Earth and environment articles and explainers

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Full-disk DSCOVR EPIC view of three named tropical cyclones over the Pacific on September 1, 2026 — NASA Earth Observatory imagery used for factual editorial context with explicit credit, no NASA insignia and no implied endorsement; third-party rights remain separate: NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using data from DSCOVR EPIC

World Explained · Earth and environment

How satellites reveal an unusually busy Pacific cyclone season

A NASA EPIC image caught three Pacific cyclones at once. Here is what the 2026 count, basin definitions and El Niño can—and cannot—tell us.

4 September 2026 · 4 min readRead story →

NASA GEOS-FP map showing daily maximum surface-air temperature across Western Europe from May 1 to August 19, 2026, with dark red areas at or above 40 degrees Celsius — NASA imagery generally not subject to U.S. copyright; factual editorial use with explicit NASA Earth Observatory and GMAO credit, no NASA insignia or implied endorsement; third-party rights remain separate: NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin

World Explained · Earth and environment

How NASA maps Europe's 2026 heat waves from space

NASA's GEOS-FP model combines satellite observations and atmospheric physics to map daily maximum surface-air temperature across Western Europe during summer heat waves in 2026.

29 August 2026 · 4 min readRead story →

NASA Landsat 9 satellite image showing the Congaree River winding through dark green floodplain forest, with abandoned channels and lighter river-shaped bands visible across South Carolina — NASA Earth Observatory/Landsat image with exact source attribution; factual editorial use, no NASA insignia or implied endorsement, and third-party rights kept separate: NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from USGS

World Explained · Earth and environment

How river bends make oxbow lakes and shape floodplain forests

A river can erode one bank, build the other and leave an old channel behind. Here is how oxbow lakes and floodplain habitats emerge.

29 August 2026 · 5 min readRead story →

NASA MODIS natural-colour satellite image showing a smoke-infused pyrocumulonimbus rising from the Widemouth 2 fire in Utah on August 2, 2026 — NASA Earth Observatory/MODIS image with exact source credit; factual editorial use and third-party caveats retained: NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison

World Explained · Earth and environment

How wildfire clouds can push smoke into the stratosphere

Pyrocumulonimbus clouds can lift wildfire smoke toward the stratosphere. Here is how satellites find the high cloud, how SAGE III reads aerosol layers and what INSPYRE is testing.

29 August 2026 · 6 min readRead story →

NASA satellite view of the Mississippi River Delta showing marsh channels, sediment and surrounding coastal water — NASA documentary photograph; factual editorial use with credit; no implied endorsement: NASA

World Explained · Earth and environment

How eroding coastal marshes move carbon into the ocean

New NASA-supported research tracks carbon moved by coastal marsh erosion—and why land-to-ocean transfer is not the same as direct air emission.

28 August 2026 · 5 min readRead story →

Terra MODIS view showing snow stretching across northern Chile from the Andes toward the Pacific coast — NASA Earth Observatory image using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE/GIBS/Worldview; factual editorial use with credit and no implied endorsement: NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin

World Explained · Earth and environment

How satellites captured rare snow spreading across the Atacama Desert

NASA's August scenes show snow crossing a desert that rarely sees it. Here is how Landsat, MODIS and a cutoff low fit together—and what the event does not prove.

28 August 2026 · 4 min readRead story →

False-color Landsat view of Antarctic sea ice and the coastline used to study an emperor penguin colony — NASA Earth Observatory/Landsat image with exact source credit; factual editorial use and third-party caveats retained: NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison

World Explained · Earth and environment

How satellites track a changing world for emperor penguins

Landsat cannot count individual emperor penguins, but decades of scenes can reveal guano traces, colony moves and sea-ice context.

28 August 2026 · 4 min readRead story →

NASA Landsat 8 view of Crater Island, the Silver Island Mountains and the pale playa of former Lake Bonneville — NASA Earth Observatory image using Landsat data from USGS; factual editorial use with credit; no implied endorsement: NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison

World Explained · Earth and environment

How satellite images reveal what an ancient lake left behind

A Landsat image still shows the shorelines of ancient Lake Bonneville. Here's how a vanished lake became a map—and an Earth test for planetary cameras.

27 August 2026 · 4 min readRead story →

A NASA/JPL-Caltech photograph of a roof-mounted MAIA air sensor above the Addis Ababa city skyline — NASA/JPL-Caltech documentary image; NASA Images and Media Usage Guidelines checked: NASA/JPL-Caltech

World Explained · Earth and environment

How can ten monitoring sites separate black-carbon sources in Addis Ababa?

A three-year Addis Ababa monitoring network combines PM2.5, black carbon, timing and air-mass trajectories to narrow source patterns without turning a model into a health verdict.

24 August 2026 · 4 min readRead story →

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