Alpine glaciers, wild coastlines, temperate rainforests, and deep river valleys coexist on the Olympic Peninsula in the northwest corner of Washington state. Surrounded by blue waters, peaceful islands, and bustling population centers, its rugged interior remains a relatively remote bastion of wilderness.

The Olympic Mountains’ imposing terrain comes into focus in this oblique view of the region, captured by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. The image is a composite, made of several sequential, overlapping photos fused together into a panorama. Olympic National Park encompasses the peninsula’s mountainous core, along with some stretches of the Pacific coastline. Much of the remaining area is either national forest, state-owned land, or tribal territory.

The rock making up the mountains mostly originated beneath the surface of the ocean. From about 55 to 15 million years ago, layers of basalt from undersea eruptions and sand and mud transported seaward by rivers accumulated on the ocean bottom. This material was scraped off the Juan de Fuca plate as it subducted beneath the North American plate, with rock layers crumpling and rising up to 8,000 feet (2,440 meters) above sea level.

Tectonic forces continue to push the mountains skyward, but the countervailing force of erosion in this rainy, snowy corner of the country effectively cancels out the uplift. Snow at higher elevations feeds glaciers that carve out underlying rock. Glaciers in the Olympics are retreating and thinning, however, and their numbers are declining. One study tallied 255 glaciers and perennial snowfields in the range in 2015 and found that 35 glaciers and 16 perennial snowfields had disappeared in the preceding 35 years.

Other erosion is evidenced by the deep valleys radiating out from the snowy peaks. The Hoh, Queets, and Quinault rivers, draining west into the Pacific Ocean (bottom of the frame), are prominent in this view. These verdant valleys are known for their temperate rainforests, and the ancient forest in the Hoh River valley was once considered among the most naturally quiet places in the U.S., uninterrupted by human-caused noise.

Flowing to the north, the Elwha River has a rich natural and human history, including some of the earliest Euro-American exploration of the Olympics. Sponsored by a Seattle newspaper, an expedition from December 1889 to May 1890 crossed the mountain range from north to south, traveling up the Elwha valley and down the Quinault. The party spent several months in the Elwha Valley, their progress hindered by an unusually harsh and snowy winter. 

In the early 1900s, entrepreneurs saw economic opportunity in the valley. Two dams constructed on the river produced power for local industry. But the structures came with costs, such as blocking the migration of once-abundant trout and salmon to their spawning grounds. In 2011 and 2014, the dams were removed in what was then the largest such project in the U.S., and the process of restoring fish populations, seeding native plant communities, and replenishing sediment along the riverbanks commenced.

The mouth of the Elwha forms a delta in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the waterway bordering the peninsula to the north. The U.S.-Canada border runs through the middle of this 11- to 17-mile-wide (18- to 27-kilometer-wide) channel, with Vancouver Island in British Columbia lying to the north. The strait connects the Pacific Ocean with the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound. Ship traffic uses the strait to access important West Coast ports, including Seattle and Tacoma, visible along the top-right edge of the image.

Astronaut photographs ISS047-E-104138 through ISS047-E-104144 were acquired on May 6, 2016, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using a focal length of 400 millimeters. They are provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center. The images were taken by a member of the Expedition 47 crew. The images have been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

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References & Resources

• Fountain, A. G., et al. (2022) Glaciers of the Olympic Mountains, Washington—The past and future 100 years. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 127(4), e2022JF006670. 
• NASA Earth Observatory (2016, February 14) Olympic National Park. Accessed July 22, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2012, August 25) Restoration of the Elwha River. Accessed July 22, 2026.
• National Park Service (2026, July 7) Olympic National Park. Accessed July 22, 2026.
• Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Olympic Mountains. Accessed July 22, 2026.

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Wildland fire activity in Canada ramped up in July 2026, a time of year when lightning ignitions typically increase, according to a seasonal outlook published by several North American fire agencies. The blazes sent smoke plumes pouring across the U.S. and Canada, affecting air quality in both countries.  

This animation tracks brown carbon, the organic aerosols emitted by fires that give smoke plumes their characteristic yellow, orange, and brown tint. Brown carbon is a major component of a fire’s PM_2.5 emissions, a type of air pollution that can aggravate cardiovascular and respiratory conditions. Here, the plume drifts across North American skies from July 14 through July 20, 2026.

Data for the animation come from a version of the GEOS (Goddard Earth Observing System) model, which assimilates data from satellites, aircraft, and ground-based observing systems. In addition to satellite observations of aerosols and fires, the model also incorporates meteorological data such as air temperature, moisture, and winds to project the plume’s behavior.

On July 14, at the start of the animation, numerous fires had already cropped up, including more than 180 in Ontario and several in northern Minnesota. Winds carried the smoke southeast, and by July 15, skies turned hazy and air quality declined from southern Ontario in Canada to the Upper Midwest and Northeast in the U.S. July 16 and 17 saw air quality in many areas continue to plummet, including in Detroit, where it stayed in the hazardous range for several consecutive days. Toronto, Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C., saw air quality ranging from unhealthy to hazardous.

On July 19 and 20, smoke continued to affect air quality downwind, including in the Great Lakes region, according to the National Weather Service. Storms began clearing it away in parts of the East, where air quality improved to good or moderate. Meanwhile, fires in the Pacific Northwest began degrading air quality there. 

The brown carbon shown in this animation represents organic carbon that comes specifically from wildfire smoke. Wildfires also emit black carbon, or soot, which contributes to their PM_2.5 output. Black carbon has long served as a tracer for smoke plumes, but human sources—such as vehicle exhaust and industrial combustion—produce it too, blending in with the black carbon from fires. The GEOS model has been able to make that distinction for brown carbon since February 2026, when an update enabled it to split organic carbon into its anthropogenic and biomass-burning components.

NASA Earth Observatory animation by Lauren Dauphin, using GEOS-FP data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC. Story by Kathryn Hansen.

References & Resources

• The Conversation (2026, July 16) Yes, breathing wildfire smoke can harm your health – here’s what you can do to protect yourself. Accessed July 21, 2026.
• NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (2026, February 19) Splitting Anthropogenic and Biomass Burning Sources of Organic Carbon in GOCART-2G. Accessed July 21, 2026.
• NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (2026, July 20) Long-range Transport of 2026 Canadian Wildfire Smoke into the United States (July 14-20, 2026). Accessed July 21, 2026.
• National Interagency Fire Center, Natural Resources Canada, and Servicio Meteorológico Nacional (2026, July 14) North American Seasonal Fire Assessment and Outlook. Accessed July 21, 2026.
• The New York Times (2026, July 19) When Will the Wildfire Smoke Clear? Accessed July 21, 2026.
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2026, July 14-20) AirNow: Interactive Map of Air Quality. Accessed July 21, 2026.

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The Wabanaki people have a deep well of creation myths explaining the rocky coastlines of the Bay of Fundy, Downeast Maine, and Acadia National Park. Many involve Glooscap—a magical figure said to have floated down the Bay of Fundy in a stone canoe, sculpting coastal features by scraping the vessel across the landscape and scattering enormous boulders during battles with primordial beavers, frogs, moose, whales, and other gigantic animals.

Fewer Indigenous creation myths survive to explain the origins of the sandy and marshy shorelines of southern Maine and the rocky, indented coasts of the state’s Midcoast region. But the sharp contrast between the sandy shoals and beaches south of Portland and the rocky shoreline of promontories, headlands, and narrow peninsulas to the east—visible in the Landsat image above—has long drawn the attention of coastal geologists, whose scientific explanations on its origins abound.

The coastal transition reflects both differences in the underlying bedrock and the distribution of sediment left behind by the last glacial maximum, coastal geologists say. Southern Maine has broad deposits of sand, much of it sourced from rivers. The sandy beaches of Saco Bay, for instance, home to Maine’s longest contiguous beach and the state’s largest saltmarsh, received sediment from the weathering and breakdown of the White Mountains, with material transported to the coast largely by the Saco River, explained Peter Slovinsky, a geologist with the Maine Geological Survey. Waves and tides reworked these soft sediments over time, sculpting them into the arch-shaped embayed beaches and sprawling salt marshes found around Saco Bay and the broader region.

While erosion-resistant granite juts from the sandy shorelines in southern Maine to form rocky headlands, metamorphic bedrock becomes the dominant surface feature east of Portland. There, whole ridges and valleys made of rock layers transformed by exposure to high pressures and temperatures define the landscape. During the last ice age, glaciers scoured and widened many of these coastal valleys, which later flooded as the Laurentide Ice Sheet melted and sea levels rose.

Around Casco Bay, these ridge-and-valley systems, combined with the drowning of the shoreline, produce the jagged, highly indented shoreline and many long, narrow islands seen today. “The tortured folds of these old landscapes also set up a sharp directional preference for erosion to exploit,” said Nicholas Whiteman, also a geologist with the Maine Geological Survey. “This led to the eye-catching difference in the orientation of the islands and necks that dominate Casco Bay compared with those to the northeast.”

The various forms that coastlines take fascinate geologists, but they also carry everyday implications for the economies of Maine’s coastal communities. While tourists flock to the sandy beaches of communities like Saco and Kennebunkport, the state’s iconic lobster fisheries are concentrated in Midcoast Maine. The crustaceans thrive in the cold waters of the region’s many rocky, protected inlets, turning communities such as Harpswell into leaders in lobster landings.  

The state’s oyster farms are also concentrated in this region. Casco Bay and the Damariscotta Estuary, sheltered from winds and waves, offer waters that farmers can easily access without large boats. These waters provide a range of temperatures, salinities, and other characteristics that create numerous microclimates where oysters can grow quickly and take on a variety of tastes, known as merroir, explained Tom Kiffney, a researcher at the University of Maine. Kiffney is part of a team of researchers using Landsat and other satellite observations to predict oyster growth rates and help identify the most promising locations for new oyster farms in Maine based on water temperatures and quality.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.

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August 31, 2025

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References & Resources

• Kelley, J. (1987) An Inventory of Coastal Environments and Classification of Maine’s Glaciated Shoreline. Glaciated Coasts, 151-176.
• Kiffney, T., et al. (2026) Using dynamic energy budget modeling and high-resolution satellite products to predict eastern oyster growth at a farm scale. Aquaculture, 612(1), 743133.
• Leland, C. (1884) Algonquin Legends of New England: How Glooskap sailed through the great Cavern of Darkness. Accessed July 17, 2026.
• Maine.gov (2026) Maine’s Coastal Marine Geology. Accessed July 17, 2026.
• Maine Geological Survey (2002) Simplified Bedrock Geologic Map of Maine. Accessed July 17, 2026.
• Maine Geological Survey (1999) The Variety of Maine’s Changing Shoreline. Accessed July 17, 2026.
• Merroir (2026) What is Merroir? Accessed July 17, 2026.
• NASA (2026, January 15) NASA Data Helps Maine Oyster Farmers Choose Where to Grow. Accessed July 17, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2017) Oyster Prospecting With Landsat 8. Accessed July 17, 2026.
• Snyder, J., et al. (2017) Oyster Aquaculture Site Selection Using Landsat 8-Derived Sea Surface Temperature, Turbidity, and Chlorophyll a. Frontiers in Marine Science, 4(190).
• World History Encyclopedia (2025, February 6) Glooscap Tales. Accessed July 17, 2026.

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Seattle, Washington—sometimes known as the “Emerald City”—was glimmering in the morning sunlight when an astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photo on June 16, 2026. The city’s parks and tree-filled neighborhoods lend a lush, green look to the metropolis, while tall buildings downtown cast long shadows and ships navigate surrounding waterways.

The broad contours of the city’s landscape and the water around it owe their shape to the advance and retreat of glaciers during the last ice age. Between roughly 18,000 and 16,000 years ago, the Puget lobe of the Cordilleran ice sheet covered the area in a mass of ice up to 3,300 feet (1,000 meters) thick. The glacier scoured the basins now occupied by Puget Sound and the region’s lakes. 

The glacier left its mark above water, too. Several of Seattle’s notorious hills (of which there are seven or more, depending on who’s counting) are drumlins. These elongated mounds of glacial debris run north-south, parallel to the direction of the ice’s movement. East-west travelers in the city, facing challenging ups and downs, may attest to this topographic trend.

The ice also transported large boulders called glacial erratics from more northerly locations and deposited them around the region. A particularly large erratic, the Wedgwood Rock, stands about 20 feet (6 meters) tall and draws its name from the North Seattle neighborhood in which it rests.

In more recent times, humans have undertaken projects to rework the topography. Notable alterations include leveling Denny Hill north of downtown and filling in tideflats at the mouth of the Duwamish River south of downtown, which created around 1,300 acres of new land. Seattle’s professional sports stadiums sit atop this fill.

This photo was acquired after several development projects to update waterfront infrastructure downtown, initiated in 2010, were completed. These include a new ferry dock and terminal, a rebuilt seawall, and a tunnel to replace an above-ground highway and create more inviting public access to the waterfront.

Some replumbing of the region’s waterways is apparent from the astronaut’s perspective, as well. In the 1910s, the Army Corps of Engineers built canals on either side of Lake Union to connect Puget Sound (an inlet of the Pacific Ocean) with Lake Washington. Starting in 1916, the Montlake Cut connected Lake Washington to Lake Union, and the Ballard Locks, northwest of Lake Union, began raising and lowering watercraft between the freshwater lakes and tidal Puget Sound. As a result of this project, Lake Washington’s water level dropped about 9 feet (3 meters) and ceased draining from its natural outlet at its southern end.

Today, the waters in and around Seattle support many uses: container ships, cruise ships, car and passenger ferries, floatplanes, and recreational craft ply the sound and lakes. And as for Seattle’s emerald nickname, pockets of old-growth forest still exist within city limits, containing centuries-old trees such as Douglas fir, Western red cedar, and Western hemlock. Seattleites often spot wildlife such as bald eagles, coyotes, and sea lions in the city’s various habitats.

Astronaut photograph ISS074-E-723719 was acquired on June 16, 2026, with a Nikon Z9 digital camera using a focal length of 560 millimeters. It is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 74 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

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References & Resources

• Booth, D.B., et al. (2003) The cordilleran ice sheet. Development in Quaternary Science, 1, 17-43.
• Cascade PBS (2025, January 9) The Giant Ice Sheet That Shaped Seattle. Accessed July 17, 2026.
• City of Seattle (2026) Waterfront Seattle Program. Accessed July 17, 2026.
• HistoryLink.org (2017, February 5) Lake Washington Ship Canal (Seattle). Accessed July 17, 2026.
• HistoryLink.org (2016, December 30) Cedar-Sammamish Watershed. Accessed July 17, 2026.
• Williams, D.B. (2017) Too High and Too Steep. University of Washington Press.

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Twice each day, tides ebb and flow through a maze of sandy channels, mudflats, and mangrove forests that flank the 88 islands and islets of Guinea-Bissau’s Bijagós Archipelago (Arquipélago dos Bijagós in Portuguese). Seen from above, the process leads to stark changes to the landscape: around low tide, intertidal mudflats and sandflats emerge from the sea, causing islands to grow significantly before shrinking again hours later.

The perpetual rhythm of the tides sustains outpourings of marine life in an archipelago that, as of 2025, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The site protects the only active deltaic archipelago on Africa’s Atlantic coast, a place where tides, river sediments, coastal upwelling, and coastal currents come together to shape unusually productive and biodiverse island ecosystems.  

UNESCO estimates that the islands support some 870,000 migratory shorebirds, making this one of the most important feeding areas for birds in West Africa along the East Atlantic Flyway. Hundreds of species of birds dine on a potpourri of marine worms, crustaceans, mollusks, and small fish found on mudflats exposed by low tides. During high tides, manatees, dolphins, and schools of fish move closer to the islands, pushing deeper into the mangrove forests that ring them, and tens of thousands of sea turtles swim inland to sandy beaches as they hunt for nesting sites.

A huge population of green sea turtles nests on the tiny island of Poilão, part of the João Vieira and Poilão Marine National Park. After hatching, young turtles make perilous nighttime dashes to the water, often pursued by crabs, lizards, and birds. Once they reach the water, baby sea turtles face an array of predators, including jacks, barracudas, groupers, and snappers that patrol shallow waters as well as tuna, mackerel, sharks, and rays in deeper waters. According to some estimates, less than 1 percent of green sea turtle hatchlings survive to adulthood. 

A 2025 analysis of the region’s tides explored why the archipelago has some of the largest tidal ranges in West Africa. The researchers concluded that the region’s wide, shallow shelf and the estuary’s geometry combine to create a tidal range of up to 7 meters (23 feet), compared to about 1 meter (3 feet) in many other parts of the West African coast. The scientists used altimetry data from the NASA/CNES TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, and Jason-2 satellites to help validate their findings. 

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.

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November 28, 2025

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References & Resources

• Campredon, P. & Catry, P. (2016) Bijagos Archipelago (Guinea-Bissau) in The Wetland Book. (Springer, Dordrecht).  
• Dièye, A., et al. (2025) Tidal amplification and distortion in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 320, 109318.
• Hays, G., et al. (2026) Is it really 1 in 1000 sea turtle hatchlings that survive to adulthood? Royal Society Open Science, 13(1), 251563.
• The New York Times (2024, April 22) A Remote Island Draws Thousands of Turtles Each Year. Could It Attract Tourists? Accessed July 16, 2026.
• Oceanus (2025, January 30) How will we ever count them all? Accessed July 16, 2026.
• UNESCO (2025) Coastal and Marine Ecosystems of the Bijagós Archipelago – Omatí Minhô. Accessed July 16, 2026.

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After a slow start to Canada’s 2026 fire season, activity picked up by the end of June amid dry, warm conditions and returned closer to the 25-year average. By mid-July, almost 850 fires were actively burning across the country, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. More than 180 of those were burning in Ontario.

This NOAA-21 image, acquired on the afternoon of July 14, 2026, shows smoke billowing from the Ontario fires. Winds carried the smoke primarily southeast over much of the southern part of the province, as well as parts of Quebec and the U.S. Midwest and Northeast, tinting the sky shades of gray and yellow and the Sun orange in many areas.

The smoke’s impact on air quality varied, depending largely on altitude. In areas where smoke was high in the atmosphere, air quality impacts were negligible; where it drifted closer to the ground, conditions worsened. Air quality in Toronto, for instance, reached unhealthy levels, according to AirNow. People in the southern parts of the province were also grappling with a heat wave, compounding the health risks.

Much of the smoke came from fires in Northwestern Ontario, where eight blazes saw significant growth on July 13 and 14. The fires prompted officials to issue evacuation orders for several communities in this part of the province, according to news reports.

As of July 14, fires across Canada have burned 1.9 million hectares (4.7 million acres) since the start of the year—still well below the season totals from the extreme fire years of 2023 and 2025. How the rest of the season plays out remains to be seen. A seasonal fire outlook—compiled by wildland fire experts from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico—shows where fire conditions are more or less likely through July, August, and September.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE , GIBS/Worldview , and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). Story by Kathryn Hansen.

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July 14, 2026

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References & Resources

• AirNow (2026, July 15) Wildfires. Accessed July 15, 2026.
• CBC (2026, July 15) Heat, wildfire smoke combine to create dangerous conditions across southwestern Ontario. Accessed July 15, 2026.
• Ministry of Natural Resources, Ontario (2026, July 14) Forest fires. Accessed July 15, 2026.
• National Interagency Fire Center, Natural Resources Canada, and Servicio Meteorológico Nacional (2026, July 14) North American Seasonal Fire Assessment and Outlook. Accessed July 15, 2026.
• The New York Times (2026, July 15) Toronto Under an Orange Sky as Wildfire Smoke Pours Into the U.S. Northeast. Accessed July 15, 2026.
• Reuters (2026, July 15) Canadian wildfire smoke chokes Toronto, threatens US cities. Accessed July 15, 2026.

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It’s still relatively early in the summer season in the Northern Hemisphere, but several parts of North America were sweltering in mid-July.

The latest purveyor of heat was a strong ridge of high pressure that lingered in the upper atmosphere over the northern Rockies on the weekend of July 11-12, 2026. This pushed hot air toward the surface and trapped it there—a weather phenomenon meteorologists call a heat dome.

Heat domes put the brakes on convection and suppress clouds and precipitation. This allows sunlight to reach Earth’s surface relatively unhindered and further elevate air temperatures. As a result of the July heat dome, sites in Montana, Wyoming, and Utah broke all-time temperature records.

The map above shows air temperatures across the United States on July 12, 2026, at 2 p.m. Mountain Time, modeled at 2 meters (6.5 feet) above the ground. It was produced by combining satellite observations with temperatures predicted by a version of the GEOS (Goddard Earth Observing System) model, which uses mathematical equations to represent physical processes in the atmosphere. The darkest reds indicate areas where temperatures approached or exceeded 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).

A preliminary analysis from the National Weather Service office in Billings found that temperature sensors at airports in Billings and Miles City, Montana (111°F and 115°F, respectively), and Sheridan, Wyoming (109°F), all recorded new all-time record highs on July 12. Each of these stations topped its previous record by at least 2°F, with Miles City breaking its record by a full 4°F. The Montana records date to the 1930s; the Sheridan record begins in 1907.

Multiple locations in Utah broke all-time records as well, according to the National Weather Service office in Salt Lake City, including Deseret (111°F), Salt Lake City (109°F, or 4°F above the previous record), and Randolph (100°F, or 6°F above the previous record). These stations in Utah have records that date back to the 1890s.

Extreme heat doesn’t just make people uncomfortable. It can have serious health consequences, particularly for older people. Extreme heat worsens common age-related health conditions such as heart, lung, and kidney disease. Health tracking data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the rate of heat-related emergency department visits in the Mountain states spiked tenfold during the July heat.

Heat waves like this one have become more frequent in the United States in recent decades, according to researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Using a NASA modeling system called MERRA-2 (Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications-2), one NASA team found that summer heat waves in the U.S. roughly doubled in number between 1980 and 2023, increasing from an average of two to four per month.

Forecasters expect the heat dome to spread east into the Midwest, New England, and the Mid-Atlantic in the coming days, where triple-digit temperatures are likely in some areas. The United States isn’t alone in facing significant heat. Parts of both Western Europe, Central Asia, and East Asia are also facing heat waves.   

NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using GEOS-FP data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC. Story by Adam Voiland.

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References & Resources

• AccuWeather (2026, July 13) ‘Steam-cooker’ pattern grips the Central, East as heat and humidity peak. Accessed July 14, 2026.
• NASA (2025, May 8) Rising Heat Waves in North America in the Past 40 Years. Accessed July 14, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2010, June 9) GEOS-5: A High Resolution Global Atmospheric Model. Accessed July 14, 2026.
• National Weather Service (2026, July 14) Short Range Forecast. Accessed July 14, 2026.
• NOAA (2026, July 12) Record Heat Southern Montana July 12, 2026. Accessed July 14, 2026.
• Royal Meteorological Society (2021, August 11) What is a heat dome? Accessed July 14, 2026.
• U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2026) Daily Heat-Related Illness. Accessed July 14, 2026.
• U.S. National Weather Service, via Facebook (2026, July 13) Yesterday was quite historic in terms of heat. Accessed July 14, 2026.
• The Washington Post (2026, July 14) One of the planet’s strongest heat domes will soon scorch the East Coast. Accessed July 14, 2026.

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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 in this Landsat 9 image.

Severny Island (Ostrov Severnyy) is a mountainous, uninhabited landmass in the frigid high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Part of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, the island is largely covered in glacial ice. Some glaciers, especially in the north, terminate in the sea, while others end on land, feeding meltwater into glacial streams.

Sediment-laden streams, along with the island’s topography, create favorable conditions for the formation of alluvial fans. The features typically appear at the base of steep mountain ranges, where narrow river channels open onto flatter terrain. There, rivers can slow, divide into smaller channels, and deposit sediment. Over time, the channels migrate back and forth to build up fan-shaped deposits. Dueling fans line several northwest-southeast-trending valleys in the wider view below.

Seasonal snowmelt and glacial runoff likely keep Severny’s rivers supplied with ample fan-building material. Hydrologists note that higher river flows during the warmer months, driven by snowmelt, can carry more sediment out of the mountains. Glaciers also produce large volumes of eroded material as they grind downslope, some of which flushes out in meltwater.

Smaller, land-terminating mountain glaciers, like those on southern Severny Island, are particularly prone to melting as the atmosphere warms. Severny’s ice is relatively understudied due to its remoteness, but satellite observations give scientists an understanding of its health. Recent analyses incorporating digital elevation models found that land-terminating glaciers across the Novaya Zemlya archipelago thinned during the 2000s and 2010s, especially at lower elevations.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

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References & Resources

• Małecki, J. (2022) Recent contrasting behaviour of mountain glaciers across the European High Arctic revealed by ArcticDEM data. The Cryosphere, 16, 2067–2082.
• Melkonian, A.K., et al. (2016) Recent changes in glacier velocities and thinning at Novaya Zemlya. Remote Sensing of Environment, 174, 244-257.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2009, July 30) Novaya Zemlya. Accessed July 13, 2026.
• National Geographic Society (2023, October 19) Alluvial Fan. Accessed July 13, 2026.
• Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College (2026, June 9) Cold climate conditions as a driver of alluvial fan deposition in the Lost River Range, Idaho, USA. Accessed July 13, 2026.

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From declines in annual sea ice extent to the greening of the tundra, environmental change has been unfolding incrementally in the Arctic over decades. Some shifts, however, have come on more abruptly.

Satellite, aerial, and ground-based surveys spanning more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) across Alaska’s Brooks Range have observed stream water changing from clear to orange in more than 200 watersheds. What’s more, scientists are finding that the switch has largely taken place within the past 10 to 12 years, coinciding with a pronounced increase in air and ground temperatures.

Thawing permafrost soils, accelerated by warming air and ground temperatures, are the most likely cause of the “rusty” rivers, scientists say. They surmise that water is now encountering thawed ground and bedrock where it previously had not. Chemical weathering of minerals leaches iron, sulfuric acid, and trace metals into streams, akin to the process behind acid mine drainage, which similarly pollutes and discolors water near abandoned mines. Microbes may also contribute to the color change by producing a soluble form of iron as they digest plant and animal matter in thawing soils, which then becomes oxygenated, or “rusts,” in flowing streams.

Researchers have only recently begun to comprehend the prevalence of rusting rivers in Arctic regions. In 2024, a team of National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and university scientists documented 75 northern Alaskan streams that recently changed from clear to orange. With subsequent exploration, mostly using high-resolution satellite imagery, they added 200 more observations. The locations of these discolored streams, published in NOAA’s 2025 Arctic Report Card, are shown in the map above.

“I’m still surprised by the broad spatial scope of our observations,” said Brett Poulin, environmental toxicologist at the University of California, Davis. He and his collaborators have been monitoring the region’s streams since 2013—when many were still clear. “Now we’re seeing hundreds of streams that have changed color seemingly overnight, including in designated National Wild & Scenic River corridors,” he said.

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The Agashashok River in Noatak National Preserve is one of many streams in Alaska whose water has turned from clear to rusty orange. The change appears in these images, acquired on July 12, 2017 (left), and July 20, 2020 (right), by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8. NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison.

Observations from NASA/USGS Landsat satellites allowed the team to determine the timing of several of these changes. For the 2024 study led by ecologist Jon O’Donnell of the National Park Service, the team calculated a redness index based on red and blue spectral information sensitive to the color of iron hydroxides (i.e., rust) in water. After analyzing a subset of streams, they found that some turned rusty around 2018 and stayed that way, while others had periods of rusting and then returned to being clear.

One stream that underwent a sudden change is the Agashashok River in Noatak National Preserve (above). In 2019, a jump in redness values appeared in Landsat data along this waterway. Ground and aerial surveys the same year found an orange section of the river several kilometers long, and vegetation around nearby groundwater seeps and springs appeared blackened. “The Landsat archive has proved uniquely useful for investigating the historical onset of rusting rivers where creeks and rivers are sufficiently large,” Poulin said.

Having gained a better picture of the extent and timing of the phenomenon, the researchers want to focus on the conditions driving the orange color’s onset and the yearly and seasonal changes. A deep snowpack may play a role some years, for example, by insulating the soil from cold winter temperatures and enabling permafrost thaw earlier in the summer. In addition, periods of higher streamflow throughout the year can dilute the discoloration. The team is planning a geophysical survey along a hillslope where acidic groundwater is discharging to the surface to investigate the subsurface geology, hydrology, and permafrost.

Further, they seek to quantify the effects on water quality and aquatic ecosystems. Communities rely on these river systems for drinking water and subsistence fisheries, and a decrease in stream biodiversity has already been documented in some locations coincident with water turning orange. The researchers now are looking deeper into the patterns of toxicity over time and space, such as where rusting rivers overlap with known spawning areas for migratory fish.

“The rusting river phenomenon is a good example of an unforeseen consequence of permafrost thaw in the Arctic,” Poulin said. “Further, it’s consistent with the emergence of acid rock drainage following cryosphere loss across Earth.”

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using stream location data from O’Donnell, J.A., et al., and Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

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References & Resources

• NASA Earth Observatory (2024, January 16) Rusting Rivers. Accessed July 9, 2026.
• O’Donnell, J. A., et al. (2025) Rusting Rivers: Assessing the Causes and Consequences in Alaska and Across the Arctic. Arctic Report Card 2025.
• O’Donnell, J. A., et al. (2024) Metal mobilization from thawing permafrost to aquatic ecosystems is driving rusting of Arctic streams. Communications Earth & Environment, 5, 268.
• U.S. Geological Survey (2026, February 27) The Rusting of Arctic Rivers: Freshwater Ecosystems Respond to Rapidly Uptaking Metals. Accessed July 9, 2026.

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On June 24, 2026, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck northern Venezuela, followed under a minute later by a magnitude 7.5 mainshock. Together, the quakes left immense damage and loss of life across the region. In the days that followed, satellite-based maps of ground displacement revealed how the land surface moved, providing insight into the forces behind the severe destruction in locations such as La Guaira and other coastal cities in La Guaira state.

This map was produced using data from the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite and processed by the NISAR science team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Scientists used a technique called InSAR, which compares data from repeat passes to detect subtle changes in the distance between the satellite and the ground. Images acquired on June 25 and June 30, after the quakes, were compared with images from June 13 and June 18, before the quakes.

NISAR views Earth at an angle, about 40 degrees from straight down, allowing it to capture a mix of horizontal and vertical displacement. In this map, red areas show where the ground moved east and up; blue areas moved west and down. Because the earthquake occurred on a strike-slip fault, however, most of the displacement shown in this map was horizontal (east and west).

White areas indicate little to no land displacement, including a thin strip near the middle-left of the scene, close to Morón, marking roughly where the fault ruptured at depth. The fault is part of a network of fractures that lies along the boundary between the Caribbean plate to the north and the South American plate to the south. Scientists say faults along this plate boundary, including the San Sebastián fault system where these quakes likely occurred (and possibly part of the Boconó system), have long been accumulating strain.

The fault rupture propagated offshore, toward the east, and then back onshore near the international airport north of Caracas, marked by the narrow white band visible between westward and eastward displacement. Just south of this fault section, the deep blue color indicates that the westward surface displacement along this part of the fault was far greater than elsewhere, reaching as much as 60 centimeters (24 inches).

“These are reasons why the damage in Caracas and La Guaira was so extreme,” said Eric Fielding, a geophysicist at JPL who provided the maps. “InSAR tells us a lot about what happened during this earthquake.”

Using the NISAR data, the U.S. Geological Survey refined its fault-slip model, or “finite fault model,” to better constrain how the fault slipped at depth, including along the rupture’s eastern section. “That is extremely helpful for the people who need to understand why damage was so severe in that area,” Fielding said.

The displacement maps for this event were provided through NISAR’s Urgent Response (UR) system, a fast-track process that can deliver data within 12 to 24 hours to support disaster response. The rapid processing relies on predicted orbit information, so UR maps are preliminary until they are later reprocessed with precise orbit information, typically within a day or two. This marks the first time the NISAR UR system has been used to map surface displacement from a large earthquake.

NASA Earth Observatory map by Lauren Dauphin, using data provided Eric Fielding and processed by the NISAR science team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Story by Kathryn Hansen.

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References & Resources

• NASA (2025, July 23) Interferometry. Accessed July 9, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory, (2025, September 15) Mapping Kamchatka Earthquake Displacement. Accessed July 9, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory, (2025, April 15) Satellite Data Show Motion of Burma Earthquakes. Accessed July 9, 2026.
• NASA’s Disasters Mapping Portal (2026, July 9) Venezuela Earthquake June 2026. Accessed July 9, 2026.
• U.S. Geological Survey (2026, June 24) M 7.2 – 21 km ENE of San Felipe, Venezuela. Accessed July 9, 2026.
• U.S. Geological Survey (2026, June 24) M 7.5 – 20 km ESE of Yumare, Venezuela. Accessed July 9, 2026.

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In early July 2026, for the second time in three months, a powerful typhoon crossed the U.S. Northern Mariana Islands and Guam in the North Pacific Ocean. Super Typhoon Bavi was at peak intensity when it neared the islands on the night of July 5, bringing winds of 290 kilometers (180 miles) per hour, along with torrential rain and dangerous storm surge.

This nighttime image, captured by the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the NOAA-20 satellite, shows Bavi’s eye at about 15:30 Universal Time on July 5 (1:30 a.m. local time on July 6). Light from the Moon, which was in the waning gibbous phase, illuminates the eyewall’s western side. The eye passed over Rota, north of Guam, several hours after the image was acquired.

Bavi became a super typhoon in the early hours of July 4 local time while tracking west over the warm ocean. Satellite observations indicated that sea surface temperatures were around 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in the region. Bavi was the third tropical cyclone in 2026 to reach category 5 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale.

The typhoon caused extensive damage across Guam, Rota, and Saipan, according to news reports, downing power poles and lines; flooding roads and littering them with debris; and damaging buildings, including a water distribution station on Rota. U.S. Coast Guard crews worked to clear navigation hazards in the waterways around Guam and the Northern Marianas and reopen ports as dangerous marine conditions subsided, according to reports. This damage comes on top of destructive winds and flooding from Super Typhoon Sinlaku, which crossed the islands in mid-April.

On July 8, Bavi remained a powerful typhoon as it moved west over the Philippine Sea. In the early afternoon, when the image above was captured, the National Weather Service reported maximum sustained wind speeds of 250 kilometers (155 miles) per hour. Forecasts indicated the typhoon’s track could bend northwest toward Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan, and mainland China and weaken over the next several days.

Writing in Yale Climate Connections, meteorologist Jeff Masters said that Bavi is the type of storm that might be expected when a strong El Niño event is building, which is currently the case. El Niño-year typhoons may form farther east, giving them more time over warm water to intensify before curving toward Asia, Masters explained, “resulting in a greater chance of reaching Category 5 intensity.”

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview, and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), and hurricane track data from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

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References & Resources

• CIMSS Satellite Blog (2026, July 3) Super Typhoon Bavi rapidly intensifies to a Category 5 storm east of Guam, eventually passing just north of the island of Rota. Accessed July 8, 2026.
• Military.com (2026, July 7) Coast Guard Works to Reopen Guam, CNMI Ports After Super Typhoon Bavi. Accessed July 8, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2026, April 14) Super Typhoon Sinlaku. Accessed July 8, 2026.
• National Weather Service (2026, July 8) Public Tropical Cyclone Advisory. Accessed July 8, 2026.
• Weather Underground (2026, July 8) Super Typhoon Bavi. Accessed July 8, 2026.
• Yale Climate Connections (2026, July 3) Super Typhoon Bavi becomes the 3rd Cat 5 of 2026. Accessed July 8, 2026.

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A burned landscape spans more than 150 square miles (390 square kilometers) of rugged terrain northwest of Junction, Utah, as seen in this pair of images captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 on June 5, 2026 (left) and June 29, 2026 (right). NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison.

After a winter of below-average snowpack and an unusually warm and dry start to summer, the National Interagency Fire Center warned that the Great Basin and parts of the Rockies faced an elevated risk of wildfires in July 2026.

The warning proved accurate. By July 7, firefighters labored to contain nearly three dozen large, early-season wildland fires that raced through forests in several parts of the western U.S. Utah was among the most active states, with fires having charred 558 square miles (1,445 square kilometers) and four major fires that were not fully contained still burning.

The Cottonwood fire ranked as one of Utah’s—and the country’s—largest and most destructive fires of the year so far. As of July 7, it had burned 150 square miles (390 square kilometers), just shy of the Babylon fire in eastern Utah. Landsat 9 captured the false-color image (bands 7-5-4) above (right) on June 29, 2026, when blackened vegetation spanned a large patch of rugged terrain along the Beaver River. The image on the left shows the same area on June 5, a few weeks before the fire ignited. In this band combination of shortwave infrared, near infrared, and visible light, unburned vegetation appears bright green, snow is blue, and clouds are white.

Ponderosa pine, oak, sagebrush, and grasses were among the vegetation types that burned. Officials with the state’s forestry division told news media that the Cottonwood fire had destroyed up to 150 structures. Eagle Point Ski Resort, which lost more than 100 condos and 30 cabins, also reported damage to four of its five chairlifts.

The damage to forests was extensive, though isolated patches survived largely unscathed, remaining as green oases within the broader burned area. Among them were the forests around Tushar Campground, the site of a 4-H summer camp. Beaver County officials credited years of forest treatments, such as clearing brush and trimming branches, with helping save the campground and surrounding forests.

As the fire spread, NASA’s Fire Events Data Suite (FEDS) tracked its progression and rate of growth. The visualization above, based on the FEDS system, shows the fire surging on June 23 and tripling in size over 12 hours that day as it spread to the north, east, and south. It also grew rapidly on June 26, when it made a run to the north. FEDS draws on data from the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) sensors aboard the Suomi NPP, NOAA-20, and NOAA-21 satellites, which detect active fires day and night by their thermal infrared signature.

FEDS is one of several tools available to firefighters and emergency management officials when responding to fires. First responders often rely on higher-resolution airborne imagers or on firefighters walking fire edges to map perimeters. FEDS offers a different advantage: consistent, easily accessible data that do not need to be specially requested, according to Tempest McCabe, a University of Maryland scientist based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center who helped develop the tool. As a result, FEDS often detects a fire’s start earlier than other sources and tracks blazes for their full duration. To capitalize on strengths like these, the FEDS team is working closely with operational fire behavior analysts, with support from NASA’s FireSense program, to better understand and anticipate periods of rapid fire spread.

A total of 1,289 firefighters have been deployed to the Cottonwood fire, according to InciWeb, a website managed by the National Interagency Fire Center. As of July 7, the fire was 56 percent contained, but forecasters expect a hot, dry weather pattern to persist in the coming days, with fire behavior likely to be “very active to extreme” over the next 72 hours.

Government satellite data are part of a global system of observations used to track fire behavior and analyze emerging trends. Among the real-time wildfire monitoring tools that NASA makes available are FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System), the Worldview browser, and the Fire Event Explorer.

As of July 7, 2026, fires had burned 5,265 square miles (13,636 square kilometers) across the United States, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. That’s 46 percent more than the 10-year average (2016-2025) for that point in the season.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and fire perimeter data from the Fire Events Data Suite. Story by Adam Voiland.

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FEDS fire perimeter (June 23-July 7)

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References & Resources

• 2KUTV (2026, July 6) Babylon Fire surpasses Cottonwood Fire as nation’s largest active wildfire. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• KSL.com (2026, July 2) Despite devastation, Cottonwood Fire leaves behind ‘islands of hope’ on Beaver Mountain. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• KUER (2026, July 6) Cottonwood Fire is yet another blow to ranchers in a tough year for rural Utah. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• NASA Earthdata (2026) Wildfires. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• National Interagency Fire Center (2026, July 6) National Fire News. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• National Interagency Fire Center (2026, July 6) Incident Management Situation Report Monday July 6. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• National Interagency Fire Center (2026, July 1) National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• The Salt Lake Tribune (2026, June 30) Eagle Point owner shares photos of resort charred by Cottonwood Fire. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• The Salt Lake Tribune (2026, June 30) Utah wildfires rank 1 and 2 as largest in the nation. Here’s the latest on big blazes. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• U.S. Drought Monitor (2026, June 30) Utah. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• Utah Fire Info Home (2026, July 7) 2026 Season Summary. Accessed July 7, 2026.

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Every month, NASA Earth Observatory features a puzzling satellite image. The July 2026 puzzler appears above. 

Your Challenge
Identify the location shown in this satellite image. Share what clues you see, where you think it is, and what makes this place interesting or unique to you.

How to Answer
Submit your response using this form and select “Puzzler Answer” as the topic. Please include your preferred name or alias.

You can keep it simple and just guess the location. Want to impress us? Tell us which satellite and instrument captured the image, which spectral bands were used, or point out a subtle detail about the geology or history of the area. If something catches your eye, or if this is your home or means something to you, we’d love to hear about it.

The Prize
We can’t offer prize money or a trip to space to see Earth like satellites and astronauts do. But we can offer something almost as rewarding: puzzler bragging rights.

About a week after the challenge, we’ll post the answer at the top of this page, along with a link to an Earth Observatory Image of the Day story that explains the image in more detail. We’ll recognize the first person who correctly guesses the location, and we may also highlight readers who share especially thoughtful or interesting answers. By submitting a response, you acknowledge that your comments may be edited, excerpted, and published on this page.

Until then, zoom in, look closely, and enjoy the challenge. See you at the reveal!

In summer 2026, sixteen stadiums across North America hosted matches as part of the FIFA World Cup. Over the years, astronauts aboard the International Space Station have captured a top-down view of the infrastructure, landscapes, and ecosystems surrounding many of these venues.  

Six of the matches were played at the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, beginning on June 13 with a match-up between Qatar and Switzerland. This stadium (also called Levi’s Stadium) is located in Santa Clara, California, adjacent to San Jose and around 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of San Francisco. An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photo (above) on July 26, 2022.

The stadium, completed in 2014, is surrounded by a mix of recreational, housing, and business infrastructure. The scene includes the southern part of San Francisco Bay, which is 23 years into a 50-year effort to restore up to 90 percent of the region’s salt ponds to tidal wetlands and marshlands, while retaining some of its salt-making heritage.

The Bay Area hosted its sixth and final World Cup match on July 1, when the U.S. faced off against Bosnia and Herzegovina in a knockout match. The U.S. advanced to the round of 16 following a 2-0 win.

The FIFA World Cup final is scheduled for July 19 at New York New Jersey Stadium, part of the Meadowlands Sports Complex, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The stadium (also called MetLife Stadium) sits along the New Jersey Turnpike, west of Midtown Manhattan. Note that north is toward the bottom-right of this photo, captured by an astronaut on April 17, 2022.

The area has seen centuries of human impact. Colonists cleared wetlands and cedar forest for settlements, and development for a range of economic and industrial uses followed. In the 20th century, it became an unregulated dumping ground. In recent decades, though, wetland restoration efforts have occurred alongside the development of the sports and entertainment complex.

Other World Cup host cities have also appeared in astronaut photography and satellite imagery. Guadalajara Stadium (Estadio Akron), Los Angeles Stadium (SoFi Stadium), Houston Stadium (NRG Stadium/Reliant Stadium), and BC Place Vancouver (BC Place) are among the venues that have been observed from above.

Astronaut photograph ISS067-E-202213 was acquired on July 26, 2022, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a focal length of 400 millimeters, and astronaut photograph ISS067-E-18580 was acquired on April 17, 2022, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a focal length of 1150 millimeters. They are provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center. The images were taken by a member of the Expedition 67 crew. The images have been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Story by Kathryn Hansen.

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References & Resources

• NASA (2026, July 1) NASA Data Helps CDC Track Air Quality During World Cup 2026. Accessed July 6, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2026, June 12) World Cup Fever in Guadalajara. Accessed July 6, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2023, March 5) New York and New Jersey. Accessed July 6, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2016, February 11) From Salt Production to Salt Marsh. Accessed July 6, 2026.
• New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (2023) History. Accessed July 6, 2026.
• U.S. Geological Survey (2023) Monitoring Nesting Waterbirds for the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project: 2022 Breeding Season. Accessed July 6, 2026.

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November 15, 2017

November 17, 2021

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November 15, 2017

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Cyanobacteria blooms turned Blue Mesa Reservoir green from September through November 2021, when water levels were among the lowest on record. The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 captured this image (right) of a bloom on November 17, 2021, when the water was near its lowest level; the left image shows the same area on November 15, 2017, when water levels were closer to normal.

The summers of 2021 and 2022 were tough seasons for Colorado’s Blue Mesa Reservoir. A severe drought gripped much of the western U.S., prompting emergency water releases that brought the reservoir to its lowest level since 1984. Marinas and boat ramps closed, remnants of a ghost town emerged from the muck, and parts of the reservoir turned greenish and swirled with toxic cyanobacteria blooms.

Research conducted by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service analyzed decades of Blue Mesa Reservoir data and found a connection between low water levels, warm water temperatures, and harmful blooms.

“Algal blooms were more common when water levels were below 7,470 feet and water temperatures were above approximately 19.5 degrees Celsius (67.1 degrees Fahrenheit),” said Tyler King, a research hydrologist with U.S. Geological Survey. Water levels that low are relatively common and have occurred every few years in recent decades.  

While some cyanobacteria, also called blue-green algae, are always present in the reservoir in small numbers, problems occur when certain types proliferate. Aphanizomenon, Dolichospermum, and Woronichinia, for instance, thrive when the reservoir’s waters become warm and stagnant, releasing a toxin called microcystin that can cause skin and eye irritation, respiratory problems, and liver damage. Children and pets are particularly vulnerable to microcystin poisoning because of their size and tendency to ingest more water than adults.

King and colleagues analyzed in situ water samples and satellite observations from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 mission and the NASA/U.S. Geological Survey Landsat satellites. A Sentinel-2 sensor that detects the light-harvesting pigment chlorophyll was particularly useful for mapping the blooms, while Landsat sensors were used to map water temperatures over time.

The National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey launched the project in 2021 after anecdotal reports and water sampling suggested elevated cyanobacteria concentrations, King said. The scientists collected water samples but also turned to historical records and satellite data—”like a time machine,” he said—to examine conditions before regular water sampling had begun. Their analysis included satellite records of chlorophyll levels that extended back to 2016 and temperature records that reached back to 2000. The research team also studied in situ data on water levels dating to the 1970s.

The satellite data showed that blooms typically start in the eastern end of the reservoir, an area known as Iola Basin. The basin, where the Gunnison River flows into the reservoir, is the shallowest part of the reservoir. Occasionally, the satellite data showed, blooms spread westward into other parts of the reservoir, sometimes moving about two-thirds of the way across. However, concentrations of toxins rarely reached levels that posed health concerns beyond Iola Basin.

The same dynamics that caused challenges for Blue Mesa in 2021 and 2022 are present in 2026, said King. Drought again plagues much of the western U.S., the mountains hold little snow, and water levels in Blue Mesa are low. On June 27, 2026, the reservoir stored about 43 percent of the water it typically does on that date, the lowest value observed for that day in the past 30 years. Water levels are expected to continue dropping until October, according to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation projections. 

If cyanobacteria blooms emerge in 2026, the researchers expect that satellites will help scientists track them. The researchers use the U.S. Geological Survey’s WaterMAP (Water Monitoring Above the Planet) tool to monitor for potential bloom conditions within hours of satellite overpasses. NASA’s STREAM (Satellite-based Tool for Rapid Evaluation of Aquatic Environments) project also uses data from Landsat and Sentinel-2 to map potential blooms within hours of a satellite overpass, and the multi-agency CyAN (Cyanobacteria Assessment Network) project collects daily data from other satellites to map blooms in larger water bodies.

“It’s amazing that we can use satellites to map the impacts of microscopic organisms from almost 500 miles away,” King said. Yet it will still be crucial to get people out on the water taking samples and directly testing for toxins, he emphasized. “The satellites aren’t definitive,” he added. “They can tell us where there might be a problem, but toxins often aren’t present until the later stages of a bloom.”

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Photos by Katie Walton-Day (USGS) and Nicole Gibney (NPS). Story by Adam Voiland.

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References & Resources

• Aspen Journalism (2026, January 9) Low reservoir levels main cause of toxic algae in Blue Mesa. Accessed July 1, 2026.
• Aspen Journalism (2021, September 4) Blue Mesa Reservoir releases to prop up Lake Powell impacting recreation. Accessed July 1, 2026.
• CPR News (2021, September 3) Drought-Hit Blue Mesa Reservoir Losing 8 Feet Of Water To Save Lake Powell. Accessed July 1, 2026.
• The Colorado Sun (2023, June 16) Side-by-side photos show how much Blue Mesa Reservoir’s water levels have risen thanks to this winter’s snow. Accessed July 1, 2026.
• The Colorado Sun (2022, September 22) At Colorado’s largest reservoir, one national park scientist shifts her focus to toxic algae. Accessed July 1, 2026.
• Environmental Protection Agency (2026, January 5) Cyanotoxins (microcystin). Accessed May 28, 2026.
• King, T. V.,  et al. (2025) Remote Sensing of Chlorophyll a and Temperature to Support Algal Bloom Monitoring in Blue Mesa Reservoir, Colorado. JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 61(4), e70038. 
• National Park Service (2026) Reservoir Levels. Accessed July 1, 2026.
• U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (2026) Blue Mesa Reservoir. Accessed July 1, 2026.
• U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (2026) Reservoir Storage Dashboard. Accessed July 1, 2026.
• University of Colorado Boulder (2026, January 26) Low reservoir levels main cause of toxic algae in Blue Mesa. Accessed May 28, 2026.
• U.S. Drought Monitor (2026, May 28) Colorado. Accessed July 1, 2026.
• Walton-Day, K., et al. (2025) Environmental Characterization of Blue Mesa Reservoir and Potential Causes of and Management Strategies for Harmful Algal Blooms, 1970 through 2023, Curecanti National Recreation Area, Colorado. U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report, 2025–5109.

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Editor’s note: In honor of America’s 250th birthday, Earth Observatory is revisiting stories about the landscapes that helped shape U.S. history. The images and text on this page were originally published on July 4, 2017. Explore the full collection here.

Situated between the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers, Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn as the seat of a Quaker colony. Later, its location just upstream of the Delaware Bay and Atlantic Ocean made it an industrial, commercial, and cultural hub of the American colonies.

When the area’s original inhabitants, the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) Indians, lived here, much of the land was forested. Swedish and Dutch settlers had already traveled in the area when Penn finally came to it and signed a treaty with the Lenape to establish a city. He called his colony—now the state of Pennsylvania—Sylvania, after its sylvan, wooded appearance. Current-day Philadelphia had “a high and dry land next to the water, with a shore ornamented with a fine view of pine trees growing upon it,” according to a historical account.

More than 300 years after Penn’s arrival, this landscape remains verdant, despite its urban development. The natural-color image above shows Philadelphia and the surrounding area as it appeared on June 1, 2013, when the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite passed overhead.

Nearly a hundred years after Philadelphia was established, the Founding Fathers of the United States met in this thriving city roughly at the geographic center of the 13 colonies. It was here that they debated, composed, and signed the documents that would become the blueprints of the American government. In 1776, they signed the Declaration of Independence in Carpenter’s Hall, not far from the red-brick building that then housed Pennsylvania’s colonial government; in 1787, they signed the Constitution in the same place. (Carpenter’s is now known as Independence Hall.) Between 1781 and 1788, it was also the seat of the U.S. government.

Today, Philadelphia is the fifth largest city in the U.S., with more than 6 million people living in its metropolitan area. The city saw its heyday as a manufacturing hub in the 1800s. Currently, its largest sectors include education and health services.

Traces of the city’s history remain embedded in its landscape. A belt of large, tall buildings makes up Center City, the area around Independence Hall. To the south lies a dense grid of smaller houses—South Philadelphia, home to the city’s Italian Market. At one point, this was a satellite town to the city; the two merged in 1854, when the area’s population surged. It remains a diverse area today, home to a large African American community, as well as the remnants of once sizable Italian, Irish, and Jewish immigrant populations.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Pola Lem.

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References & Resources

• National League of Cities, The 30 Most Populous Cities. Accessed June 30, 2017.
• Penn Treaty Museum, Introduction to the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians. Accessed June 30, 2017.

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