Earth | SpaceRef

Earth TOP STORY

Orbital View of Southern California Wildfires From the Space Station

California Fires

The southern California wildfires could be seen by the International Space Station crew.

Full Story

Southern California Wildfires Viewed From Orbit

Southern California Wildfires

Expedition 53 Commander Randy Bresnik aboard the International Space Station took this photo of the California wildfires in the Los Angeles area on Dec. 6, 2017.

Earth from Space: Toulouse, France

The Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over Toulouse in southern France and the surrounding agricultural landscape.

Earth from Space: The Amazon River

The Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over northern Brazil on 22 August 2017, where the Amazon River meets the Atlantic Ocean.

Antarctic Selfie's Journey to Space via Disruption Tolerant Networking

NASA is boosting cyber to space with benefits for Earth. On Nov. 20, 2017, a selfie snapped from the National Science Foundation's McMurdo Station in Antarctica demonstrated technology that can enable the future interplanetary internet.

The Hampton Roads, Virginia Metropolitan area Is Sinking Unevenly

A new NASA-led study shows that land in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, metropolitan area is sinking at highly uneven rates, with a few trouble spots subsiding 7 to 10 times faster than the area average.

Earth from Space: Thurston Island, Antarctica

The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission gives us 'radar vision' over part of Antarctica's third-largest island, Thurston Island.

NASA Survey Technique Estimates Congo Forest's Carbon

The equivalent of 85 billion tons of carbon dioxide -- a huge amount equal to three-quarters of the carbon stored in forests across the contiguous United States -- is locked in the living vegetation of one African country.

Earth from Space: Salar de Atacama, Chile

From the Salar de Atacama salt flat in the east to the Cordillera Domeyko mountains in the west, Sentinel-2 takes us over part of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.

Earth from Space: Viti Levu, Fiji

The Copernicus Sentinel-2B satellite takes us to the Republic of Fiji in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 September 2017. Part of Fiji's largest island, Viti Levu, is pictured here, with coral reefs speckling the water.

Studying The Heat Source Under West Antarctica

A new NASA study adds evidence that a geothermal heat source called a mantle plume lies deep below Antarctica's Marie Byrd Land, explaining some of the melting that creates lakes and rivers under the ice sheet.

Volcanic Rock Minerals May Offer New Insights Into Earth's Evolution

The first 1.5 billion years of Earth's evolution is subject to considerable uncertainty due to the lack of any significant rock record prior to four billion years ago and a very limited record until about three billion years ago.

Earth from Space: Western Australia

From the fourth most populous city to the rugged Outback, the Sentinel-3A satellite gives us a wide-ranging view over Australia's southwestern corner.

Warm Air Helped Make 2017 Ozone Hole Smallest Since 1988

Measurements from satellites this year showed the hole in Earth's ozone layer that forms over Antarctica each September was the smallest observed since 1988.

New Greenland Maps Show More Glaciers at Risk

New maps of Greenland's coastal seafloor and bedrock beneath its massive ice sheet show that two to four times as many coastal glaciers are at risk of accelerated melting as previously thought.

NASA Estimates the Global Reach of Atmospheric Rivers

A recent study by NASA and several partners has estimated, for the first time, the global impact of atmospheric rivers on floods and droughts, as well as the number of people affected by these atmospheric phenomena.

Earth from Space: Washington, DC

Sentinel-2 takes us over the US capital city of Washington DC, nestled between the states of Maryland and Virginia.

Determining When Humans Started Impacting Earth on a Large Scale

Humans have so profoundly altered the Earth that, some scientists argue, our current geologic epoch requires a new name: the Anthropocene.

Heavy Rainfall Generated By Former Typhoon Lan

When Typhoon Lan made landfall in Japan on Oct. 22, the Global Precipitation Measurement mission core satellite or GPM analyzed the storm and added up the high rainfall that it generated.

Orbital View of Southern California Wildfires From the Space Station View

Southern California Wildfires Viewed From Orbit View