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Guadalupe Island As Seen From Orbit

Guadalupe Island

From an altitude of 223 nautical miles, one of the Expedition 40 crew members on the International Space Station photographed this nearly vertical image of Guadalupe Island and the Von Karman cloud vortices that are its storied neighbors just off southern California's Pacific Coast.

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Smoke from Canadian Fires Hovers Over Great Lakes

Great Lakes

Canadian wildfires have been raging this summer and some of the smoke from those fires is drifting downward into the U.S.

NASA maps Typhoon Matmo's Taiwan deluge

When Typhoon Matmo crossed over the island nation of Taiwan it left tremendous amounts of rainfall in its wake. NASA used data from the TRMM satellite to calculate just how much rain fell over the nation.

Saharan Dust And the formation of Bahamas' Great Bank

A new study suggests that Saharan dust played a major role in the formation of the Bahamas islands.

Earth from Space: Cal Madow, Somalia

Northern Somalia's Cal Madow mountain range is pictured in this image from Japan's ALOS satellite.

Satellite Study Reveals Parched U.S. West Using Up Underground Water

A new study by NASA and University of California, Irvine, scientists finds more than 75 percent of the water loss in the drought-stricken Colorado River Basin since late 2004 came from underground resources. The extent of groundwater loss may pose a greater threat to the water supply of the western United States than previously thought.

Landsat's Global Perspective Over 40 Years

On July 23rd, 1972, the first Landsat spacecraft launched into orbit. At the time, it was called "Earth Resources Technology Satellite," or ERTS, and was the first satellite to use a scanning spectrophotometer.

NASA's Hurricane Imaging Radiometer Explained

The Hurricane Imaging Radiometer, known as HIRAD, will fly aboard one of two unmanned Global Hawk aircraft during NASA's Hurricane Severe Storm Sentinel or HS3 mission from Wallops beginning August 26 through September 29.

The Golden-Brown State

Now in its third year, the drought in California grows worse with each month. 2013 was the driest calendar year in 119 years of records, and 2014 has not brought much relief, even as scientists and residents wait hopefully for El Nino moisture

Earth From Space: Mexico City

This week's satellite image was acquired over the eastern part of Mexico City. The area pictured lies within central Mexico's highlands plateau called the Valley of Mexico.

Earth Observation: 10 Years of Aura Legacy

The Aura atmospheric chemistry satellite celebrates its 10th anniversary on July 15th, 2014.

High-Flying Laser Altimeter Checks Out Summer Sea Ice

Sea ice in summer looks dramatically different than sea ice in winter, even in the polar Arctic. Summer snowmelt, pools of water on thinning ice and exposed ocean replace vast winter expanses of white snow-covered ice - and this weekend NASA's high-flying laser altimeter begins a campaign to investigate these features.

Earth from Space: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Guanabara Bay in southeast Brazil is pictured in this image from the Sentinel-1A satellite. The city of Rio de Janeiro lies on the western banks of the bay and along the Atlantic coast to the south. Rio is connected to the city of Niterói on the east side of the bay by a large bridge which appears as a dotted straight line. To the north, we can see radar reflections from large ships.

Earth from Space: Mount Pinatubo, Philippines

This image from the Sentinel-1A radar satellite on 6 June shows part of the Philippine island of Luzon with Mount Pinatubo.

Cyprus As Seen From Orbit

One of the Expedition 40 crew members aboard the International Space Station used a 200mm focal length to photograph this image of the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean Sea on June 23, 2014.

NASA Launches New Carbon-Sensing Mission to Monitor Earth's Breathing

NASA successfully launched its first spacecraft dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide at 2:56 a.m. PDT (5:56 a.m. EDT) Wednesday.

Napo River, Ecuador

NASA's Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) captured this data on March 17, 2013, as the instrument was being flown on a NASA Gulfstream C-20A aircraft.

Banks Peninsula, South Island of New Zealand

One of the Expedition 40 crew members aboard the International Space Station photographed this nadir image of the volcanic-born Banks Peninsula, on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand on May 31, 2014.

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 Mission Prelaunch Briefings

NASA held a news conference and science briefing on Sunday, June 29th in advance of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission (OCO-2) launch. The launch is at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California, and is scheduled for Tuesday, July 1. Liftoff will be from Space Launch Complex 2 aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket and is targeted for 2:56 a.m. PDT (5:56 a.m. EDT, 0956 UTC).

Guadalupe Island As Seen From Orbit View

Smoke from Canadian Fires Hovers Over Great Lakes View