Global Climate Change Visuals

Vivid images depicting ocean temperatures, carbon concentrations, and climate change impacts on Earth from space.

This false-color image shows a one-month composite of sea surface temperature over the entire globe for May 2001. Red and yellow indicates warmer temperatures, green is an intermediate value, while blues and then purples are progressively colder values.

This image shows average temperatures in April, 2003, observed by AIRS at an infrared wavelength that senses either the Earth's surface or any intervening cloud.

One of NASA's newest Earth-observing instruments, the SeaWinds scatterometer aboard Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (Adeos) 2--now renamed Midori 2--has successfully transmitted its first radar data to our home planet.

Carbon monoxide from the Australian fires of February, 2009, as seen by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite.

This false-color image shows a one-month composite of sea surface temperature over the entire globe for May 2001. Red and yellow indicates warmer temperatures, green is an intermediate value, while blues and then purples are progressively colder values.

This visualization from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite shows variations in the three dimensional distribution of water vapor in the atmosphere during the summer and fall of 2005.

Coffe slowly dissolve in the hot water

image created with data acquired by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument (AIRS) on NASAs Aqua satellite during July 2009. shows large-scale patterns of carbon dioxide concentrations that are transported around Earth by the general circulation of the atmosphere. Dark blue corresponds to a concentration of 382 parts per million and dark red corresponds to a concentration of almost 390 parts per million. The northern hemisphere mid-latitude jet stream effectively sets the northern limit of enhanced carbon dioxide. A belt of enhanced carbon dioxide girdles the globe in the southern hemisphere, following the Zonal flow of the southern hemisphere mid-latitude jet stream. This belt of carbon dioxide is fed by biogenesis activity in South America (carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere through the respiration and decomposition of vegetation), forest fires in both South America and Central Africa, and clusters of gasification plants in South Africa and power generation plants in

Credit Image courtesy:MODIS Ocean Group, NASA GSFC, and the University of Miami: sea surface temperature shown in false-colour image. a one-month composite for May 2001. Red and yellow indicates warmer temperatures, green is an intermediate value, while blues and then purples are progressively colder.

The plume of carbon monoxide pollution from the Rim Fire burning in and near Yosemite National Park, Calif., shows a three-day running average of daily measurements from NASA's Aqua spacecraft.

This illustration depicts synthetic aperature radar patterns of seismic deformations associated with a model earthquake on the San Francisco section of the San Andreas Fault (depicted in yellow).

World Map Illustration

This time series shows carbon monoxide associated with fires from the Amazon region in Brazil from Aug. 8-22, 2019. The images show carbon monoxide at an hPA a common unit of measurement for atmospheric pressure of 500, or approximately 18,000 feet (5,500 meters) altitude, made with data collected from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite. Each day in the series is made by averaging three day's-worth of measurements, a technique used to eliminate data gaps. As the series progresses, the carbon monoxide plume blooms in the northwest Amazon region then drifts south and east in a more concentrated plume toward Sao Paulo. Green indicates concentrations of carbon monoxide at approximately 100 parts per billion by volume (ppbv), yellow at approximately 120 ppbv, and dark red at approximately 160 ppbv. It must be noted that local values can be significantly higher. Carbon monoxide is a pollutant that can be transported large distances and persist in the atmosph

NASA space view of earth

NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), which is aboard the Aqua satellite, captured carbon monoxide plumes coming from California wildfires last week. There were 28 major wildfires burning across the state as of Sept. 14. This includes the August Complex Fire, which started on Aug. 17 and has since burned over 471,000 acres, making it the largest fire on record in California. The animation shows three-day averages of carbon monoxide concentrations around 3 miles (5 kilometers) up in the atmosphere between Sept. 6 and 14. The red and orange areas indicate regions with extremely high carbon monoxide concentrations of greater than 350 parts per billion by volume (ppbv). The more normal, background concentrations of carbon monoxide show up as yellow and green, with amounts between 30 and 50 ppbv. A pollutant that can travel large distances, carbon monoxide can persist in the atmosphere for about a month. At the high altitude mapped in these images, the gas has little effect on the air

The Pacific is ringed by many volcanoes and oceanic trenches

These images show ocean winds near the surface as observed by NASA's ISS-RapidScat on the International Space Station.

This image is the AIRS-retrieved global tropospheric methane for August 2005. This AIRS research product will aid in the identification of natural and anthropogenic sources of this greenhouse gas, its seasonal and multi-year variation and its transport around the globe at several altitudes in the troposphere.

Global Views of Atmospheric Water Vapor:<br />First Data from OSTM/Jason-2's Advanced Microwave Radiometer

NASA's Aquarius instrument has produced its first global map of the salinity, or saltiness, of Earth's ocean surface, providing an early glimpse of the mission's anticipated discoveries.

Armed with data from NASA's Quick Scatterometer (Quikscat), weather forecasters can now predict hazardous weather events over the oceans as much as 6 to 12 hours earlier. The direction and intensity of surface winds across the Atlantic Ocean are shown in this Quickscat image. Orange areas show where winds are blowing the hardest, while violet is an intermediate value, and blue shows relatively light winds. In recent years, data from the Quikscat scatterometer, developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion

This false-color, oblique perspective image of the Slumgullion landslide in southwestern Colorado depicting its surface motion was created by data acquired by NASA's UAVSAR between two airplane flights in August 2011.

Water vapor is the dominant greenhouse gas in our atmosphere. Mean clear air precipitable water, 500mb to top of atmosphere from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite.

. SWOT Satellite will Improve Clarity and Detail of Sea Height Measurements. This animation, created in 2012, shows the increasing clarity and detail of measurements of sea height made by successive satellite altimeters launched by NASA and other agencies over the past four decades, concluding with data at the resolution possible with the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite, expected to launch in December 2022. Each new spacecraft has been able to obtain higher-resolution observations than its predecessors. Sea height is key to understanding how much, and how fast, the oceans are rising in a warming climate. The animation starts with Seasat, launched in 1978 as one of the NASA's earliest Earth-observing satellites, then moves to Geosat, a U.S. Navy spacecraft launched in 1985, and on to ERS-1, TOPEX/Poseidon, ERS-2, Jason-1, Envisat, and Jason-2. Since the end of the time period shown in the animation, subsequent satellites have continued measuring sea height, creating

The SeaWinds scatterometer on NASA's QuikScat satellite makes global radar measurements day and night, in clear sky and through clouds. Greenland and the polar ice cap are shown here on September 20, 1999.

Carbon monoxide in the smoke from the Station fire was lofted high into the atmosphere, where it was observed by JPL's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument onboard NASA's Aqua satellite. Animation available at the Photojournal.

Phytoplankton Ocean Map, SeaWiFS Level-3 Standard Mapped Images

During the 2003 fire season, blazes in the taiga forests of Eastern Siberia were part of a vast network of fires across Siberia and the Russian Far East, northeast China and northern Mongolia seen here by NASA's Terra spacecraft.

The distribution of ocean surface winds over the Atlantic Ocean, based on September 1999 data from NASA's SeaWinds instrument on the QuikScat satellite, shows wind direction, superimposed on the color image indicating wind speed.

Global radar measurements in clear sky and through clouds. The radar data over the oceans provides scientists and weather forecasters with information on surface wind speed and direction. Credit NASA. Science Meteorology

Shen_Nargis Snapshot of a very large simulation showing the altitude and velocity of wind speeds within the 2008 Cyclone Nargis. Top wind speeds for the storm were measured at 135 mph. The lowest altitude winds are shown in blue, while the highest altitude winds are shown in pink. Wind speed is shown by color density higher density denotes stronger winds, slightly transparent color indicates slower wind speeds.

NASA image taken 8/31/2000The tongue of the Malaspina Glacier, the largest glacier in Alaska, fills most of this image. The Malaspina lies west of Yakutat Bay and covers 1,500 sq. MI (3,880 sq. km).

NASA's QuikScat satellite acquired this image of Category One Typhoon Fitow on Sept. 6, 2007, prior to the storm making landfall in Japan.

Close-up of oil stains in the basin of a fishing port.

Sea-level height data from the NASA/European Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 oceanography satellite December 1, 2009 It shows a red and white area in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific that is about 10 to 18 centimetres (4 to 7 inches) above normal. These regions contrast with the western equatorial Pacific, where lower than-normal sea levels (blue and purple areas) are between 8 to 15 centimetres (3 and 6 inches) below normal. Along the equator, the red and white colours depict areas where sea surface temperatures are more than one to two degrees Celsius above normal (two to four degrees Fahrenheit).

NASA models and supercomputing have created a colorful new view of aerosol movement. Satellites, balloon-borne instruments and ground-based devices make 30 million observations of the atmosphere each day. Yet these measurements still give an incomplete picture of the complex interactions within the membrane surrounding Earth. Enter climate models. Through mathematical experiments, modelers can move Earth forward or backward in time to create a dynamic portrait of the planet. Researchers from NASA Goddards Global Modeling and Assimilation Office recently ran a simulation of the atmosphere that captured how winds whip aerosols around the world. Such simulations allow scientists to better understand how these tiny particulates travel in the atmosphere and influence weather and climate. In the visualization below, covering August 2006 to April 2007, watch as dust and sea salt swirl inside cyclones, carbon bursts from fires, sulfate streams from volcanoes—and see how these aerosols paint t

Numerous fires occurred near the headwaters of the Xingu River and the Xingu Indigenous Peoples' Reserve in Mato Grosso, Brazil, during late June and early July, 2004, as seen by NASA's Terra spacecraft.

These July 11, 2006 images from NASA's Terra Satellite show then Tropical Storm Bud as it was intensifying into a hurricane, which it became later that day.

Mars Albedo

Whole Earth Centred On Pacific Ocean, True Colour Satellite Image. True colour satellite image of the whole Earth centred on the Pacific Ocean, with cloud coverage. This image in Miller projection was compiled from data acquired by LANDSAT 5 & 7 satellites.

NASA and Japans Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industrys Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) of the world on June 29, 2009. Science Earth Geology

These images of the Pacific Ocean near Indonesia were produced using sea surface height measurements taken by NASA's U.S.-French TOPEX/Poseidon satellite.

Clear skies on April 11, 2004 (top panels) contrast strongly with the dust storm that swept across Iraq and Saudi Arabia on May 13 (bottom panels) as seen by NASA's Terra spacecraft.

Water Mass Map from Neutron Spectrometer

Beaufort Sea surface temperatures where Canada's Mackenzie River discharges into the Arctic Ocean, measured by NASA's MODIS instrument; warm river waters had broken through a shoreline sea ice barrier to enhance sea ice melt.

This view of Earth highlights biological activity, specifically, the amount of photosynthesis happening. Higher chlorophyll concentrations in the ocean are indicated with green, yellow, and red colors. The amount of vegitation on land is indicated with incresingly deep shades of green

Mars Thermal Inertia

The figure demonstrates of the capability of the SeaWinds instrument on NASA's QuikScat satellite in monitoring both sea ice and ocean surface wind, thus helping to further our knowledge in wind-ice interaction and its effect on climate change.

This map, made using the Compact Ocean Wind Vector Radiometer (COWVR) instrument's observations from Jan. 16 to 23, 2022, shows Earth's microwave emissions at a frequency of 34 gigahertz. This frequency provides information on the strength of winds at the ocean surface, the amount of water in clouds, and the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. Green and white indicate higher water vapor and clouds, while dark blue over the ocean indicates drier air and clear sky. Typical weather patterns for January, such as tropical moisture and rain (the green band stretching across the center of the map), are visible.

Born in the Atlantic, Hurricane Frances became a category 4 hurricane on August 31, 2004, as seen by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounding System (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua.

Almost all of Greenland continued to lose mass in May 2019 as the ice sheet continues to melt.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft created this image of the bubble around our solar system based on emissions of particles known as energetic neutral atoms.

High-resolution global soil moisture map from NASA SMAP's combined radar and radiometer instruments, acquired between May 4 and May 11, 2015 during SMAP's commissioning phase.

This visualization of a gravity model was created with data from NASAs Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment and shows variations in the gravity field across Africa and Europe.

NASA and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) released the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) to the worldwide public on June 29, 2009.

To create the first global, topographic map of Saturn's moon Titan, scientists analyzed data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft and a mathematical process called splining.

This image was created with data acquired by JPL'a Atmospheric Infrared Sounder during July 2008. The image shows large scale patterns of carbon dioxide concentrations that are transported around the Earth by the general circulation of the atmosphere.

The latest image from NASA's Jason oceanography satellite, taken during a 10-day collection cycle ending December 2, 2002, shows the Pacific dominated by two significant areas of higher-than-normal sealevel (warmer ocean temperatures).

The height and southward extent of the ash plume emanating from Sicily's Mount Etna volcano on October 27, 2002 are captured in these four image panels from NASA's Terra spacecraft.

This sea surface height map of the Gulf of Mexico, with the Florida peninsula on the right and the Texas-Mexico Gulf Coast on the left, is based on altimeter data from four satellites including NASAs Topex/Poseidon and Jason.

Launch date makes a difference in the orientation of ellipses marking where NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander would have a high probability of landing, given the planned targeting for the spring 2008 landing site.

On April 15, 2010, NASA's Terra spacecraft captured these images of the ongoing eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajkull Volcano, which continues to spew ash into the atmosphere and impact air travel worldwide.

World Map Illustration

This image shows CO2 over the United States during OCO-3's first few days of science data collection. These initial measurements are consistent with measurements taken by OCO-3's older sibling, OCO-2, over the same area meaning that even though OCO-3's instrument calibration is not yet complete, it is right on track to continue its (currently still operational) predecessor's data record. The mission team expects to complete OCO-3's in-orbit checkout phase the period where they ensure all instruments and components are working and calibrated correctly in August 2019. They are scheduled to release official CO2 and solar-induced fluorescence data to the science community a year later; however, this data will likely be available sooner given the quality of the measurements that OCO-3 is already making.

The tongue of the Malaspina Glacier, the one of the largest glaciers in Alaska, fills most of this image. The Malaspina lies west of Yakutat Bay and covers roughly 1,500 sq. mi (3,880 sq. km).This image was acquired by Landsat 7s Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) sensor on August 31, 2000. This is a false-colour composite image made using infrared, near infrared, and green wavelengths

Using data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, scientists have created the first global topographic map of Saturn's moon Titan, giving researchers a 3-D tool for learning more about one of the most Earthlike and interesting worlds in the solar system.

A ferry carrying more than 600 passengers sank in the Java Sea between the island of Java and Borneo just before midnight on December 29, 2006, during high winds and rough seas.

SRTM Data Release for Eurasia, Index Map and Colored Height

World Map Illustration

These data products from NASA's Terra satellite document the presence of airborne particulates on March 13, 2002, during Terra orbit 11880. At least once a year for a period lasting from a week to several months, northern Sumatra is obscured by smoke and

The central portion of Russia's East Siberian Sea, including one of the New Siberian Islands, Novaya Sibir, are portrayed in these views from data acquired on May 28, 2002 by NASA's Terra satellite.

AIRS mean carbon monoxide at 500 millibar, September 22-29, 2002 AIRS Mean Carbon Monoxide at 500 Millibar, September 22-29, 2002.

This visualization of a gravity model was created with data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment and shows variations in the gravity field across the Asia and Australia.

World map

These images from NASA's Terra satellite, captured on October 18, 2002, display a large dust plume extended across countries bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

This image shows differences in atmospheric water vapor relative to a normal (average) year in the Earth's upper troposphere about 10 kilometers (6 miles) above the surface.

This frame from an animation simulates a flyover of a portion of a Martian canyon detailed in a geological map produced by the U.S. Geological Survey and based on observations by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

In mid-March 2011, NASA's Aura spacecraft observed ozone in Earth's stratosphere -- low ozone amounts are shown in purple and grey colors, large amounts of chlorine monoxide are shown in dark blue colors.

AIRS mid-tropospheric CO2, Version 5, July 2003 from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite.

NASA and its partners are contributing important observations and expertise to the ongoing response to the Sept. 7, 2017 (local time), magnitude 8.1 Oaxaca-Chiapas earthquake in Mexico. This earthquake was the strongest in more than a century in Mexico. It has caused a significant humanitarian crisis, with widespread building damage and triggered landslides throughout the region. Scientists with the Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis project (ARIA), a collaboration between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California; and Caltech, also in Pasadena, analyzed interferometric synthetic aperture radar images from the radar instrument on the Copernicus Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B satellites operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) to calculate a map of the deformation of Earth's surface caused by the quake. This false-color map shows the amount of permanent surface movement caused almost entirely by the earthquake, as viewed by the satellite, during a six-day interval betwee

This graphic depicting the bulk density of the lunar highlands on the near and far sides of the moon was generated using gravity data from NASA's GRAIL mission and topography data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

These data, taken during a 10-day collection cycle ending August 18, 2001, show that above-normal sea-surface heights and warmer ocean temperatures still blanket the far-western tropical Pacific and much of the north (and south) mid-Pacific.

Observations by NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft show a global view of Mars in low energy, or thermal, neutrons. Thermal neutrons are sensitive to the presence of hydrogen and the presence of carbon dioxide, in this case 'dry ice' frost.

NASA Airborne Snow Observatory measurements of snow water equivalent (top image) and snow albedo, or reflectivity (bottom image) for the Tuolumne River Basin in California's Sierra Nevada on April 21, 2013.

. SWOT Monitors Warming Waters Off California Coast. This data visualization image above shows sea surface heights off the northern California coast in August 2023 as measured by the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite. Red indicates higher-than-average ocean heights, while blue represents lower-than-average heights. Warm ocean waters from the developing El Niño are shifting north along coastlines in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Along the coast of California, these warm waters are interacting with a persistent marine heat wave that recently influenced the development of Hurricane Hilary. SWOT is able to spot the movement of these warm ocean waters in unprecedented detail. The SWOT science team made the measurements with the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) instrument. With two antennas spread 33 feet (10 meters) apart on a boom, KaRIn produces a pair of data swaths as it circles the globe, bouncing radar pulses off the water's surface to collect water-height measureme

This image represents the total precipitable water vapor for May 2009 as observed by JPL's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on NASA's Aqua satellite.

The extent, height, and amount of smoke originating from the B&B Complex Fires in central Oregon are captured in these September 4, 2003 views from NASA's Terra spacecraft.

The height and extent of billowing smoke plumes from bushfires near Canberra, the Australian capital, are illustrated by these views from NASA's Terra spacecraft acquired on January 18, 2003.

The latest image of sea surface heights in the Pacific Ocean from NASA's Jason-2 satellite shows that the equatorial Pacific Ocean is now in its 10th month of being locked in what some call a neutral, or 'La Nada' state.

JSC2000E01555 (January 2000) --- A one-dimensional representation of Earthindicates only a portion of the total anticipated coverage area for the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission(SRTM). The primary objective of SRTM is to acquire a high-resolution topographic map of the Earth's land mass (between 60 degrees north and 56 degrees south latitude) and to test new technologies for deployment of large rigid structures and measurement of their distortions to extremely high precision.

Planet earth with fault lines and tectonic plates, computer artwork.

Like fall and winter of 2000, this year NASA's Topex/Poseidon satellite data shows that the Pacific ocean continues to be dominated by the strong Pacific Decadal Oscillation, which is larger than the El Nio/La Nia pattern.

JPL's HAMSR instrument flew above Hurricane Matthew on Oct. 7 aboard a NASA Global Hawk aircraft. Right: atmospheric temperatures overlaid atop ground-based radar and satellite visible images.

NASA's Aqua spacecraft tracked the concentration and transport of carbon monoxide from Russian fires in 2010, during which time some 558 fires were burning.

Two key climate change indicators -- global surface temperatures and Arctic sea ice extent -- have broken numerous records through the first half of 2016, according to NASA analyses of ground-based observations and satellite data. Each of the first six months of 2016 set a record as the warmest respective month globally in the modern temperature record, which dates to 1880, according to scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. The six-month period from January to June was also the planet's warmest half-year on record, with an average temperature 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the late nineteenth century. Read more a href= http //go.nasa.gov/29SQngq rel= nofollow go.nasa.gov/29SQngq /a

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