Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 19 hours ago
Sometimes, all it takes is the mesmerizing beauty of the #AuroraBorealis, as captured by NOAA’s JPSS satellites, to brighten up your day. 😌✨
The images capture the aurora borealis over Earth and North America, beginning with the NOAA-20 satellite on February 27, 2023. The series continues with the NOAA-21 satellite on December 18, 2023, and includes a moving image of swath passes revealing the aurora captured by all JPSS satellites on August 12, 2024 with a still image from the NOAA-20 satellite on the same day. The sequence concludes with a comprehensive image of an aurora captured by all JPSS satellites from May 10 to 11, 2024.
Learn more at nesdis.noaa.gov
Credits:
NOAA
CIRA
CIMSS
Music: “Uplifting Background Music for Presentations” by ViraMIller; Freesound.org
#ImNotSad #JPSS #NOAA20 #NOAA21 #NOAA #NASA #Satellite #NightLights #SpaceWeather #Earth
Sometimes, all it takes is the mesmerizing beauty of the #AuroraBorealis, as captured by NOAA’s JPSS satellites, to brighten up your day. 😌✨
The images capture the aurora borealis over Earth and North America, beginning with the NOAA-20 satellite on February 27, 2023. The series continues with the NOAA-21 satellite on December 18, 2023, and includes a moving image of swath passes revealing the aurora captured by all JPSS satellites on August 12, 2024 with a still image from the NOAA-20 satellite on the same day. The sequence concludes with a comprehensive image of an aurora captured by all JPSS satellites from May 10 to 11, 2024.
Learn more at nesdis.noaa.gov
Credits:
NOAA
CIRA
CIMSS
Music: “Uplifting Background Music for Presentations” by ViraMIller; Freesound.org
#ImNotSad #JPSS #NOAA20 #NOAA21 #NOAA #NASA #Satellite #NightLights #SpaceWeather #Earth
![NOAA Satellites Monitor Wildfires across the Southwest and Plains
Fire season in the Southwest and High Plains arrived early this year, fueled by gusty winds, low humidity, and dry conditions.
The most recent data from the U.S. Drought Monitor from April 21, 2022, shows that the region, particularly New Mexico, has been affected by significant drought conditions. New Mexico has been dealing with more than 20 blazes, including the Calf Canyon Fire, Cooks Peak Fire, and Mitchell Fire. In Arizona, the Crooks Fire has burned south of Prescott since last Monday, triggering numerous evacuation orders in the area. The fire is burning thick, dry, dead vegetation in very rugged terrain, where erratic winds and fire behavior is making conditions hazardous for firefighters.
Imagery from the GOES East satellite showed that the Calf Canyon Fire in New Mexico produced a pyrocumulonimbus cloud (also known as pyroCb) on April 22. This large fire burned hot, which caused air and moisture to rise, along with smoke and ash. When this combination reaches the upper atmosphere, it often cools and condenses to form pyroCb clouds or “fire clouds” over the blaze. Some of the moisture is already present in the atmosphere, while some of it also evaporates from burning plants fueling the fire below.
Parts of the High Plains have experienced windy, dry weather as well, which caused dust storms and fast-spreading wildfires. The fast-spreading Road 702 Fire in southwestern Nebraska that claimed the life of a former fire chief started in Kansas and raced northward through several counties. So far, it has consumed roughly 41,450 acres. By Thursday morning, it was 88 percent contained.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center, there were 11 large active fires burning across almost 223,800 acres across six states. Since the start of 2022, at least 21,181 wildfires have burned more than a million acres in the United States, well above the 10-year average through April. With so many fires burning well before the normal May or June start of the wildfire season, local officials say there is a much higher risk for the rest of the season.
Read more:
Credits:
NOAA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
CIRA
Music:
“Fallen Leaves,” by Andrew James Prahlow [BMI]; Volta Music; Universal Production Music NOAA Satellites Monitor Wildfires across the Southwest and Plains](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Wi9ET4ft1y0/mqdefault.jpg)

![NOAA Confirms Fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event
The world is currently experiencing a global coral bleaching event, according to NOAA scientists. This is the fourth global event on record and the second in the last 10 years.
Bleaching-level heat stress, as remotely monitored and predicted by NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch (CRW), has been—and continues to be—extensive across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean basins. CRWs heat-stress monitoring is based on sea surface temperature data, spanning 1985 to the present, from a blend of NOAA and partner satellites.
Credits:
NOAA
NASA
CIRA
Coral reef footage courtesy of NOAA Fisheries.
Cheeca Rocks photos courtesy of Andrew Ibarra/NOAA
US Virgin Island Boulder Coral photos courtesy of Leslie Henderson/NOAA
Music: “Shimmer Oscillations” by James Joshua Otto [PRS]; Atmosphere; Universal Production Music NOAA Confirms Fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Xi9uFA3-cDE/mqdefault.jpg)







![NOAA-21 is Operational
NOAA-21 is now fully operational in NOAA’s fleet of polar-orbiting satellites that provide critical data to improve the accuracy of 3-to-7 day weather forecasts – including extreme weather events – and monitor climate change.
The newest satellite in the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) constellation, NOAA-21 launched on November 10, 2022, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, joining NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP in orbit. NOAA-21 is flying half an orbit, or 50 minutes, ahead of NOAA-20, with Suomi NPP between them. Each orbit the Earth from the North to the South Pole 14 times a day, providing complete global data coverage twice daily. These satellites take measurements and images that help monitor hurricanes, snowstorms, floods, wildfires, and also the ozone layer.
Learn more:
https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/noaa-21-operational
Credits:
NOAA
NASA
Music: “A New Story” by Paul Louis Reeves, Atmosphere Music LTD [UPM]; Volta Music; Universal Production Music NOAA-21 is Operational](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Yvo837K89w4/mqdefault.jpg)