Landsat 9
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NASA
An Uncommon Drifter in the Denmark Strait
Greenland’s jagged coastline is lined with fjords, many of them cradling marine-terminating glaciers that routinely calve icebergs into the water. It’s common to see these bergs, small and large, drifting in the island’s fjords each summer once the sea ice breaks up. In summer 2026, one exceptionally large berg turned up in the Denmark Strait—more than a thousand kilometers south…
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NASA
Fans of the Arctic
Editor’s Note: Today’s story is the answer to the July Puzzler. Call it an alluvial face-off. On the southern end of Severny Island in the Russian Arctic, rivers rush down from rugged terrain flanking a broad valley. Upon reaching flatter ground, the waters slow and distribute sediment into cone-shaped features called alluvial fans. Several appear in opposing orientations alongside a braided river…
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NASA
America’s Emerald Isle
In a process that played out over thousands of years, a retreating ice sheet carved, scoured, and shaped the landscape of the present-day Great Lakes. In northern Lake Michigan, this sculpting left distinct ridges and valleys running north-to-south along the lake floor. Some parts of those ridges, made of erosion-resistant rock, have remained above the waves of the big lake, forming the Beaver Archipelago.…
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NASA
Melting Snow Off Shivelyuch
Shivelyuch (also called Shiveluch), the most northerly active volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula, is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. On a near-daily basis, satellites detect new signs of activity within its horseshoe-shaped caldera, including thermal anomalies, hot avalanches and debris flows, and ash deposits that darken the surrounding landscape. The Landsat 9 satellite captured this image of the towering volcano—one of…
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NASA
Satellite Spots a Spawn
Spawning season has sprung for Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) in the waters off British Columbia, Canada. From mid-February through early May each year, thousands of the small, silvery fish congregate in shallow coastal areas around Vancouver Island and create a spectacle sometimes visible to satellites. Sheltered waters in Barkley Sound, on the southwestern side of Vancouver Island, are regular sites for spawn events. On…
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NASA
Restless Kīlauea Launches Lava and Ash
Kīlauea has entered its second year of episodic activity after reawakening in December 2024. Since then, the Hawaiian volcano has gone through dozens of bouts of lava fountaining, each lasting several hours to several days. Activity ramped up once again on March 10, 2026, for episode 43 of the eruption. From approximately 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time that day, lava spewed…
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NASA
A Most Unusual Lake
Scientists estimate that Earth is home to more than 100 million lakes. Among the most unusual is Lake Unter-See, one of Antarctica’s largest and deepest surface lakes, known for its distinctive water chemistry. Its ice-covered waters have exceptionally high levels of dissolved oxygen, low dissolved carbon dioxide, and a strongly alkaline (basic) pH. The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 9 captured this image on February…
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NASA
Landsat 9: More Than Just A Picture
For over 50 years, the Landsat program has provided the longest continuous satellite record of Earth’s land surface from space. Landsat 9, launched in 2021, is the latest mission in this remarkable legacy — building on decades of Earth observation with upgraded technology, including enhanced radiometric resolution, improved signal-to-noise performance, and polar night thermal imaging. Working in tandem with Landsat…
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NASA
Dry-Season Floods Drench Northern Colombia
February is one of the driest months of the year in northern Colombia’s Córdoba department, a major farming and cattle region. It’s the time of year when farmers normally prepare fields for planting and ranchers move livestock to graze in drying floodplains. In 2026, however, unusually heavy rains in early February upended seasonal rhythms and submerged much of the department…
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NASA
Landsat 9 Sees Buccaneer Archipelago
The Operational Land Imager on Landsat 9 captured this image of Buccaneer Archipelago on June 11, 2025. The scene encapsulates the striking interactions between land and water in the area where King Sound opens to the Indian Ocean. The powerful tidal currents stir up sediment in shallow areas, producing the beautiful turquoise swirls visible in this image. This power, however, can be hazardous to seafarers…
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