Explore Earth's atmosphere and what its layers contain in this interactive adventure

View a diagram of Earth's atmosphere, which is composed of five layers

Starting from the surface, the troposphere is home to Earth's weather, followed by the stratosphere, which houses the ozone layer, and the mesosphere, which burns up most debris from space. Above these layers lies the thermosphere, where auroras are produced, and the exosphere, which lacks a clear outer boundary as it fades into outer space.

Explore the Earth at night from space

See the planet in all its luminosity with this NightEarth app, an interactive spherical globe showing real satellite imagery of Earth. Toggle between views of real-time clouds, aurora borealis activity, and more.

Explore a gallery of space-based images and animations of Earth

This collection compiles shots of well-known locations, such as US national parks, and natural features, including aurora borealis and fall foliage, to provide a high-level view of Earth's surface.

Visualize real-time and historical atmospheric conditions from around the world

This tool provides live maps of wind, rain, thunderstorms, and other atmospheric phenomena overlayed on an interactive map of the Earth. Users can enter their location to explore local atmospheric dynamics and review historical weather conditions dating back to 1979.

Travel through deep time with this interactive Earth

Explore key moments in Earth’s transformative history as continents drift and climate fluctuates over 4.6 billion years. The Smithsonian presents a series of interactive snapshots of the earth. From its toddler years during the Hadean period, when its surface was mostly molten, to the mostly unidentifiable landmasses of the future earth, 100 million years from now.

Take a journey to the Earth's core

This animated video takes you on a journey through the different layers of the Earth's core, with insight into what makes up each shell. Earth's outer core, which is about 1,400 miles thick, is made up of liquid iron and nickel at a blistering...

A breakdown of Earth's atmospheric layers, including why it can get colder or hotter with altitude

Gases in the troposphere—the atmosphere's lowest layer—cool with increasing height as they get farther from the thermal energy emitted by Earth's warm surface. In the next layer—the stratosphere—ozone is increasingly heated by the sun's ultraviolet radiation with height. Because cooler air sinks and hotter air rises, the cooler troposphere and hotter stratosphere form a natural boundary keeping Earth's weather in the lowest layer.

Play an interactive game to explore and learn about Hubble images

Aboard the fictional USS Hubble, users can choose their own adventure to investigate the solar system, our galaxy, and the universe beyond. Each option directs users to a real image accompanied by relevant information and additional media elements, such as a time-lapse of the moon Phobos orbiting Mars.

Explore an interactive global weather map, with overlays depicting real-time data on temperature, precipitation, wind, humidity, and pressure, which enable the tracking and monitoring of extreme weather events.

Explore Earth's future climate under different levels of warming

An incredible interactive project showing how global warming is projected to affect the world, from temperatures to rainfall, droughts and flooding, and more.

Explore an interactive solar system with 3D visualizations of meteor showers—streams of dust-like debris left behind from comets or asteroids that burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

Explore an interactive timeline of Earth's 4.5-billion-year history to visualize shifting landmasses and oceans, view the locations of significant asteroid impacts, and learn about major geological and biological events.

The weather time machine

A fun interactive on how old ships’ logs are giving scientists new insights into the past and future of the Earth’s changing climate (w/maps and pictures).

Watch a montage of space-based Earth views as astronauts discuss their overview experiences

As of 2023, more than 600 astronauts and 63 space tourists have seen Earth from space, experiencing a life-changing perspective shift as they view the entirety of our home planet.

Explore a simulation of the greenhouse effect

Investigate how cloud cover, surface albedo—a measure of a surface's reflectiveness—greenhouse concentrations, and atmospheric layers affect the energy balance on a simulated planet. Using either the wave or particle models of light, users can also explore how changes in solar intensity affect planetary surface temperature.

The importance of the mesosphere, the coldest part of Earth's atmosphere

Atmospheric gases are dense enough in this region to begin burning up debris traveling toward Earth's surface, producing meteor showers, or shooting stars. Although we normally associate decreasing temperatures with increasing altitude, temperatures increase beyond the mesosphere layer due to the absorption of high-energy ultraviolet radiation and X-rays.

Create digital maps of Earth with custom sketches and labels

In this interactive, users can apply layers to various base maps to display natural and human features, including geological activity, biomes, ocean currents, population densities, and light pollution. Custom legends, markers, and drawings can be used to highlight prominent features.

Grasp the earth's orbit around the sun with this interactive

See why seasons exist with this interactive simulator. Toggle between different views of the earth in relation to the sun and watch as the earth's axis causes the sun to shine at different angles throughout the year, causing the weather to fluctuate and more. This simulator clarifies a process many take for granted.

Earth's inner structure is a dynamic system of layers in constant, slow motion

From the crust to the core, each of Earth's layers—some solid, some liquid—plays a role in generating its magnetic field, moving tectonic plates, and cycling matter. These details are determined through modeling since humans have only drilled 12 kilometers underground.

Scientists have tested atmospheric models by firing rockets into the aurora borealis

Functioning like components of a CT scan, the missiles transmit signals that can be used to identify charged particles and electromagnetic currents in slices. The slices are then combined to construct a computer-based model of Earth's atmospheric structure, which is used to compare the accuracy of physics-based models.

Colorful thunderstorm phenomena can be viewed from the International Space Station

Transient luminous events are lightning-related phenomena that occur in the atmosphere above storm clouds. These events often look like columns of red light resulting from electrical discharge, but may also appear as purple tendrils or long blue jets.

View the transparency of Earth's atmosphere and how it blocks most forms of light

The gases that make up Earth's atmosphere block most harmful forms of electromagnetic radiation from reaching the planet's surface, except for some ultraviolet light. Their transparency to radio waves means this form of light can reach Earth's surface, which is why most radio telescopes are ground-based rather than space-based.

Watch a 4K time-lapse of auroras seen from the International Space Station

The video was created from 711 photos taken by European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli on Sept. 15, 2017, as part of the Vitality, Innovation, Technology, and Ability mission.

Explore an interactive diary of the International Space Station

The tool enables users to learn about the daily events that occurred on the ISS since continuous human occupancy began on November 2, 2000. Upon selecting a date in the calendar, users can explore activity logs, relevant news, and multimedia content, including videos, photographs, and audiologs, from the onboard crew.

Watch a lightning storm from the International Space Station

While passing over the Alabama and Georgia regions, NASA astronauts photographed passing thunderstorms from the ISS. The illuminated clouds are described as "nebula-like formations."

Why the edge of Earth's atmosphere varies depending on which property is considered

As the distance from Earth's center increases, the planet's gravitational force weakens, causing it to gradually lose its ability to retain gases at the farthest edge of its atmosphere—the exosphere. At a height of approximately 200,000 kilometers (124,000 miles)—halfway to the Moon—the exosphere has so little density that it is indistinguishable from interstellar space.

Explore a collection of moon interactives from NASA, including a 3D lunar surface explorer, a tool for classifying moon rocks, and an interactive map for observing the moon each day of the year.

View the 55 ECVs used to describe Earth's atmospheric conditions

Essential climate variables include physical, chemical, and biological variables that meaningfully contribute to Earth's climate and how it changes with time. Many of these variables influence one another through feedback mechanisms across Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, biosphere, and geosphere.

A real-time 3D-explorer of the solar system

NASA's Eyes on the Solar System allows you to track all kinds of objects in space in real time, from observatories like the James Webb Telescope to all manner of comets and asteroids. Zoom in and out, read up on space missions, and see the solar system from a totally new angle with this incredible interactive site. Jump in here.

NASA's ESCAPADE mission will study Mars' atmosphere

The $80M mission—a collaboration between private companies, universities, and NASA—sent two copy machine-sized orbiters on a Blue Origin rocket to the red planet to study its magnetic field and atmospheric loss.

Explore a gallery of astronomical images curated by the European Space Agency, which includes illustrations and images of aurorae, planets, stars, galaxies, stellar nurseries, exoplanets, and black holes.

The weight of Earth's atmosphere is equivalent to a 33-foot deep, global ocean

Because air is made up of gas molecules with mass, it is not weightless. On the planet's surface, we are effectively living in what is the equivalent of the bottom of an invisible ocean of these particles pressing against us, just as water molecules do when we are submerged.

Explore a series of interdisciplinary explainers on climate science

From animations on the quantum mechanics of greenhouse gases to a photo essay on how scientists acquire climate data, this collection provides detailed explorations of how different branches of science have contributed to our understanding of climatology.

Explore an interactive visualization of the solar system

This tool allows you to view the orbits of planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, and other significant objects in the solar system. Clicking on an object reveals key facts and historical data.

Rivers in the sky

A short introduction to atmospheric rivers, including a handy illustration on the science behind them, the phenomena that help transport water vapor from the tropics across the globe.

Explore how far you've traveled through space while living on Earth

Using the "Cosmic Odometer," users can enter their birthday and learn how far they have moved through space due to the combined effects of Earth's rotation around its axis, the planet's orbit around the sun, the solar system's trajectory through the Milky Way, and the galaxy's motion through the universe.

Explore the night's sky from anywhere

Stellarium Web is a planetarium running in your web browser. It shows a realistic star map, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. Using its interface, you can click on object's visible at your location on the Earth...

Watch how dozens of everyday human tasks are performed in space

This playlist features clips of astronauts aboard the International Space Station explaining how they cook, eat, sleep, and conduct research in microgravity. Other activities to pass the time, including watering plants and playing soccer, are also shown.

The sun and Earth's liquid outer core help create the northern and southern lights

Earth's magnetosphere, generated by the movement of molten iron deep within the planet, consists of a magnetic field that deflects charged particles north and south. Some of the particles released by the sun in the solar wind become trapped in this field and are propelled toward the poles, where they produce auroras through collisions with atmospheric particles.

The moon's little-known, incredibly thin atmosphere

Earth's colorless, lifeless moon is often portrayed as devoid of an atmosphere. However, this fascinating article describes the very thin layer of gases floating above the surface of our celestial neighbor, a layer so thin it's technically known as...

Watch a visualization of what it would look like to move along Earth's surface as fast as the International Space Station, or about 23 times the speed of sound.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

The informal boundary between the Earth and outer space lies within the atmosphere

Located approximately 100 kilometers (62.1 miles) above Earth's surface, the Kármán line serves as the approximate location where air density is too low to support aerodynamic lift to keep an aircraft airborne. Beyond this height, thrust is needed to propel objects through the air.

Watch a livestream of Earth from the International Space Station

The feed is made possible by the SpaceTV-1 camera system, which is live over 20 hours a day. Video replays are shown during routine loss of signal communications with the inter-satellite link relaying the video data.

Take a virtual journey through the world's deserts with Google Earth and BBC

Explore some of the world’s deserts in this “Natural Treasures” collaboration between Google Earth and BBC Earth. Visit the Namib Desert in Namibia where the simplest strategy to escape the heat is to emerge only in the cool of the night....

Experimenting with space-time

Einstein's theory of general relativity—that mass literally bends space and time—can be difficult for the human brain to imagine. This interactive resource lets you create celestial objects, imagine their effect on space-time, and see how they interact with each other (best viewed on desktop).

Take a series of virtual tours of Biosphere 2

The videos provide a 360-degree view of the indoor rainforest, ocean ecosystem, Landscape Evolution Observatory, and underground technosphere. A Google Maps Street View option is available to explore additional biomes, with each associated with a different floor level on the bottom right.

Stratospheric balloons: a visual guide

In late January 2023, a Chinese high-altitude balloon, believed to be for surveillance purposes, traversed the US and caused a diplomatic stir. The technology itself is established—though typically used for atmospheric measurements. This visual...

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Watch a visualization of how Earth's oceans impact its atmosphere, weather, and climate.