to social media on Aug. 10, 2015.
Landsat Sees Eye of the Sahara
Located near the western edge of the Sahara Desert, the Eye of the Sahara is a feature that resembles a large eye when viewed from space. Also known as the Richat Structure or Guelb er Richat, the Eye is a symmetrical dome of eroded sedimentary and volcanic rock.
Marine Plankton Brighten Clouds over Southern Ocean
New research using NASA satellite data and ocean biology models suggests tiny organisms in vast stretches of the Southern Ocean play a significant role in generating brighter clouds overhead. Brighter clouds reflect more sunlight back into space, affecting the amount of solar energy that reaches Earth's surface, which in turn has implications for global climate.
NASA's New Blue Marble
This Blue Marble image is the first fully illuminated snapshot of Earth captured by the DSCOVR satellite, which will capture and transmit full images of Earth every few hours. The information will help examine a range of Earth properties, such as ozone and aerosol levels, cloud coverage, and vegetation density, supporting a number of climate-science applications.
Europe and Pacific Northwest Face Record Heat
A map shows daytime land-surface temperature anomalies in Europe from June 30-July 9, 2015, compared to the 2001“2010 average for the same period. Shades of red depict areas where the land surface was hotter than the long-term average; areas in blue were below average.
NASA Maps Beach Tar from California Oil Pipeline Spill
An AVIRIS-NG red-green-blue (visible) aerial image of the Refugio Incident oil spill shows oil on the water and on nearby Santa Barbara Channel beaches.
The Mysterious ˜Lakes' on Saturn's Moon Titan
Saturn’s moon Titan is home to seas and lakes filled with liquid hydrocarbons, but what forms the depressions on the surface? A new study using data from the joint NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) Cassini mission suggests the moon’s surface dissolves in a...
A Friendly Looking Lake? Look Again!
The turquoise lake in the crater of the Kawah Ijen volcano looks serene and inviting. It also happens to be the world's largest acidic lake. The water in the crater lake has a pH less than 0.3 on a scale of 0 to 14 (7 is neutral). For comparison, lemon juice has a pH of 2; battery acid has a pH of 1. That acidity affects the chemistry of nearby river ecosystems, including the river Banyupahit.
Earth Pulling Apart at the Seams
Like some fantastic land conjured by a storyteller, Ethiopia's Danakil Depression (or Afar Depression) exhibits some uncommon wonders: lava that burns blue, bright yellow hot springs and lakes of bubbling mud. These otherworldly oddities are all manifestations of a tectonic process called continental rifting.
Saharan Dust Journeys Across the Atlantic
A piece of Africa”actually lots of pieces”began to arrive in the Americas in June 2014. On June 23, a lengthy river of dust from western Africa began to push across the Atlantic Ocean on easterly winds. A week later, the influx of dust was affecting air quality as far away as the southeastern Unites States.
