The Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) instrument aboard the Seastar satellite collected ocean data for more than a decade. By monitoring the color of reflected light via satellite, scientists can determine chlorophyll concentrations, indicating how successfully plant life is photosynthesizing. Ocean chlorophyll concentration is essentially a measurement of the successful growth of microscopic plants, called phytoplankton. Dark blue represents areas where phytoplankton are scarce often due to lack of nutrients. Greens and reds, on the other hand, indicate an abundance of phytoplankton, which often correlates with nutrient-rich areas. These can include coastal regions where cold water rises from the seafloor and near the mouths of rivers.

Credit: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio, The SeaWiFS Project and GeoEye. NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye (http://www.geoeye.com). Data provided by: Norman Kuring (NASA/GSFC)

CERES (Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System) is one of the highest priority scientific satellite instruments developed for NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS).

This global view shows CERES top-of-atmosphere (TOA) longwave radiation from January 26 and 27, 2012. Heat energy radiated from Earth (in Watts per square meter) is shown in shades of yellow, red, blue and white. The brightest-yellow areas are emitting the most energy out to space, while the dark blue and bright white areas (clouds) are much colder, emitting the least energy. Increasing temperature, decreasing water vapor, and decreasing clouds all tend to increase the ability of Earth to shed heat out to space.

CERES (Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System) is one of the highest priority scientific satellite instruments developed for NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS).

This global view shows CERES top-of-atmosphere (TOA) shortwave radiation from January 26 and 27, 2012. Light energy reflected from Earth (in Watts per square meter) is shown in shades of blue and white. The brightest-white areas (generally clouds) are reflecting the most energy out to spare, while the darker blues areas reflect much less. Increasing cloud cover and snow/ice cover all tend to increase the ability of Earth to reflect energy out to space.

The world's ocean is heated at the surface by the sun, and this heating is uneven for many reasons. Earth's rotation, revolution around the sun, and tilt all play a role, as do the wind-driven ocean surface currents. This animation shows the long-term average sea surface temperature, with red and yellow depicting warmer waters and blue depicting colder waters. The most obvious feature of this temperature map is the variation of the temperature by latitude, from the warm region along the equator to the cold regions near the poles. Another visible feature is the cooler regions just off the western coasts of North America, South America, and Africa. In these regions, the combination of Earth's rotation and alongshore winds push water away from the coast, allowing cooler water to rise from deeper in the ocean. The long-term average (or "climatology") of sea surface temperature used in this animation came from the World Ocean Atlas 2005.

Credit: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio; The Blue Marble Next Generation data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) and NASA Earth Observatory.

Turbulent storms churn the ocean in winter, adding nutrients to sunlit waters near the surface. Each spring this gives rise to massive blooms of phytoplankton. These microscopic plants harvest vital energy from sunlight through photosynthesis. The natural pigments, called chlorophyll, allow phytoplankton to thrive in Earth's oceans and enable scientists to monitor blooms from space. Satellites reveal the location and abundance of phytoplankton by detecting the amount of chlorophyll present in coastal and open waters-the higher the concentration, the larger the bloom. Observations show blooms typically last until late spring or early summer, when nutrients become less available and predatory zooplankton start to graze. The visualization uses NASA SeaWiFS (Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor) data to map blooms in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans from March 2003 to October 2006. Dark blue represents areas where there phytoplankton are scarce due to lack of nutrients. Greens and reds, on the other hand, indicate an abundance of phytoplankton, which often correlates with nutrient-rich areas. These can include coastal regions where cold water rises from the sea floor and near the mouths of rivers.

Credit: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

The Earth acts as a giant engine that uses solar power to move air in the atmosphere and water in the ocean. This engine drives the water cycle, which includes the movement of water from the ocean to the atmosphere by evaporation, from the atmosphere to the land by precipitation, and from the land back to the ocean by rivers and streams. The water cycle provides fresh water needed to sustain life. In this visualization series, the cycle begins when the top of the ocean absorbs sunlight. The sun's heat is dispersed in the upper ocean by waves and currents. Water has a high heat capacity and the ocean can absorb a lot of heat without much change in temperature. As a result, the ocean cools off very little at night. Materials forming the land surface such as rocks and soil, however, have lower heat capacity. Thus land temperature changes rapidly, even from night to day. The visualization shows the solar heating of Earth's surface, including the dynamic picture of key stages of water's cyclical journey from sea to air to land, and back again.

Seen side-by-side, snow and sea ice in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres pulse at exact opposite times of year, constantly out of phase. The extent of yearly change at the extreme poles of our planet is an annual pattern that illustrates that similar forces are at work on distant parts of the Earth. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from the near-polar-orbiting Terra and Aqua satellites were used for this visualization.

For more information, visit the Arctic Sea Ice Gallery.

Credit: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

Harsh snows have blanketed Antarctica for so long that the continent has built up an ice sheet a mile thick from bedrock to surface in most places. Despite the ice cap's grip on the rocky landmass below, friction can only hold back the ice so much. This map from NASA reveals icy Antarctica as a landscape of constant movement. NASA scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and UC Irvine have charted this movement for the first time, using Canadian, Japanese and European satellite data to create a record of the speed and direction of ice flow across the entire continent. The map reveals glaciers and tributaries in patterned flows stretching hundreds of miles inland, like a system of rivers and creeks. Slow-moving flows found in largely unexplored East Antarctica defied previous understanding of ice migration. And scientists discovered a ridge that splits Antarctica from east to west. Explore the visualizations below to see the new benchmark map scientists can use to study the extent and speed of changes to the largest ice sheet in the world.

In our photo-saturated world, it's natural to think of satellite images as snapshots from space. But they aren't. A satellite image is created by combining measurements of the intensity of certain wavelengths of light, both visible and invisible to humans. When we combine measurements of visible light, the resulting image is referred to as true color, or similar to what our eyes would see. When we use measurements of non-visible light (such as infrared or microwave), the resulting image is false color. Features may appear differently than we'd expect but these colors help scientists interpret the data. Watch the video to see how distinct combinations of light are combined to create powerful and informing satellite views of our planet.

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

Read this article from NASA's Earth Observatory to learn more about false color imaging: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/FalseColor/.

The NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, which launched in 2002, maps changes in Earth's gravity field resulting from the movement of water over the planet. As water moves around the globe — for example, due to flooding in some regions and drought in others — GRACE acts like a 'scale in the sky,' mapping the regions of Earth that are gaining or losing water each month. The GRACE mission has been particularly successful in monitoring the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and in mapping changing freshwater storage on land.

On December 5, 2014 (1032UTC) the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's Core Observatory flew over Typhoon Hagupit as it headed towards the Philippines. A few hours later at 1500 UTC (10 a.m. EST), Super Typhoon Hagupit's maximum sustained winds were near 130 knots (149.6 mph/241 kph), down from 150 knots (172 mph/277.8 kph). Typhoon-force winds extend out 40 nautical miles (46 miles/74 km) from the center, while tropical-storm-force winds extend out to 120 miles (138 miles/222 km).

Warm ocean currents circulating off the coast of Antarctica are indirectly contributing to rising global sea levels. As these twisting flows meander around the continent's frozen edges and beneath the underside of floating ice shelves, they're slowly melting the ice from below. Using surface elevation measurements collected during NASA's ICESat mission, scientists have found that this melting is driving most of Antarctica's recent ice losses-particularly in West Antarctica, where inland glaciers that feed into the ice shelves are moving at an accelerated rate. The visualization shows the interaction of modeled ocean currents and Antarctic ice shelves, where red areas represent ice thicker than about 1,800 feet (about 550 meters) and blue areas represent ice thinner than about 650 feet (about 200 meters). Notice how the ice shelves generally become thinner-a rainbow of colors indicates intermediate thicknesses-as they extend farther from land.

Credit: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

Across the continents, plants flourish or flounder depending on climate, precipitation and human activities. By using advanced satellite sensors that can detect the greenness of plants from space, scientists have amassed a decades-long record of the planet's terrestrial plant life. Data from the NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite, the latest to make these measurements, was used to produce detailed images of plant activity around the world. The dense green areas on the globe represent thriving flora, whereas the light green or tan areas represent sparse plant life or struggling vegetation. The data will be incorporated into U.S. weather prediction models and could help provide early warnings of droughts and fire hazards. Watch the visualization to see how Earth's plant life changes over the course of a year.

Credit: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

Louisiana's coastline is retreating. Over the next 50 years, scientists expect the Mississippi Delta Plain — a lobe-shaped arc of coastal land that borders the Gulf of Mexico — will lose roughly 3,000 square miles of land. But while portions of the delta plain are disappearing, new land is actually forming in a swampy area about one hundred miles southwest of New Orleans. The Atchafalaya and Wax Lake Outlet deltas have been growing southward by about one square mile per year since the early 1970s. Both deltas are being built by sediment carried by the Atchafalaya River, a distributary of the Mississippi River. The sediment settles into shallow waters and gives rise to sandbars that emerge from the sea in striking fan shapes that can be seen from space. Since 1984, USGS-NASA Landsat satellites have captured images that chronicle the growth of the two deltas. Watch the video to see a time-lapse of their evolution.

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

Sea level: The phrase itself suggests our ocean and seas are have a uniform height. But in fact, the surface of Earth's ocean is not level at all. The height of the ocean surface varies by several feet across the globe because of currents, winds, and temperature fluctuations that cause seawater to expand or contract. For over two decades, NASA and other space agencies have taken precise satellite measurements of sea level, down to the millimeter. The data for this visualization come from instruments called "altimeters," which have been included on TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, and Jason-2 satellites.