Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Satellites give us out-of-this-world insights! 🌎🛰️
Satellite imagery is a powerful scientific tool, helping experts track weather patterns, map urban growth, and more. But making sense of it isn’t always easy. Here are 5 tips to help you understand what satellites see!
Music: “Automatic" from Universal Production Music
Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Lead Producer: Vivian Renkey
Technical Assistance: Katy Mersmann
Video description:
0:00 A woman in front of a satellite image of forests.
0:03 Panning across 3 satellite images: islands, mountains & a glacier.
0:06 Satellite imagery of enhanced color clouds over the western U.S.
0:07 Timelapse of enhanced color satellite imagery of a city expanding into the desert.
0:08 A rotating hurricane transforms into rotating red & orange lines.
0:09 Earth from space.
0:10 A satellite circles Earth.
0:13 Several satellite images of the U.S.
0:17 The woman in front of a satellite image of farmland & forests.
0:21 Number one.
0:25 Satellite image of a mountain range.
0:28 Two horizontal satellite images. The top is an urban area with a box highlighting the center. The bottom is an island partly covered by clouds.
0:30 Satellite image of a mountain with snow, surrounded by forests.
0:32 Number two.
0:34 Three satellite images of lakes, farmland & mountains.
0:38 Clouds swirl over Earth’s surface
0:41 Clouds almost completely cover an ocean. The center of the cloud layer has a triangle gap, with diagonal swirls in the triangle.
0:44 Number three.
0:48 Satellite image of farmland, dark green squares separated by dark green lines.
0:51 Satellite image of a green forest, with a river on the left.
0:53 Satellite image of water, cut in half by a strip of land. Half of the water is dark blue; half is aquamarine, bordered by a coastline.
0:55 Satellite image of a city with a river.
0:57 Number four.
1:03 Satellite image of a mountain range.
1:05 Satellite image of a city with a river.
1:07 Satellite image of a coastline.
1:08 The image zooms out, revealing a long strip of land bordered by a body of water.
1:09 Number five.
1:12 Montage of a busy highway, a sailing boat, a factory pipe, and a foggy green forest.
1:16 A globe decorated with an arrow sticker pointing towards the eastern U.S., labeled “You are here.”
1:18 A phone using a mapping website.
If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: youtube.com/NASAExplorer
Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
· Instagram instagram.com/nasagoddard
· Twitter twitter.com/NASAGoddard
· Facebook: facebook.com/NASA.GSFC
· Flickr flickr.com/photos/gsfc
Satellites give us out-of-this-world insights! 🌎🛰️
Satellite imagery is a powerful scientific tool, helping experts track weather patterns, map urban growth, and more. But making sense of it isn’t always easy. Here are 5 tips to help you understand what satellites see!
Music: “Automatic" from Universal Production Music
Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Lead Producer: Vivian Renkey
Technical Assistance: Katy Mersmann
Video description:
0:00 A woman in front of a satellite image of forests.
0:03 Panning across 3 satellite images: islands, mountains & a glacier.
0:06 Satellite imagery of enhanced color clouds over the western U.S.
0:07 Timelapse of enhanced color satellite imagery of a city expanding into the desert.
0:08 A rotating hurricane transforms into rotating red & orange lines.
0:09 Earth from space.
0:10 A satellite circles Earth.
0:13 Several satellite images of the U.S.
0:17 The woman in front of a satellite image of farmland & forests.
0:21 Number one.
0:25 Satellite image of a mountain range.
0:28 Two horizontal satellite images. The top is an urban area with a box highlighting the center. The bottom is an island partly covered by clouds.
0:30 Satellite image of a mountain with snow, surrounded by forests.
0:32 Number two.
0:34 Three satellite images of lakes, farmland & mountains.
0:38 Clouds swirl over Earth’s surface
0:41 Clouds almost completely cover an ocean. The center of the cloud layer has a triangle gap, with diagonal swirls in the triangle.
0:44 Number three.
0:48 Satellite image of farmland, dark green squares separated by dark green lines.
0:51 Satellite image of a green forest, with a river on the left.
0:53 Satellite image of water, cut in half by a strip of land. Half of the water is dark blue; half is aquamarine, bordered by a coastline.
0:55 Satellite image of a city with a river.
0:57 Number four.
1:03 Satellite image of a mountain range.
1:05 Satellite image of a city with a river.
1:07 Satellite image of a coastline.
1:08 The image zooms out, revealing a long strip of land bordered by a body of water.
1:09 Number five.
1:12 Montage of a busy highway, a sailing boat, a factory pipe, and a foggy green forest.
1:16 A globe decorated with an arrow sticker pointing towards the eastern U.S., labeled “You are here.”
1:18 A phone using a mapping website.
If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: youtube.com/NASAExplorer
Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
· Instagram instagram.com/nasagoddard
· Twitter twitter.com/NASAGoddard
· Facebook: facebook.com/NASA.GSFC
· Flickr flickr.com/photos/gsfc
