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).

Western U.S. As Seen From Orbit

One of the Expedition 40 crew members aboard the International Space Station recorded this image showing several states in the USA and a small part of Mexico, including Baja California, on June 23, 2014. Parts of Nevada are visible in the bottom of the frame.

Taranaki Region, New Zealand's North Island

One of the Expedition 40 crew members aboard the International Space Station recorded this nearly vertical image of the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island on May 31, 2014.

Ancient Ocean Currents May Have Changed Pace and Intensity of Ice Ages

Climate scientists have long tried to explain why ice-age cycles became longer and more intense some 900,000 years ago, switching from 41,000-year cycles to 100,000-year cycles.

Earth From Space: Rud-e-Gaz and Rud-e-Hara Wetlands, Iran

To the west we can see the waters of the Strait of Hormuz, which lies betweenthe Gulf of Oman to the south and Persian Gulf to the north. The brown areas along the coast are sediments carried from rivers that flow only after erratic rainfall in the interior, usually in the winter months.

United Arab Emirates As Seen From Orbit

One of the members of the Expedition 40 crew aboard the International Space Station aimed a camera "around" the docked Russian Soyuz vehicle to record this night image of the United Arab Emirates.

Los Roques Islands As Seen From Orbit

One of the Expedition 40 crew members aboard the International Space Station used a 200mm lens to photograph the Los Roques Islands off the north coast of Venezuela on May 17, 2014. The orbital outpost was flying at an altitude of approximately 225 nautical miles when the photo was taken.

ISS040-E-000500 (17 May 2014) - Larger image