Earth's Climate Change Visualizations

Maps and animations depicting climate change effects on Earth's surface, highlighting temperature variations and environmental changes.

ocean surface is covered by the El-Nino sea surface temperature field.

ocean surface is covered by the El-Nino sea surface temperature field.

World map and climate change, illustration

This animation shows a time lapse of sea surface salinity and soil moisture from NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite from April 2015 through February 2019. Animation available at

This frame from a time series, from one year of Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) measurements, shows how powerful the TES data are for understanding emissions, chemistry, and transport in the troposphere.

NASA's Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2, launched on June 20, 2008, wasted no time getting to work. The satellite's radar altimeter collected its first data a little more than 48 hours after launch.

This visualization of a gravity model was created with data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and shows variations in Earths gravity field.

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 Americas.

Satellite Image of Earth's Interrelated Systems and Climate

NASA's Terra spacecraft acquired this image on June 2, 2012 of Sheveluch, one of the most active volcanoes on the Kamchatka peninsula, with frequent explosive events that can disrupt air traffic over the northern Pacific.

This Mars map shows variations in thickness of the planet's crust, the relatively thin surface layer over the interior mantle of the planet. It shows unprecedented detail derived from new mapping of variations in Mars' gravitational pull on orbiters.

NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captures a polar vortex moving from Central Canada into the U.S. Midwest from January 20 through January 29, 2019. The images show air temperatures at 600 millibars, around 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) high in Earth's troposphere. This polar vortex is responsible for surface air temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit (also -40 degrees Celsius) and wind chill readings as low as the -50s and -60s Fahrenheit (-46 and -51 Celsius). Animation available at

Seismic activity earthquake Idaho map Seismic activity earthquake Idaho map Richter scale Copyright: xZoonar.com/AleksandarxVukicevicx 21520900

A NASA Center for Climate Simulation supercomputer model that shows the flow of #Blizzard2016 thru Sunday. Learn more here a href= http //go.nasa.gov/1WBm547 rel= nofollow go.nasa.gov/1WBm547 /a b a href= http //www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html rel= nofollow NASA image use policy. /a /b b a href= http //www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html rel= nofollow NASA Goddard Space Flight Center /a /b enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. b Follow us on a href= http //twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix rel= nofollow Twitter /a /b b Like us on a href= http //www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897 ref=tsd rel= nofollow Facebook /a /b b Find us on a href= http //instagrid.me/nasagoddard/ vm=grid rel= nofollow Instagram

Chemical reactions on the surface of the bubble.On the black background.

This image shows average daytime temperatures in May, 2009, as observed by JPL's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on NASA's Aqua satellite.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - SCIENCE ON A SPHERE

Gravity is the force that is responsible for the weight of an object and is determined by how the material that makes up the Earth is distributed throughout the Earth.

Artwork of the earth's magnetosphere.

Mars Crustal Magnetic Field Remnants

Seismic activity earthquake Massachusetts map Seismic activity earthquake Massachusetts map Richter scale Copyright: xZoonar.com/AleksandarxVukicevicx 21520881

This stereo image from NASA's Terra satellite show the Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes in Hawaii; a southern face of a line of cumulus clouds off the north coast of Hawaii is also visible. 3D glasses are necessary to view this image.

Map of carbon monoxide draped on globe: time Series from 8/1/2005 to 9/30/2005 from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite.

Seismic activity earthquake Trinidad and Tobago map Seismic activity earthquake Trinidad and Tobago map Richter scale Copyright: xZoonar.com/AleksandarxVukicevicx 21521665

Model displaying the layers of the earth. Dated 2015

El Niño.

Image acquired September 12, 2010 The yearly depletion of stratospheric ozone over Antarctica - more commonly referred to as the ozone hole” - started in early August 2010 and is now expanding toward its annual maximum. The hole in the ozone layer typically reaches its maximum area in late September or early October, though atmospheric scientists must wait a few weeks after the maximum to pinpoint when the trend of ozone depletion has slowed down and reversed. The hole isn’t literal; no part of the stratosphere — the second layer of the atmosphere, between 8 and 50 km (5 and 31 miles) — is empty of ozone. Scientists use "hole" as a metaphor for the area in which ozone concentrations drop below the historical threshold of 220 Dobson Units. Historical levels of ozone were much higher than 220 Dobson Units, according to NASA atmospheric scientist Paul Newman, so this value shows a very large ozone loss. Earth's ozone layer protects life by absorbing ultraviolet light, which dam

Seismic activity earthquake French Southern Territories map Seismic activity earthquake French Southern Territories map Richter scale Copyright: xZoonar.com/AleksandarxVukicevicx 21520874

The most recent sea-level height data from the NASA/European Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 oceanography satellite show the continued eastward progression of a strong wave of warm water, known as a Kelvin wave, now approaching South America.

Seismic activity earthquake Solomon Islands map Seismic activity earthquake Solomon Islands map Richter scale Copyright: xZoonar.com/AleksandarxVukicevicx 21521556

This frame from an animation depicts the distribution of O3 and CO in the atmosphere over North America. This visualization is based on data acquired by NASA's Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES).

One of the strongest La Nias in many years is slowly weakening but continues to blanket the Pacific Ocean near the equator, as shown by new sea-level height data collected by NASA's U.S.-French Jason oceanographic satellite.

This is the first global map of ocean surface topography produced with data from the new interleaved tandem mission of NASA's Jason-1 and Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellites.

This image is a 'family portrait' of Topex/Poseidon, Jason-1 and Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 (OSTM/Jason-2), NASA satellites that have measured global sea surface heights since 1992.

Science on a Sphere at the U.S. Center during COP15 (Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) in Copenhagen, Denmark December 10, 2009.

In this image, from September 2006, the Antarctic ozone hole was equal to the record single-day largest area of 11.4 million square miles (29.5 million square kilometres), reached on Sept. 9, 2000. Satellite instruments monitor the ozone layer, and we use their data to create the images that depict the amount of ozone. The blue and purple colours are where there is the least ozone, and the greens, yellows, and reds are where there is more ozone. Ozone depletion describes two distinct but related phenomena observed since the late 1970s: a steady decline of about four per cent in the total amount of ozone in Earth's stratosphere (the ozone layer), and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone around Earth's polar regions.

A satellite view of Earth with straight pins at various locations, digital composite

World Earthquake Map, Fault Lines, Epicenters, and Seismic Activity

Color Global Mosaic of Io

A satellite view of Earth with straight pins at various locations, digital composite

These four views of the Pacific Ocean were produced using sea surface height measurements taken by NASA's U.S./French TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite.

Seismic activity earthquake Mauritania map Seismic activity earthquake Mauritania map Richter scale Copyright: xZoonar.com/AleksandarxVukicevicx 21520842

World Earthquake Map, Fault Lines, Epicenters, and Seismic Activity

Geosphere.

Scientists on NASA's EMIT mission used data from its powerful imaging spectrometer, developed at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to map the presence and geographic distributions of three key minerals in the planet's arid regions. The three substances - hematite, goethite, and kaolinite - are thought to have an effect on atmospheric and surface temperatures when wind lofts them into the air, forming dust storms. The data, collected over the course of a year ending in November 2023, was used to create this map. Red represents hematite, green goethite, and blue kaolinite. Magenta indicates regions with hematite and kaolinite, while yellow shows areas that hematite and goethite, and cyan signifies locations with goethite and kaolinite. White indicates the presence of all three, and black signifies portions of the study area that contain none of them. In total, EMIT - short for the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation - is mapping 10 minerals as part of its prime mission.

This is an orthographic projection with color-coded elevation contours and shaded relief based on data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter.

Height measurements taken by NASA's U.S.-French TOPEX/Poseidon satellite. The image shows sea surface height relative to normal ocean conditions on July 11, 1998; sea surface height is an indicator of the heat content of the ocean.

Seismic activity earthquake Colombia map Seismic activity earthquake Colombia map Richter scale Copyright: xZoonar.com/AleksandarxVukicevicx 21521564

This image of the Pacific Ocean was produced using sea surface height measurements taken by NASA's U.S./French TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite.

General circulation of the atmosphere.

Two donuts of seething radiation that surround Earth, called the Van Allen radiation belts, have been found to contain a nearly impenetrable barrier that prevents the fastest, most energetic electrons from reaching Earth. Read more a href= http //1.usa.gov/11v7nUW rel= nofollow 1.usa.gov/11v7nUW /a Caption This is a visualization of the radiation belts with confined charged particles (blue & yellow) and plasmapause boundary (blue-green surface) Caption NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio b a href= http //www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html rel= nofollow NASA image use policy. /a /b b a href= http //www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html rel= nofollow NASA Goddard Space Flight Center /a /b enables NASAs mission through four scientific endeavors Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASAs accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agencys mis

Recent sea-level height data from NASA's Jason-1 altimetric satellite show that continuing weaker-than-normal trade winds in the western and central equatorial Pacific have triggered another strong, eastward moving, warm Kelvin wave.

Global summaries of aerosol optical thickness from NASA's Terra spacecraft.

Earth's internal structure, illustration

Seismic activity earthquake Guadeloupe map Seismic activity earthquake Guadeloupe map Richter scale Copyright: xZoonar.com/AleksandarxVukicevicx 21521783

This image shows atmospheric water vapor in Earth's upper troposphere, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) above the surface, as measured by NASA's Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument flying aboard the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite.

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region between our solar system and interstellar space, which scientists are calling the stagnation region as depicted in this artist rendering.

Seismic activity earthquake Virgin Islands US map Seismic activity earthquake Virgin Islands US map Richter scale Copyright: xZoonar.com/AleksandarxVukicevicx 21521549

Strong synoptic winds disperse pollutants over the skies of Greece and the Aegean Sea during winter months as sen in this image from NASA's Terra spacecraft captured in 2002.

This image is from data taken by NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment showing the Amazon basin in South America. The amount of water stored in the Amazon basin varies from month to month.Animations are available at the Photojournal.

This image shows Hurricane Lane as observed by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. Purple shows very cold clouds high in the atmosphere above the center of the hurricane, blue and green show the warmer temperatures of lower clouds surrounding the storm center; and orange and red areas have almost no clouds. No eye is seen in this image, which means it was either too small for AIRS to detect or it was covered by high, cold clouds. Figure 1 was observed on Aug. 22, 2018. Purple shows very cold clouds high in the atmosphere above the center of the hurricane, blue and green show the warmer temperatures of lower clouds surrounding the storm center; and orange and red areas have almost no clouds. The eye of the storm is clearly visible.

A giant horseshoe pattern of higher than normal sea-surface heights developing over the last year is beginning to dominate the entire western Pacific and Asiatic oceans.

Infographic of the causes of global warming related to human activity and changes in solar activity, in the magnetism of the poles and the albedo effect. QuarkXPress (.qxp); 6259x4015.

This image of the Pacific Ocean was produced using sea-surface height measurements taken by NASA's U.S.-French TOPEX/Poseidon satellite.

Digitally created high resolution image of planet Uranus

The rapid intensification of Hurricane Harvey is seen in this pair of images of ocean surface wind speeds as observed by the radiometer instrument aboard NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite at 7 29 a.m. CDT Aug. 24th, 2017 (left) and at 7 p.m. CDT Aug. 26th (right). Color indicates wind speed, with red being highest and blue lowest. The images show Harvey's maximum wind speeds increased from approximately 56 miles per hour (25 meters per second) to about 107 miles per hour (47.8 meters per second) in the 36 hours just before landfall. The higher wind speeds estimated near the mouth of the Mississippi River are erroneous and are due to errors in the ancillary sea-surface-salinity data product used by SMAP to estimate extreme wind speeds.

Global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations from Oct. 1 through Nov. 11, as recorded by NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2.

Zika virus superimposed on Brazil, computer illustration. Zika is an RNA (ribonucleic acid) virus from the Flaviviridae family. It is transmitted to h...

After dominating the tropical Pacific Ocean for more than two years, the 1998-2000 La Nia 'cool pool' is continuing its slow fade and seems to be retiring from the climate stage, according to satellite data from NASA's U.S.-French TOPEX/Poseidon mission.

Earth climate zones, illustration

Images made with data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on NASA's Aqua satellite, show sulfur dioxide released from the volcanic eruption of Eyjafjallajkull.

This animation shows a nearly 20-year record of temperature anomalies for two layers in Earth's atmosphere the lower troposphere, where most of the planet's weather occurs; and the upper stratosphere, which contains the ozone layer. NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), aboard the Aqua satellite, captured these measurements from 2002 to 2020. Preliminary data analysis shows a warming trend for the lower troposphere, and a strong cooling trend in the upper stratosphere. The globes show a map of where warmer than average or cooler than average temperatures for each atmospheric layer occurred during this time period. The line graphs show the deviation of temperatures averaged over the entire planet for the lower troposphere and upper stratosphere. AIRS, in conjunction with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), senses emitted infrared and microwave radiation from Earth to provide a three-dimensional look at the planet's weather and climate. Working in tandem, the two instrumen

Planet Venus from NASA, Magellan Program

NASA's Aqua spacecraft has illustrated surface air and skin temperature for the period from July 16-24, showing movement of a dome of heat across the eastern two-thirds of the country. See More Details for the movies.

Infographic about the Antarctic ocean that surrounds Antarctica, its geographical, climatic and ecological characteristics. Adobe InDesign (.indd); 4960x3188.

After three years of El Nio and La Nia, the Pacific is finally calming down in the tropics but still shows signs of being abnormal elsewhere, according to the satellite data from NASA's U.S.-French TOPEX/Poseidon mission.

Earth's internal structure, illustration

The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California Institute of Technology both in Pasadena, California created this co-seismic Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) map that shows surface displacement caused by the recent major earthquakes in Southern California, including the magnitude 6.4 and the magnitude 7.1 events on July 4 and July 5, 2019, respectively. The interferogram is derived from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from the ALOS-2 satellite, operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The images were taken before (April 16, 2018) and after (July 8, 2019) the sequence of earthquakes. Each color cycle represents 4.8 inches (12 centimeters) of ground displacement in the radar line-of-sight. The image covers an area of 31 by 78 miles (50 by 125 kilometers), and each pixel measures about 98 yards (90 meters) across. No filter was applied during the processing. The linear features across which

Surface relative humidity anomalies in percent, during July 2011 compared to the average surface relative humidity over the previous eight years, as measured by NASA's Aqua instrument AIRS. The driest areas are shown in oranges and reds.

This image shows the distribution and amount of carbon dioxide in Earth's mid-troposphere in July 2008 as measured by NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument.

This image of the Pacific Ocean was produced using sea-surface height measurements taken by NASA's U.S.-French TOPEX/Poseidon satellite.

Thermal Wave Phenomena

Using the day-night band” (DNB) of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite acquired this view of the aurora borealis on March 18, 2015. The northern lights stretch across Canada’s Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Nunavut, and Newfoundland provinces in the image, and are part of the auroral oval that expanded to middle latitudes because of a geomagnetic storm on March 17, 2015. The DNB sensor detects dim light signals such as auroras, airglow, gas flares, city lights, and reflected moonlight. In the case of the image above, the sensor detected the visible light emissions as energetic particles rained down from Earth’s magnetosphere and into the gases of the upper atmosphere. The images are similar to those collected by the Operational Linescan System flown on U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites for the past three decades. Auroras typically occur when solar flares and coronal mass ej

Earth's internal structure, illustration

These infrared and microwave images were created with data retrieved by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite, and show the remnants of the former Hurricane Felix over Central America, September, 2007.

This image of the Pacific Ocean was produced using sea surface height measurements taken by the U.S./French TOPEX/Poseidon satellite. The image shows sea surface height relative to normal ocean conditions on Nov. 10, 1997.

Earth's internal structure, illustration

Early Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, Hurricane Sandy continued inland, moving to the northwest over Pennsylvania. Swaths of infrared measurements taken over two orbits of NASA's Aqua satellite by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder are displayed here.

Cumulative total freshwater losses in South America from 2002-2015 (in inches) observed by NASA's GRACE mission. Total water refers to all of the snow, surface water, soil water and groundwater combined.

This infrared image shows Tropical Depression 6 (Florence) in the Atlantic, from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite in September, 2006.

Infographics of the circulation of the winds in the terrestrial atmosphere and their influence in the climatic system of the Earth. QuarkXPress (.qxp); 6259x4015.

Infographic about the characteristics and location of the Atlantic ocean. Adobe InDesign (.indd); 4960x3188.

Infographics of the causes and consequences of the accelerated thawing of the poles. QuarkXPress (.qxp); 6259x4015.

Earth's internal structure, illustration

Transport of dust from China Dust Storm of April 2006, from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite.

This temperature map shows the stressed and dry vegetation surrounding the Apple fire in Southern California on Aug. 1, 2020. The observation was made possible by NASA's Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) that measured the temperature of the burn area and tracked the dark smoke plume drifting east from California to Arizona. ECOSTRESS collected this data when the space station passed over the region at about 1 15 p.m. PST on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020, when the burn area was approximately 4,000 acres in size. Black smoke can be seen drifting east and over Joshua Tree National Park in the Mojave Desert. With a resolution of about 77 by 77 yards (70 by 70 meters), the image enables surface-temperature conditions down to the size of a football field to be studied. In the active burn area, temperatures of between 390-1290 F (200-700 C) were recorded, and in one pixel in the ECOSTRESS image of the burn zone, a peak temperature of 1387 F (753 C) was d

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