Buzz
The Earth’s beautiful green-blue appearance is undeniably striking, but it’s become so familiar that we hardly take notice of it. Fortunately, NASA and other space agencies are always coming up with innovative ways to showcase the many natural processes that often go unnoticed.
10. The Earth’s Plasmasphere
The plasmasphere is the inner part of Earth’s magnetic field, and it’s truly remarkable. Recently, astronomers have discovered a steady flow of particles between two electrically charged regions, creating a terrestrial counterpart to the solar wind.
When solar UV radiation strikes the atmosphere, it triggers a massive ionic dance. Tiny electrons are energized, ionizing other particles and creating a magnetic mix high above Earth’s surface. While this flow is modest in cosmic terms, it releases about 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of charged material into the outer magnetosphere every second. Over the course of a day, this adds up to 90 tons of plasma discharge, forming a large doughnut shape around our planet.
Void spaces created as the charged wind escapes are continuously replenished by a process known as plasmic diffusion, meaning the plasmasphere is constantly renewed. Back in the early ’60s, astronomers discovered that this region rapidly thins as we approach three Earth radii—roughly 20,000 kilometers (12,000 mi) into space. The USSR spacecraft Luna 2 verified this finding, and the area is now referred to as the plasmapause.
9. Magnetic Properties of Rocks
Though NASA is primarily focused on the cosmos, in 2004, the space agency shifted its gaze to Earth’s magnetic fields. With assistance from the United States Geological Survey, they produced a map showcasing magnetic variations across the planet. These lithosphere magnetism anomalies can provide valuable insights, from locating water reserves to assessing earthquake risks, and even tracing Earth’s geological evolution.
It may sound improbable, but rocks act as tectonic scrapbooks, with their magnetic signatures recording the past. With this knowledge, researchers can reverse-engineer Earth’s tectonic history, piecing together a global jigsaw puzzle. By tracking these shifts over time, they can compare their simulations with real-world data.
Magnetic spots are color-coded based on their directional influence. Red and yellow patches (positive values) push magnetically outward, while blue and green patches (negative values) pull inward. Although magnetic forces spread in all directions, the map only displays the vertical component. Despite its impressive appearance, the measurements are in nanoTeslas, and the magnetic forces are incredibly weak. The largest patch on the map is still 200 times weaker than your average fridge magnet.
8. Earth in False Colors
No need to worry—Earth is doing just fine. The striking reds and post-apocalyptic browns actually represent a surge in vegetation around the globe, not a doom-filled end of the world scenario.
This image was captured by the awkwardly named Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging probe, or MESSENGER. While it has been orbiting Mercury for the last four years, it began its mission with a test lap around Earth, fine-tuning its instruments by capturing Earth in all its false-color glory.
The picture was taken by the Mercury Dual Imaging System’s wide-angle, 11-wavelength super-camera. It’s nearly a true-color image (blue, red, and green), but it swaps infrared for blue because our atmosphere scatters blue light. Infrared light passes through without interference, creating a sharper image. Plants reflect near-infrared light, which is represented as visible red in the image, giving Earth its unusual color.
The surreal false colors enable NASA to observe Earth across the radio magnetic spectrum, and there are countless false-color combinations. These synthetic color bands reveal important Earth processes, including vegetation patterns, various stages of the water cycle, temperatures, and even small-scale planetary disasters like floods and wildfires.
7. The Earth’s Breathing
NASA’s beaver-tailed Aqua satellite provides nearly all the information we need about Earth’s water cycle. By combining a wealth of data from 2003–2010, NASA has created an animation that captures the planet’s rhythmic breathing.
AIRS, or the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, is the unsung hero of meteorology, single-handedly improving forecasting accuracy more than any other tool in the past decade. AIRS’s partner in crime, MODIS (the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), defies traditional acronym rules and tracks vegetation and carbon dioxide while traveling from pole to pole in low-Earth orbit.
The cycle begins on January 1, when those in the Northern Hemisphere are still recovering from a chilly Christmas hangover. As seen on the map, the barren areas are immersed in used carbon dioxide. These reconstructions also reveal less obvious phenomena, such as how 10 percent of these carbon dioxide emissions come from warming soils (not just decaying plants). We also observe a three-month delay between the rebirth of vegetation and the rise in CO2 in the middle troposphere, the lowest atmospheric layer.
6. Lightning
Lightning costs us billions of dollars annually in repairs to man-made structures. To help us avoid these strikes, NASA developed a series of lightning density maps that show the frequency of strikes across the globe. The map uses data gathered from 1995–2002 by spaceborne instruments OTD (Optical Transient Detector) and LIS (Lightning Imaging Sensor). You’ll want to steer clear of the dark red areas, which represent electric hot spots, while the purple and gray zones are much safer and relatively free from dangerous strikes.
Thanks to this visually appealing map, a few trends stand out. First, large expanses of ocean remain free of lightning. The ocean stays relatively calm since the seas are less susceptible to the Sun’s warming influence. In contrast, land heats up quickly, warming the air above it. Convective forces cause air currents to rise, creating larger thunderstorms that can strike the Earth. Additionally, it’s evident that regions along the equator are far more lightning-prone for largely the same reasons.
For those seeking something more interactive, you can explore a global lightning map that tracks strikes in real time.
5. The Earth Wind Map
The Global Forecast System (GFS) tracks winds as they swirl across the Earth. This data is now easily accessible in the form of the mesmerizing Earth Wind Map, thanks to Web developer Cameron Beccario.
The best part? It's fully interactive, allowing you to play around with features by clicking on “earth” in the lower left corner of the site. Wind speeds are shown on a color scale, with blues and greens indicating the mildest of breezes. As you zoom in or out, more colors are unveiled, and hovering over the color scale provides exact figures. Reds and violets indicate the fiercest winds, representing the most intense forces.
Updated every three hours with the latest GFS data, the Earth Wind Map keeps you up to date with various parameters, including temperature and humidity. These readings can be layered over different projections, though we recommend Stereographic for a mind-bending, possibly nauseating experience. If you're still not satisfied, you can switch to ocean currents and effectively double the amount of data at your disposal.
4. Rainfall
The fact that we can observe a full year of global rainfall in just a few minutes showcases the power of orbital observation. NASA and JAXA (Japan’s national space agency) have partnered to create the most detailed precipitation map to date, and the Global Precipitation Measurement mission has successfully delivered its first global map of rain and snow.
The satellite constellation covers nearly 90 percent of the Earth’s surface and updates every 30 minutes. Tracking snowfall is typically challenging, but this project marks a monumental achievement in its ability to monitor these elusive snowflakes.
The scope of this observation is truly groundbreaking, offering incredible detail and coverage. Moreover, watching how storms move across the globe provides valuable insight into future weather patterns, leading to more accurate predictions down the line.
3. Space Junk Map
Humans have become quite adept at polluting, and over the past half-century, we’ve transformed Earth’s orbit into a cosmic junkyard. Over 500,000 pieces of space debris are currently speeding around our planet at terrifying velocities of up to 28,000 kilometers (17,500 miles) per hour. And you can watch it all unfold live.
Of the 6,000 satellites launched into space, at least 3,600 remain in orbit, gradually inching toward their fiery demise as they descend through Earth’s atmosphere. Fortunately, our planet’s thick gas shield ensures that most of these fragments disintegrate as they reenter.
NASA meticulously tracks all objects that are 10 centimeters (4 inches) or larger (about the size of a softball), currently monitoring over 20,000 such items. This count doesn’t even include the 500,000 smaller, marble-sized pieces. And with these objects moving at speeds of several miles per second, a fleck of paint can be energetically indistinguishable from a 250-kilogram (550 lb) mass traveling at 100 kilometers (60 miles) per hour.
There are various interactive orbital junk maps online, including this one, which tracks debris in real time and provides estimated reentry dates for larger objects.
2. Radiation
NASA’s CERES (Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System) is an advanced tool used to monitor Earth’s solar budget, a crucial equilibrium between the solar energy absorbed by the planet and the radiation reflected back into space. CERES measures both shortwave radiation, which is sunlight that’s reflected, and longwave radiation, which is the heat emitted by Earth. The bright image above captures this energy flow over the span of one month.
In addition to tracking solar energy, CERES also observes Earth’s albedo, or reflective capacity. A planet covered in snow has an albedo of 0.84 (meaning 84 percent of light is reflected), while a landmass full of dark, leafy plants reflects only 13 percent. After analyzing over 40 years of data, scientists find that Earth’s albedo is currently at 0.30, which is rather concerning. This value is expected to decline even further, as the polar ice caps melt and the remaining ice loses its reflective qualities due to pollution and dirt accumulation.
The highlighted map illustrates albedo shifts from March 1, 2000, to December 31, 2011. Orange patches represent areas that have darkened, absorbing more heat, while blue zones indicate a rising albedo, which is beneficial for us. The data fluctuates significantly throughout the time period, and NASA has yet to determine any consistent trend from the erratic data.
1. Ocean Currents
Vincent van Gogh, the post-impressionist painter who was endlessly captivated by the night sky, would find it fitting that NASA’s visual depiction of ocean currents resembles the swirling patterns of his famous starry nightscapes. This map brings the winds to life, exposing the turbulent, ever-moving forces that shape the seas.
NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio condensed an immense amount of satellite data and over two years of observations into a 20-minute-long animation titled Perpetual Ocean. Spanning from June 2005 to December 2007, this video captures the dynamic nature of the oceans, and an even shorter version can be found here. This blend of science and artistry is a perfect example of NASA’s efforts to make their research more relatable and accessible to the public.
Fortunately, the map does not show the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating mass of debris about the size of Texas. Most of this sludge drifts just below the surface, making it invisible from above. This mess is the result of swirling ocean currents, or gyres, which pull aquatic waste together into dense, unsightly masses.
