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City vs. desert - Climate365 graphic
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City vs. desert - Climate36...
Graphic: City vs. desert temperatures
The Mackenzie River in Canada plays a major role in Arctic climate as warmer fresh water mixes with cold seawater.  This image was taken by the Operational Land Imager on the Landsat 8 satellite on July 18, 2017.
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The Mackenzie River in Cana...
Mackenzie River
Curling snow drifts are magnified by the terrain around the 1,400 mile Dnieper River, flowing from Russia to the Black Sea.
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The wild, frozen Dnieper River
The wild, frozen Dnieper River
Video: A visualization of the annual Arctic sea ice "minimum" for each year from 1979 through 2019.
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Annual Arctic sea ice minim...
Video: Annual Arctic sea ice minimum 1979-2019 with area graph
NASA explores. From its earliest days of sounding rockets and balloon-borne instruments, to Apollo and Hubble and missions to Mars. This mission of exploration has also always focused on our own corner of the universe, Earth - the home frontier. Earth is still the only planet we've ever been to, as this video explains.
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NASA explores. From its ear...
Home Frontier
Video: NASA scientists release the first new global map of Earth at night since 2012.
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Video: Lights of human acti...
Video: Lights of human activity shine in NASA's image of Earth at night
Video: 25 years of Antarctic land ice elevation change
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Video: 25 Years of Antarcti...
Video: 25 Years of Antarctic Land Ice Elevation Change Anomalies (West Coast Fly Over)
Warmer Earth, greener north - Climate 365 graphic
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Warmer Earth, greener north...
Graphic: Warmer Earth, greener North
As part of the Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE), NASA scientists are flying over Alaska and Canada, measuring the elevation of rivers and lakes to study how thawing permafrost affects hydrology in the landscape.
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As part of the Arctic Borea...
Kuskokwim River
Captured onboard a NASA Operation IceBridge flight to survey glacier change in a warming world, this photograph shows a beach and stream in Russel Fjord, Alaska, near the terminus of Hubbard Glacier.
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Beached bergs in Alaska
Beached bergs in Alaska
Video: NASA's Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) and Operation IceBridge missions investigate Greenland's thinning ice sheets from above and below.
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Video: Greenland's thinning...
Video: Greenland's thinning ice
Perhaps the most impressive of cloud formations, cumulonimbus (from the Latin for “pile” and “rain cloud”) clouds form due to vigorous convection (rising and overturning) of warm, moist and unstable air. Surface air is warmed by the sun-heated ground surface and rises; if sufficient atmospheric moisture is present, water droplets will condense as the air mass encounters cooler air at higher altitudes. The air mass itself also expands and cools as it rises due to decreasing atmospheric pressure, a process known as adiabatic cooling. This type of convection is common in tropical latitudes year-round and during the summer season at higher latitudes. As water in the rising air mass condenses and changes from a gas to a liquid state, it releases energy to its surroundings, further heating the surrounding air and leading to more convection and rising of the cloud mass to higher altitudes. This leads to the characteristic vertical “towers” associated with cumulonimbus clouds, an excellent example of which is visible in this astronaut photograph. If enough moisture is present to condense and heat the cloud mass through several convective cycles, a tower can rise to altitudes of approximately 10 kilometers at high latitudes and to 20 kilometers in the tropics before encountering a region of the atmosphere known as the tropopause—the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere. The tropopause is characterized by a strong temperature inversion. Beyond the tropopause, the air no longer gets colder as altitude increases. The tropopause halts further upward motion of the cloud mass. The cloud tops flatten and spread into an anvil shape, as illustrated by this astronaut photograph. The photo was taken from a viewpoint that was at an angle from the vertical, rather than looking straight down towards the Earth’s surface. The image, taken while the International Space Station was located over western Africa near the Senegal-Mali border, shows a fully formed anvil cloud with numerous smaller cumulonimbus towers rising near it. The high energy levels of these storm systems typically make them hazardous due to associated heavy precipitation, lightning, high wind speeds and possible tornadoes.
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Cumulonimbus cloud over Africa
Cumulonimbus cloud over Africa
NASA scientists are working to understand if our land and ocean can continue to absorb carbon dioxide at the current rate – and for how long.
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Infographic: Earth's carbon...
Infographic: Earth's carbon cycle is off balance
Head into the field with first responders, fire scientists and forest managers to see what challenges they face and how NASA can help mitigate the effects of longer and more intense fire seasons.
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Operation Earth: Wildfires
Video: 'Operation Earth: Wildfires'
Along Greenland's western coast, a small field of glaciers surrounds Baffin Bay. This image was acquired by the Landsat 7 satellite on September 3, 2000. It is a false-color composite image made using near-infrared, red and blue wavelengths. 
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Baffin Bay, Greenland
Baffin Bay, Greenland
Test your knowledge of how Earth is different from other planets, both within our solar system and beyond.
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Test your knowledge of how ...
Quiz: Our world, other worlds
A super high-definition view of how carbon dioxide in the air moves around the world with the winds.
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Super HD view of global car...
Video: Super HD view of global carbon dioxide
These cloud formations were seen over the western Aleutian Islands. Their color variations are probably due to differences in temperature and in the size of water droplets that make up the clouds. This image was acquired by the Landsat 7 satellite on June 16, 2000.
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Aleutian clouds
Aleutian clouds
Test your knowledge of energy and its role in our climate.
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Test your knowledge of ener...
Quiz: Energy
Video: Scientists combined an array of NASA satellite observations of Earth with data on human activities to map locations where freshwater is changing around the globe and why.
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For 15 years, GRACE tracked...
Video: For 15 years, GRACE tracked freshwater movements around the world
Pliocene CO2 graphic - climate.nasa.gov
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Pliocene CO2 graphic - clim...
Graphic: Carbon dioxide hits new high
Temperature agreement - Climate 365 graphic
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Temperature agreement - Cli...
Graphic: Earth's temperature record
Video: The NASA satellite fleet in 2017, from low Earth orbit to the DSCOVR satellite taking in the million-mile view.
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Video: NASA's vantage point...
Video: NASA's vantage point to view Earth
An animated gif that puts short-term global temperature trends in context.
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Nope, Earth Isn't Cooling
Nope, Earth Isn't Cooling
Ice covers 10 percent of Earth's surface and helps moderate the planet's temperature. Glaciers and ice sheets around the world are melting at an alarming rate. By keeping an eye on Earth's ice from space, NASA satellites help us understand the global effects of climate change.
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Ice covers 10 percent of Ea...
Video: Frozen Earth

Explore

Interactives, galleries and apps

Images of Change

Images of Change

Explore a stunning gallery of before-and-after images of Earth from land and space that reveal our home planet in a state of flux.
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Climate Mobile Apps

Climate Mobile Apps

Keep track of Earth's vital signs, see the planet in a state of flux and slow the pace of global warming with NASA's free mobile apps.
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Climate Time Machine

Climate Time Machine

Travel through Earth's recent climate history and see how increasing carbon dioxide, global temperature and sea ice have changed over time.
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Eyes on the Earth

Eyes on the Earth

Track Earth's vital signs from space and fly along with NASA's Earth-observing satellites in an interactive 3D visualization.
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Global Ice Viewer

Global Ice Viewer

Earth's ice cover is shrinking. See how climate change has affected glaciers, sea ice, and continental ice sheets.
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