At least as far back as King David’s psalms and Isaiah’s prophecies, snow has been characterized as a symbol of purity. “Lawn [linen] as white as driven snow” was how Shakespeare once described it.

Since 1999, Earth Observatory has published 16,000+ images. To celebrate our 20th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we want you to pick our all-time best image. Each week from March ...

If you want to set up a scientific station at the bottom of the world, who would you send? Eighteen “crazy men and a dog,” of course. The men were a collection of engineers, scientists, and support ...

Say NASA, and many images may come to mind: a white-clad man leaping awkwardly, joyfully across the surface of the moon; probes gliding into the depths of the solar system, sending back pictures of ...

The year is 2065. Nearly two-thirds of Earth’s ozone is gone—not just over the poles, but everywhere. The infamous ozone hole over Antarctica, first discovered in the 1980s, is a year-round fixture, ...

Arctic sea ice occupies an ocean basin mostly enclosed by land. Because there is no landmass at the North Pole, sea ice extends all the way to the pole, making the ice subject to the most extreme ...

Kathryn Hansen is the managing editor for NASA Earth Observatory. She has been writing stories, producing videos, and editing content for the group since 2014. Prior to joining Earth Observatory, ...

It’s probably not surprising that someone so at home in the snow—she learned to ski before she started school—would eventually wind up where Lora Koenig did this winter. Still, some people might ...

Image Antarctic Ice Shelf Spawns Iceberg A-83 The Brunt Ice Shelf lost a large wedge of floating ice, the third sizeable iceberg to calve from the shelf in recent years. Published May 23, 2024 Image ...

Michael Carlowicz was managing editor of NASA’s Earth Observatory from 2010 to 2022. He has written about Earth science and geophysics since 1991 for several NASA divisions, the Woods Hole ...

Image Reservoirs Dwindle in South Texas Drought in the Nueces River basin is reducing reservoir levels, leaving residents and industry in the Corpus Christi area facing water shortages. Published Nov ...