Individual deciduous trees mark the turning of the seasons with pale buds in the spring, densely packed green leaves in summer, vibrant red, orange, or yellow tones in fall, and bare branches in the cold of winter. Forests also mark the changes, but on a grander scale. In this series of images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, forests mark the time along the southern ridges of the Appalachian Mountains, where the states of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina all come together. Read more

NASA images courtesy LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.

The map above shows land surface temperature anomalies in North America for January 1-7, 2014. Based on data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, the map depicts temperatures for that period compared to the 2001-2010 average for the same week. Areas with warmer than average temperatures are shown in red; near-normal temperatures are white; and areas that were cooler than the base period are blue. Gray indicates areas where clouds blocked the satellite from collecting usable data. While much of the United States was experiencing frigidly cold temperature, Sochi Russia was warmer than average.  Read more

NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using data from the Level 1 and Atmospheres Active Distribution System (LAADS). Caption by Adam Voiland, with information from Paul Newman (NASA Goddard), Marshall Shepherd (University of Georgia), and John Knox (University of Georgia).

A deadly heatwave left its signature on the land in Argentina. This map shows land surface temperatures between December 19-26, 2013, compared to average temperatures for the same period from 2000-2012. Nearly the entire country was much warmer than normal, with some locations more than 15°Celsius above average.

Argentina was in the midst of an intense two-week heatwave when the data for the map was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. Read more

NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using data from the Level 1 and Atmospheres Active Distribution System (LAADS). Caption by Holli Riebeek.