NASA astronaut Chris Williams has shared an enchanting view of fireworks exploding in the sky over Beijing from the International Space Station (ISS), as millions gathered on the world below to celebrate Lunar New Year on the night of Feb. 17.

A celebration witnessed from orbit

Williams captured spectacular detail in the complex network of highways and thoroughfares branching out from the bright urban centres of Beijing, and the coastal city of Tianjin, which can be seen to the southeast of the Chinese capital.

On the night of Feb. 17, this metropolitan light show was bolstered by the light cast by spectacular fireworks displays, which took on a static-like appearance in the time-lapse footage captured from 250 miles (402 kilometers) above Earth in low orbit.

"Happy Year of the Horse," wrote Williams in an X post accompanying the video. "I was fortunate to be looking out of the Cupola while we were passing over Beijing and saw the twinkling of fireworks celebrating the Lunar New Year!"

Meanwhile, Chinese taikonauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang marked the celebration in orbit by adorning the Tiangong Space Station with festive decorations and a feast, while also sharing a music video partially filmed aboard the orbital outpost, titled "Let the five-star red flag fly high in space".

What spacecraft are in frame?

A circular solar panel belonging to the Northrop Grumman-built Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft NG-23 can be seen to the right of the shot. The spacecraft carried 11,000 pounds (4,990 kilograms) of supplies and equipment to the orbital station following its launch on Sept. 14, 2025.

The MS-28 Soyuz spacecraft — whose rocket caused significant damage to the only crew-capable launch pad at Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome upon lifting off on Thanksgiving Day in November last year — is visible to the left of the Cygnus freighter. The spacecraft and its crew, composed of NASA's Chris Williams and cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev are due to depart the station and return to Earth this summer.

Peeking up at the bottom left of the video is the Russian docking node "Prichal" — a recent addition to the orbital station that, installed back in 2021, provides additional berths for crewed Soyuz spacecraft and Progress freighters..

Read our explainer article on the International Space Station to find out more!

After a major winter storm swept across the country in late January, a prolonged surge of Arctic air tightened its grip on large areas of the U.S. pushing temperatures well below normal. From the Midwest to the South, the impacts of snow and ice became more extreme.

Even after the storm dispersed across the continent, the frigid chill remained. To understand the larger effects that winter storms like this one has, NASA used its Earth Observatory satellite observations, combined with temperatures calculated by the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) global model, to map out the temperatures from the polar vortex.

What is it?

While the near-surface air temperatures, colder and bluer in color, had normal daily cycles of warming and cooling, the data showed a much larger, more unusual pattern. The cold air seemed to push south and east and then lingered for much of the week rather than retreating.

Meteorologists attributed the pattern to frigid Arctic air funneling into eastern North America and then being driven south as strong high-pressure systems helped force the jet stream into a pronounced dip, allowing colder air to spill into lower latitudes. The data was compiled into a video, showing the pattern over the week in January when the polar vortex occurred.

Where is it?

This image was created by satellite data looking across North America.

Why is it amazing?

Extreme winter storms can have significant impacts on recovery, especially for communities dealing with power outages and infrastructure damage. While snow and ice can be disruptive on their own, a prolonged exposure to cold can amplify the risk, increasing the odds of hypothermia and frostbite, straining shelters and hospitals and turning routine repairs into high-stakes operations.

When satellite observations are blended with modeling systems like in this instance, the result captures the shape and movement of the air mass across vast areas, filling gaps between weather stations and improving situational awareness for decision makers.

For emergency managers, utilities and transportation agencies, better maps of cold intensity, duration and spread can help prioritize better recovery and strategies.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about Earth-scanning satellites and environmental science.

From fast-moving rivers to trickling creeks, scientists around the world work to measure discharge, or the volume of water flowing past a point per second. Discharge is the number that turns "the river is high" into "this could flood downstream," and it underpins everything from reservoir operations to crop planning.

The problem is that gauges are unevenly distributed across the planet, and some of the places where better monitoring matters most — remote regions, fast-changing watersheds, politically complex borders — are often the hardest to measure consistently. That's where Earth-observing satellites come in.

NASA and the French space agency CNES built the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission to measure the height of water across oceans, lakes, reservoirs and rivers using a wide-swath radar instrument called KaRIn (Ka-band Radar Interferometer). SWOT repeats its global ground track on a regular cycle, providing broad coverage that complements on-the-ground networks.

What is it?

This "rivers of Earth" map is made from SWOT data and shows estimated discharge across river systems worldwide, lighting up continents with blue-to-green threads where water is flowing. The brighter and denser the network, the more major river reaches (and higher flows) are being captured in the estimate.

According to NASA, this release represents the first-ever global estimate of both river discharge and suspended sediment observed from space — covering every river on Earth wider than about 160 feet (50 meters).

Where is it?

The SWOT satellite analyzes Earth from an altitude of 554 miles (891 kilometers). It orbits our planet multiple times a day, retracing its previous path every 21 days. You can track its location in real time here.

Why is it amazing?

With SWOT measurements as the backbone, science teams produced estimates of both river discharge (how much water is moving through a river reach) and suspended sediment concentration (how much material is being carried in the water). Those two together matter, because rivers don't just move water; they also carry nutrients, pollutants and soil, shaping deltas, affecting water quality and influencing ecosystems downstream.

Discharge in particular is the heartbeat of flood forecasting, and having a space-based estimate helps fill gaps where ground sensors are limited or absent. Similarly, water utilities, irrigation planners and reservoir managers can use discharge estimates to understand availability and variability across seasons and regions.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about Earth-scanning satellites and environmental science.

Tucked into the Arctic, Greenland's mountains do far more than provide stunning scenery. They steer winds and weather, shape regional climate patterns, and help dictate how the Greenland ice sheet moves by funneling ice into fast-flowing outlet glaciers and directing meltwater toward the coast. Those outlet glaciers matter globally because they are among the main pathways by which ice from the interior can reach the ocean, contributing to sea-level rise.

Europe's Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, which consists of three Earth-observing satellites, recently took an image of southeast Greenland, capturing a landscape that's equal parts rock, ice and shadow. In the image, steep mountains throw long, inky silhouettes across bright glacial ice near the Helheim Glacier, one of the major outlets that drains Greenland's vast interior ice toward the ocean.

What is it?

The Sentinel-2 satellites are designed to capture wide-swath, high-resolution imagery in 13 spectral bands, making the mission especially useful for tracking changes to land, coasts, snow and ice over time. The satellites are part of the Copernicus program, led by the European Union (EU), with collaborations from partners like the European Space Agency (ESA). The goal of the program is environmental monitoring, using data collected by the Sentinel satellites as well as other missions and sensors.

Where is it?

This image was taken from low Earth orbit above Helheim Glacier.

Why is it amazing?

This picture is beautiful in the way only the Arctic can be — sharp, minimalist and impossibly vast — but it’s also a snapshot of how terrain controls Greenland's ice. Outlet glaciers behave like icy rivers, and the mountains around them act like the banks, narrowing and guiding flow as ice drains seaward. When conditions change — from warming air, shifting snowfall, or warmer ocean waters reaching glacier fronts — these fast-moving outlets can respond dramatically, affecting how quickly Greenland loses ice.

With the sun lower in the sky in late October, long shadows exaggerate ridgelines and valleys, making it easier to see the topographic complexity that influences where ice thickens, where it fractures and where meltwater can route toward the coast.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about the Copernicus program and glacier melting.

From orbit, Earth often looks more like art than geography. Satellites such as the European Union's Copernicus Sentinel missions are designed to turn that beauty into information. Rather than taking only "normal" photographs, the Sentinel-2 satellites record Earth in multiple wavelengths of light, including bands beyond human vision. Scientists then combine those wavelengths into false-color images that make it easier to tell forests from tundra, open water from ice, or bare ground from snow. The result is a view that can feel stylized while actually being highly diagnostic.

What is it?

In a recent false-color image, a Sentinel-2 satellite saw a "bauble" on Earth's surface. At a glance it resembles a red-and-white holiday ornament set into a wintry landscape. But the "bauble" is not decorative at all — it is Manicouagan crater in the Canadian province of Quebec, a remarkably circular structure that stands out even among Earth's most visible geological features.

The crater formed around 214 million years ago when an asteroid struck the region, leaving a ring-shaped scar that remains visible from space. Because of its eye-like symmetry, the formation is sometimes called the "eye of Quebec." René-Levasseur Island sits like a pupil at the center of this "eye." The feature lies roughly 435 miles (700 kilometers) northeast of Quebec City and spans about 45 miles (72 km) from east to west.

The asteroid responsible for this impact is thought to have been roughly 3 miles (5 km) in diameter, small by cosmic standards but immense by human ones. The force of that collision reshaped the bedrock, creating a structure so persistent that its geometry still dominates the landscape hundreds of millions of years later.

Where is it?

This image was taken from low Earth orbit of Manicouagan crater in the Canadian province of Quebec.

Why is it amazing?

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites collect data in 13 spectral bands, delivering imagery at resolutions as fine as about 33 feet (10 meters), allowing large landforms to be seen in context while still retaining local detail. In this false-color rendering, the bright white tones are snow, while ice and frozen lake surfaces appear blue, which is particularly noticeable across the broader landscape and around René-Levasseur Island. The vivid red is not fire or bare rock; it actually marks areas of thick vegetation. That red signature corresponds to boreal forest and tundra, ecosystems that are part of a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve, adding ecological significance to a site already famous for its geology.

While the crater may have formed in prehistoric times, the reservoir seen today — often referred to as Manicouagan Lake — was created in the 1960s as part of a hydroelectric project built to supply power across the province. In this satellite view, the Manicouagan River can be seen leaving the reservoir near the bottom of the image, a reminder that the crater's ring now functions as a managed system of water storage and flow. It's an unusual overlay of timelines: a catastrophic event from deep time, repurposed in the last century into infrastructure that supports daily life.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about the Copernicus program and impact craters

Far from shipping lanes, cities, and even most scientific outposts lie the South Sandwich Islands, one of the most remote island chains on Earth. Stretching in a slender arc through the stormy South Atlantic Ocean, these islands sit more than 994 miles (1,600 kilometers) from both South America and Antarctica. In this satellite image, puffs of low-level cloud drift across Vindication and Candlemas Islands, two of the South Sandwich Islands, mingling with rugged volcanic terrain and icy shorelines. The image was captured by the Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) instrument aboard the Earth-observing satellite Landsat 9, a collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Such scenes are uncommon in satellite records from this region, where clouds often obscure the surface.

What is it?

Since Captain James Cook first reported two closely spaced islands in 1775 — later named Candlemas and Vindication — the region has remained largely inaccessible. Persistent cloud cover, harsh seas, and extreme weather make direct observation rare. As a result, satellites have become the primary way scientists study these islands, monitoring volcanic activity, glaciation, erosion, and atmospheric behavior in one of Earth’s least disturbed environments.

Thanks to fewer clouds, the satellite was able to observe some of Candlemas Island's features, including Lucifer Hill and Medusa Pool.

Where is it?

The image was taken above Candlemas and Vindication Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Why is it amazing?

Using satellite images like this one, scientists can understand how volcanic islands evolve in extreme climates. Candlemas Island itself began as two separate islands that merged centuries ago. Its southeastern portion is an older, heavily eroded stratovolcano now mantled in ice, while its northwestern side hosts younger lava flows radiating from cinder cones like Lucifer Hill. Historical accounts describe eruptions and steam clouds as recently as the 20th century, suggesting that volcanic heat and glacial ice have long coexisted here in tension.

The image also highlights the dominant role of erosion. Vindication Island shows no evidence of recent volcanism. Instead, steep cliffs and reduced land area testify to the power of waves, freezing temperatures and storms, forces that slowly dismantle volcanic edifices once tectonic energy subsides.

The clouds themselves are also part of the story. The South Sandwich Islands are famous for producing striking wave clouds, created when strong winds are forced upward by steep terrain. These atmospheric patterns, occasionally visible from space, provide insight into air flow and stability in remote oceanic environments, data useful for both weather and climate studies.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about Earth-observing satellites and climate change.

On Oct. 25, 2025, Europe's Sentinel‑2 satellite mission captured a striking image of the Planchón-Peteroa volcanic complex, located on the border between Chile and Argentina, emitting a plume of ash and volcanic gas rising roughly 1,970 feet (600 meters) above the crater. The ash plume drifted north‐northwest initially and then, under changing wind conditions, veered eastward across the Argentine side.

What is it?

The Sentinel-2 satellites, developed and operated by the European Space Agency, use high-resolution optical imaging to monitor land surfaces, coastal zones and inland waters.

There are currently three Sentinel-2 satellites in orbit — Sentinel-2A, Sentinel-2B and Sentinel-2C, which launched in 2015, 2017 and 2024, respectively. They're part of the European Union's Copernicus Earth-observation program, whose first satellite (Sentinel-1A) launched in 2014.

Where is it?

The Planchón-Peteroa complex sits in the Andes mountain range, at a high altitude in a region dominated by snow‐covered peaks and volcanic terrain.

Why is it amazing?

Because the Planchón-Peteroa volcanic complex is remote, rugged and spans two countries, satellite imagery plays a vital role in monitoring volcanic activity, ash dispersal and potential impacts on air pollution, local communities and the environment. The snow-covered ground enhances the visibility of the ash plume as it drifts across the landscape, allowing for better tracking by the ESA satellite.

With the ash crossing from Chile into Argentina, the image shows how volcanic events do not respect national boundaries — and international monitoring systems like Copernicus are key.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about the European Space Agency and the Copernicus program.

When the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) weather satellite GOES-19 turns its gaze toward the sun, scientists don't expect to see our home planet. But there it was recently — Earth, drifting briefly across the edge of the image captured by the satellite's CCOR-1 coronagraph.

The photo, shared by NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center on X, shows our planet silhouetted by the solar corona.

What is it?

The image was taken by GOES-19, the newest in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite series operated by NOAA. Launched in 2024 and declared operational in early 2025, GOES-19 continuously monitors Earth's weather and the turbulent space environment surrounding it.

Where is it?

GOES-19 sits around 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth's equator, in geostationary orbit. At this altitude, orbital speed matches Earth's rotational speed, allowing satellites to "hover" over patches of the planet.

Why is it amazing?

Among the instruments GOES-19 uses is CCOR-1, short for Compact Coronagraph 1, an experiment designed to capture real-time images of the sun's outer atmosphere, known as the corona. Normally invisible to the human eye, the corona glows faintly in visible light and extends millions of miles into space. It is from this region that coronal mass ejections (CMEs), vast bursts of plasma and magnetic field, erupt into the solar system, sometimes striking Earth and disturbing satellites, power grids and communication networks.

Though this image may look like a space selfie gone wrong, it shows that CCOR-1 is working as designed; it's sensitive enough to capture faint solar structures even when an object as bright as Earth enters its view. Earth's photobomb also provides a useful calibration test, helping scientists understand how CCOR-1 handles stray light, reflections and the brightness contrast between celestial objects.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about coronagraphs and weather satellites.

For decades, satellites orbiting hundreds of miles above Earth have provided scientists with a crucial vantage point to monitor our planet's frozen landscapes. Missions like NASA's Landsat and the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel are particularly valuable for studying glaciers, vast dynamic rivers of ice that are sensitive to changes in temperature and precipitation.

What is it?

In a recent image released by the European Space Agency, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite captured an image of Chile's Laguna San Rafael National Park. Spanning approximately 10,500 square miles (17,000 square km), the park lies along Chile's Pacific coast and in the Patagonian region. Its ice fields feed into 28 outlet glaciers, including the two largest glaciers seen in the image: San Rafael and San Quintin.

Where is it?

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite is located around 477 miles (768 km) above Earth.

Why is it amazing?

Along with this recently taken image, the European Space Agency produced a similar image for comparison, taken in February 1987. Looking at the two satellite images, it's easy to see the retreat of the glaciers over time, as the Earth's climate continues to change.

The glaciers' retreats have changed the landscape significantly, widening lakes and producing new bodies of water, proglacial lakes, a growing pool of meltwater. Simultaneously, their shrinking contributes directly to rising sea levels, one of the most profound and far-reaching consequences of climate change.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about glacier melting and global warming.

The massive storm system bringing miserable weather to the eastern United States can be seen blanketing the region in pictures from space.

NOAA's GOES-13 satellite captured this storm image of the Eastern Seaboard on Thursday morning (Feb. 13) 9:45 a.m. EST (1455 UTC), as residents from Georgia to Boston awoke to sleet, ice and several inches snow.

Not all of the white patches covering the eastern half of the United States are clouds; some of the frosty areas in the picture are actually snow-covered ground in the Great Lakes region and Ohio Valley, according to NASA. [Snow Day: See Images of the East Coast Storm]

NASA/NOAA's GOES Project at the space agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., created the picture, which also incorporates true-color land and ocean image data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Earth-watching sister satellites, Aqua and Terra.

GOES satellites are geostationary, which means they hover over the same position on Earth all the time, orbiting in tandem with the planet's rotation. The spacecraft take pictures of clouds that are used by NOAA's National Weather Service to monitor storms.

By the time this picture was taken, the winter storm had already pounded the South and much of the Mid-Atlantic, causing school closures, flight cancellations, mass power outages and traffic jams. The storm has been blamed for at least 17 deaths, most of them in traffic accidents, according to the Associated Press. Parts of northern Georgia saw over 9 inches (22 centimeters) of snow, while up to 18 inches (45 cm) of the white stuff covered some areas of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

The storm is expected to keep heaping bad weather on the Northeast through Friday in the form of more snow, sleet and freezing rain.

An update from the National Weather Service at 10:00 a.m. EST read: "An abundance of Atlantic moisture getting wrapped into the storm will continue to fuel widespread precipitation ... which should lift through the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeast Thursday into Friday. A wide swath of heavy snow accumulations are expected with this storm ... but air [moving] off the warmer ocean water should change snow over to rain along the coastal areas. Also ... a narrow axis of sleet and freezing rain will be possible within the transition zone ... which is expected to set up near the I-95 corridor."  

Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.