NASA Science
Cloudy Cloak Over the Northwest
Cool, marine air rolling off the Pacific Ocean led to a picturesque layer of morning clouds over western Washington and Oregon in mid-September 2026. Low-lying stratus clouds and fog extended as far inland as the western foothills of the Cascade Range. Near the coast, taller portions of the Olympic Mountains in Washington and the Oregon Coast Range appeared island-like, protruding above the cloud layer.
The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite shows the extent of the Pacific Northwest’s cloudy cloak on September 19, 2026, at about 10:45 a.m. Pacific Time (17:45 Universal Time). Abundant clouds also appear offshore over the Pacific, while smoke from wildland fires fills valleys in the North Cascades.
For several nights in a row, marine air flowed onshore, according to the National Weather Service, bringing with it low-level clouds known as marine stratus. These clouds form when moist air near the surface, trapped beneath a warmer air layer in a temperature inversion, cools enough for its water vapor to condense. The surge of cool, moist conditions was particularly strong early on September 19, producing cloudy conditions all the way up to the Cascade foothills. Some areas witnessed foggy conditions, where clouds extended down to the ground.
That same day, when NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the area at about 4:15 p.m. Pacific Time (23:15 Universal Time), skies had cleared over much of the area. However, some marine clouds still clung to the Oregon coast, where temperatures stayed cooler than inland locations.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Lindsey Doermann.
References & Resources
- Dye, A. W., et al. (2020). Spatial patterns and trends of summertime low cloudiness for the Pacific Northwest, 1996–2017. Geophysical Research Letters, 47, e2020GL088121.
- EUMeTrain, Fog and Stratus. Accessed September 23, 2026.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2016, December 20) A Celebration of Clouds From Space, Earth Has an Elegant Atmosphere. Accessed September 23, 2026.
- National Weather Service, What are Marine Layer Clouds and How Do they Form? Accessed September 23, 2026.
- National Weather Service Portland, OR (2026, September 23) Area Forecast Discussion. Accessed September 23, 2026.
- National Weather Service Seattle WA (2026, September 23) Area Forecast Discussion. Accessed September 23, 2026.
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Satellite observations of sea surface height indicated that the 2026 event continued to strengthen in early June.
Satellite measurements of chlorophyll at the sea surface signal shifts in the ocean’s nutrient supplies in mid-2026.
Snow-capped mountains carved by deep river valleys preside over northwestern Washington state.
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Boom Year for Desert Blooms
Arid shrublands in Western Australia were bursting with life in late austral winter 2026, when a profusion of wildflowers brought vivid colors to the rusty ochre landscape. After several wetter-than-normal months earlier in the year, dormant seeds in the soil awoke to produce carpets of blooms. Local experts think the display could be the best the area has seen in nearly two decades.
The images above, captured with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on the NASA-USGS Landsat 8 satellite, compare the more verdant landscape of late August 2026 (right) with a similar time in 2025 (left), when it was drier. This area is located about 600 kilometers (370 miles) north of Perth in the Murchison region, one of Western Australia’s main areas for grazing sheep and cattle. The local vegetation includes grasses, saltbush, and the slow-growing evergreen mulga tree.
Every so often, a variety of wildflowers makes an appearance, too. In 2026, rainfall totals were above average in June and very much above average in August due to several cold fronts moving through the area, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology. The rains helped rouse a diverse mix of flowers to bloom across the outback, including on a radio astronomy site managed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency. The flower show included some threatened species, which the observatory has helped monitor on its formerly pastoral land.
Though the spectacle underfoot might have momentarily stolen the show, Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, is primarily focused on what’s overhead and the exploration of deep space. At the Murchison site, CSIRO operates several antenna arrays that observe and catalog objects in the southern sky. The remote facility is situated within a “radio quiet” zone, where terrestrial communications and electronic devices are controlled to limit electromagnetic interference with the instruments.
Other telescopes in CSIRO’s purview in Australia have played crucial roles in NASA missions from the agency’s early years to today. The Murriyang radio telescope in Parkes, New South Wales, tracked Mariner 2—the first successful planetary science mission—in 1962 and was an important receiving station for the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in 1969. CSIRO also manages and operates the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, one of three facilities in NASA’s global Deep Space Network that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions and collects radar and radio astronomy observations. Both supported the Artemis II mission in April 2026.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Photos © CSIRO Australia, September 16, 2026. Story by Lindsey Doermann.
References & Resources
- Australian Bureau of Meteorology (2026) Australian climate history – Climate summaries. Accessed September 22, 2026.
- Australian Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (2008, August) Murchison bioregion (WA). Accessed September 22, 2026.
- CSIRO (2026, September 16) World-leading radio telescopes give space for stunning wildflowers. Accessed September 22, 2026.
- CSIRO (2024, June 24) NASA and CSIRO: partners in space. Accessed September 22, 2026.
- CSIRO, Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, our Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. Accessed September 22, 2026.
- The Guardian (2026, September 13) Blankets of colour: Western Australia’s wildflower season bursts into life – in pictures. Accessed September 22, 2026.
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An Epic View of the Seasons
Most kids learn in elementary school that the seasons are caused by Earth rotating on a tilted axis during its yearly orbit around the Sun. The substantial tilt, about 23.5 degrees, is thought to be the result of an ancient planetary body, Theia, smashing into Earth about 4.5 billion years ago, in the same cataclysmic collision that formed the Moon.
To visualize why Earth has seasons, imagine the planet as a spinning top tilted to one side. Around the June solstice, the Northern Hemisphere leans toward the Sun, bringing more direct sunlight and longer days. Around the December solstice, the Southern Hemisphere does the same. That’s why June ushers in summer and warm weather in the Northern Hemisphere, while December does so in the Southern Hemisphere.
The March and September equinoxes serve as the midpoints between these two seasonal extremes. On those days, the terminator—the boundary between the sunlit and dark sides of Earth—runs directly through both poles. As a result, the Northern and Southern Hemispheres receive almost the same amount of sunlight, and day and night are nearly equal in length.
What do the seasons look like from about one million miles away? That’s the view provided by NASA’s EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) aboard the NOAA mission DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory). By maintaining an orbit that puts the spacecraft between the Sun and Earth roughly 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Earth, the camera has a nearly continuous view of the sunlit hemisphere. As Earth spins during the course of a day, EPIC captures a full-disk image of the planet’s sunlit face every few hours.
The four images above, taken at roughly the same time of day, show how EPIC’s view of the Western Hemisphere changes over the year, from the December solstice (upper left) to the March equinox (upper right), June solstice (lower left), and September equinox (lower right). The most striking difference is between the two solstices. In December, South America lies near the center of the disk and much of Antarctica is visible, while North America is partially out of view. In June, Earth’s tilt means the situation is reversed: the Northern Hemisphere and North America are more centered, Arctic sea ice comes into view, South America is offset, and Antarctica is completely out of view.
There are other notable differences among the four images. Earth looks slightly smaller during the March and September equinoxes, for instance. That’s because DSCOVR was tens of thousands of miles farther away from Earth on those dates than on the solstices. On December 21, 2023, DSCOVR was 1,447,327 kilometers (899,327 miles) from Earth compared with 1,561,901 kilometers (970,520 miles) on September 22, 2024.
The slight difference in Earth’s apparent size has nothing to do with Earth’s tilt. Instead, it occurs because DSCOVR follows a looping, three-dimensional path called a Lissajous orbit to keep the spacecraft near Lagrange point 1, where the combined gravitational pull of the Sun and Earth and the centrifugal pull of the satellite balance out, making it easier for engineers to maintain the spacecraft’s position without using much fuel. DSCOVR’s distance from Earth swings between its maximum and minimum roughly every three months, and the timing drifts throughout the year because of lunar influences and orbital maneuvers. In 2024, the orbit happened to put the spacecraft slightly farther from Earth at both equinoxes, but that is not always the case.
There’s one other notable way the images differ. Because of DSCOVR’s Lissajous orbit, the angle between the Sun, Earth, and satellite varies between 2 and 12 degrees, explained Alexander Marshak, the deputy project scientist for the DSCOVR mission. Earth appears as a fully illuminated disk at smaller angles and less rounded at larger angles, like a “bite” has been taken out, similar to a gibbous phase of the Moon. For this set of images, the September 22 image has a slightly lower angle (8.1°) than the December 21 image (10.3°), making it appear slightly rounder and fuller. The angle between the Sun, Earth, and satellite in the other two images is between 9° and 10°.
“You can see the subtle influence of the changing orbital geometry in these images,” Marshak said. “But the most obvious changes—the apparent location of the continents—are due to Earth’s tilt.”
EPIC’s vantage point offers a perspective that makes it easier to understand and visualize why Earth has seasons, but after more than a decade in space, the mission has also opened up new approaches to understanding and observing how daily and seasonal cycles play out on a planetary scale. It has collected more than a decade of diurnal and seasonal data on many key features on Earth, including vegetation, clouds, ice, snow, UV radiation, ocean color, and aerosols.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using data from DSCOVR EPIC. Story by Adam Voiland.
References & Resources
- Kostinski, A., et al. (2024) Deep space observations of conditionally averaged global reflectance patterns. Frontiers of Remote Sensing, 5, 1404461.
- Kostinski, A., et al. (2021) Deep space observations of terrestrial glitter. Earth and Space Science, 8, e2020EA001521.
- Lyapustin, A., et al. (2026) Editorial: Earth observations from the deep space: 10 years of the DSCOVR mission. Frontiers in Remote Sensing, 7, 1810164.
- NASA (2026, June 19) Earth Polychromatic Image Camera. Accessed September 21, 2026.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2011, September 23) Seeing Equinoxes and Solstices from Space. Accessed September 21, 2026.
- NASA (2026) EPIC: Publications. Accessed September 21, 2026.
- NASA Scientific Visualization Studio (2012, December 27) Earth Orientation Animations. Accessed September 21, 2026.
- NASA Space Place (2026, July 31) What Causes the Seasons? Accessed September 21, 2026.
- Roberts, C., et al. (2015) Early Mission Maneuver Operations for the Deep Space Climate Observatory Sun-Earth L1 Libration Point Mission. Accessed September 21, 2026.
- Valero, F., et al. (2021) Lagrange Point Missions: The Key to next Generation Integrated Earth Observations. DSCOVR Innovation. Accessed September 21, 2026.
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Perseverance’s View of ‘Turquoise Bay’
Perseverance’s View of ‘Turquoise Bay’
Description
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to capture this 360-degree panorama of “Turquoise Bay,” a geologic area of interest in the “Margin Unit.” The 818 images used to create the natural-color panorama were captured between Oct. 5 and Oct. 16, 2023, the 933rd to 944th Martian days, or sols, of the mission.
Figure A is an enhanced-color version, in which color bands were processed to improve visual contrast and accentuate color differences.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover. Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets.
For more about Perseverance: science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance/
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Arctic Melt Season Length Levels Off
For decades, Arctic sea ice has been melting earlier in spring and freezing later in fall, extending the melt season and contributing to widespread ice loss. A new NASA-led study has found that while the Arctic melt season has lengthened dramatically since satellite records began, that trend unexpectedly stabilized around 2010.
The Arctic sea ice melt season is now about 40 days longer than it was in 1979, according to the study. Most of the increase occurred before 2010. Since then, the average melt season length has remained relatively unchanged, despite large year-to-year fluctuations.
Researchers analyzed satellite observations between 1979 and 2023 to track when sea ice begins to melt each spring and refreezes each autumn. They found that the change was driven primarily by sea ice freezing later in the year rather than melting earlier in the spring.
“Previously, there was more of this multiyear ice that didn’t melt away each summer,” said Linette Boisvert, a co-author on the study and ice scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Now that the ice is thinner and there’s less of it, there’s a lot more variability.” On average, though, the decline in sea ice thickness and extent that occurred during the 2000s appears to have stopped for the time being.
To understand why, the team examined changes in the Arctic’s energy balance—the net difference between incoming heat from the Sun, atmosphere, and ocean and the outgoing infrared radiation emitted back to space.
During the period of rapid ice loss in the 2000s, reduced ice cover exposed darker ocean water, which absorbed more sunlight. The additional solar energy delayed freezing and helped extend the melt season. In the left map above, the reddest areas mark where the melt season grew fastest that decade, by up to 5 days per year. Much of the Arctic ice today is younger and thinner than the multiyear ice that was once more widespread in the Arctic Ocean, leaving it more vulnerable to variations in cloud cover, storms, and winds.
Since 2010, changing cloud patterns have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching parts of the Arctic Ocean. The result has been a melt season that fluctuates from one year to the next but remains relatively stable over longer periods. The right map above reflects this shift, with the lighter blues and reds showing the more modest rates of change during that decade.
These findings don’t suggest that shifts in Earth’s climate have stopped affecting the Arctic. The region continues to warm nearly four times faster than the global average, and the remaining sea ice is substantially thinner than it was several decades ago. Instead, the study suggests that the Arctic may have entered a new phase, in which annual weather patterns exert a stronger influence on melt season than they once did.
“Melt season length is much more dependent on atmospheric effects,” Boisvert said. “They seem to be playing a bigger role because the ice is generally thinner and more vulnerable to begin with.”
The researchers caution that the apparent stabilization may prove temporary. Thick Arctic ice still exists throughout the year to the north of Greenland and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Continued thinning of ice in those regions could trigger another period of rapid sea ice loss, with the potential to further extend the melt season.
For now, the study highlights the importance of continued satellite observations of Arctic sea ice and the energy balance that controls its growth and melting. Whether the recent stabilization represents a lasting change in the melt season or a pause before another period of rapid change remains an open question.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using data from Boisvert, L., et al. (2026). Story by James Riordon/NASA’s Earth Science News Team.
References & Resources
- Boisvert, L., et al. (2026) A recent stabilization in the lengthening of the Arctic sea ice melt season into a highly variable regime. Communications Earth & Environment, 7 (552).
- Markus, T., et al. (2009) Recent changes in Arctic sea ice melt onset, freezeup, and melt season length. JGR Oceans, 114 (C12).
- NASA Earth Observatory (2016, September 16) Sea Ice. Accessed September 17, 2026.
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Lake Powell Drops to Record-Low Levels
The effects of a meager mountain snowpack across the Upper Colorado Basin in winter 2025-2026 had made their way downstream to Lake Powell by summer. After seasonal snowmelt declined to a relative trickle, the second-largest reservoir in the U.S. sat at record-low levels in late August and early September.
These images show a portion of Lake Powell just above Glen Canyon Dam as observed by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on the NASA-USGS Landsat 8 satellite on September 1, 2017 (left), and September 10, 2026 (right). In the 2026 image, the water level stood at 3,517.24 feet. About a month prior, it had dipped below the previous record-low level of 3,519.92 feet, set on April 13, 2023, and continued to tick downward in early September. The 2017 image represents one of the highest water levels of the past decade.
The Colorado River feeds Lake Powell and then Lake Mead farther downstream, which also hit record-low levels in August 2026. Managed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and other agencies, the river provides water and electric power to more than 40 million people—including in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Diego—and water to some 5 million acres of farmland in the Southwest.
Much of the Colorado Basin is arid or semi-arid, so a large portion of the river’s flow originates as snowmelt from higher elevations. The Upper Colorado Basin, like many mountainous areas across the U.S. West, saw unusually little snow accumulation in winter 2025-2026, constituting a snow drought. Stretches of record warmth further sapped the snowpack. As a result, water from snowmelt did little to replenish lake levels in spring, as it typically does.
The USBR took steps in April 2026 to stabilize Lake Powell and keep it from falling below the level needed for hydropower production—an outcome the agency deemed possible by August 2026 without intervention. USBR began releasing water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir in northern Utah and southern Wyoming into Lake Powell. It also reduced releases from Lake Powell into Lake Mead, canceled a “controlled flood” in April intended to build sandbars for fish habitat, and skipped a “cool mix” release in August aimed at protecting native species.
Drought in the U.S. Southwest has been ongoing since about the start of the 21st century—what experts have called a megadrought—and continues to strain water resources. Several projects and tools funded by NASA and powered in part by NASA Earth observations are helping decision-makers throughout the Colorado Basin monitor drought and respond to its effects.
At the Colorado River headwaters, for example, a dashboard based on the Western Land Data Assimilation System (WLDAS) provides real-time soil moisture, snow water equivalent, and evapotranspiration visualizations that inform Colorado’s drought task force, as well as weekly U.S. Drought Monitor maps.
Nearer to Lake Powell, the Drought Severity Evaluation Tool, co-developed with the Navajo Nation, helps leaders monitor localized drought indices, precipitation trends, and vegetation health across tribal lands. (With funding from NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System, its adoption expanded to Oklahoma’s Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations in 2025.) And the Colorado River Integrated Assessment tool, developed by Arizona State University researchers in partnership with the Central Arizona Project, consolidates improved modeling and NASA-satellite-validated information on snowpack, surface and groundwater storage, soil moisture, and more across the entire basin into a single interactive view.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and lake elevation data from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Story by Lindsey Doermann.
References & Resources
- NASA Earth Observatory (2026, April 27) Snow Is Scarce in the Upper Colorado Basin. Accessed September 17, 2026.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2021) World of Change: Water Level in Lake Powell. Accessed September 17, 2026.
- NASA Earth Observatory, Lake Powell. Accessed September 17, 2026.
- NASA Earthdata (2026, August 24) Low Water Levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead in August 2026. Accessed September 17, 2026.
- NASA Global Water Measurements (2026) Lake Powell 1. Accessed September 17, 2026.
- NASA Science (2020, December 11) Connecting The Drops: Managing the Navajo Nation’s Water Resources with Satellites and Indigenous Knowledge. Accessed September 17, 2026.
- Science (2026, August 11) Halted dam releases threaten Colorado River ecosystems. Accessed September 17, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (2026, April 17) Reclamation Acts to Protect Colorado River System During Historic Drought. Accessed September 17, 2026.
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Summer Goes Out With a Heat Dome
While the calendar indicated that astronomical summer was winding down, a swath of the south-central United States was sweltering under a heat dome in mid-September 2026.
This map shows air temperatures in the contiguous U.S. on September 15, 2026, at 4 p.m. Central Time (21:00 Universal Time), modeled at 2 meters (6.5 feet) above the ground. It was produced by combining satellite observations with temperatures predicted by a version of the GEOS (Goddard Earth Observing System) model, which uses mathematical equations to represent physical processes in the atmosphere. The darkest reds indicate areas where temperatures approached or exceeded 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
More than 41 million people in the U.S.—about 12 percent of the population—were under a National Weather Service extreme heat advisory, extreme heat watch, or extreme heat warning on September 15. The high temperatures spanned large portions of several states, such as Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee. Meteorologists warned that high humidity, limited cloud cover, and light winds could make temperatures feel higher than thermometer readings and increase the risk of heat-related illnesses.
Several locations set new daily high temperature records on September 15. These included Dallas, Texas, at 101ºF (38ºC), Memphis, Tennessee, at 99ºF (37ºC), and Nashville, Tennessee, at 100ºF (38ºC). The cities were all at least 12ºF warmer than normal that day, with Nashville breaking its daily-high record from 1927. The day before, Nashville also set a record-high minimum temperature of 75ºF (24ºC).
A weather phenomenon meteorologists call a heat dome was responsible for driving temperatures up across the region. A heat dome develops when an area of high pressure in the upper atmosphere pushes hot air toward the surface and traps it there. Heat domes put the brakes on convection and suppress clouds and precipitation. This allows sunlight to reach Earth’s surface relatively unhindered and further elevate air temperatures.
The stretch of unseasonable temperatures follows the warmest June through August in the contiguous United States in a 132-year record, according to NOAA. The three-month period in 2026 was 0.4ºF warmer than the previous records, set in 1936 and 2021.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using GEOS-FP data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC. Story by Lindsey Doermann.
References & Resources
- AccuWeather (2026, September 11) Latest heat dome to linger in south-central, southeastern US in mid-September. Accessed September 16, 2026.
- Heat.gov (2026) Science and Information to Reduce Heat Risk. Accessed September 16, 2026.
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (2026, September 9) Warmest summer on record for the contiguous U.S. Accessed September 16, 2026.
- The Washington Post (2026, September 15) It’s almost fall, but this record heat dome didn’t get the memo. Accessed September 16, 2026.
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Curiosity Postcard Celebrates Rover’s 5,000th Day on Mars
Curiosity Postcard Celebrates Rover’s 5,000th Day on Mars
Description
While parked at a sand ridge nicknamed “Chocolatal,” NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its black-and-white navigation cameras to capture panoramas at two times of day. The first was taken on Aug. 30, 2026, at 9:56 a.m. local Mars time; the second was taken on Sep. 2, 2026, at 5:39 p.m. local Mars time. Those dates correspond to the 5,000th and 5,003rd Martian days, or sols, of the mission.
Figure A is a lossless version of the image in PNG format.
After being sent back to Earth, the two images were merged together. Color was added for an artistic interpretation of the scene, with blue representing the morning panorama and yellow representing the afternoon one. The resulting “postcard” is similar to past examples created with rover images, such as one taken in November 2021.
The rover’s deck can be seen in the foreground, including its can-shaped UHF antenna, used for sending data to orbiting spacecraft, and its finned Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG), a nuclear power source, at its rear. The rover’s tracks can be seen trailing off in the distance.
Curiosity is in the lower foothills of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain that sits within Gale Crater. This image looks down toward the crater floor, with the crater rim barely perceptible on the horizon.
Curiosity was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio.
To learn more about Curiosity, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-curiosity/
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Purple Haze Aurora
One of the inspirations for Jimi Hendrix’s iconic 1967 hit “Purple Haze” is said to be the sci-fi novel Night of Light, about a distant planet in a binary star system. Every seven years, the story goes, the stars bathe the planet in a bizarre purple radiance with the power to rearrange physical reality in profound and unexpected ways. The atmosphere’s purple glow, for instance, turned some people into trees and brought statues to life.
It’s perhaps fitting, then, for an astronaut on the International Space Station to invoke the iconic song after witnessing the aurora illuminate Earth’s atmosphere with ethereal greens, reds, and purples. Hendrix would have “rejoiced” at the “brilliant purple,” NASA astronaut Jessica Meir posted on September 8. It “makes me want to kiss the sky,” she added in a nod to the lyrics of the Hendrix song.
The photograph above is one of many that the astronauts took on September 7, 2026, as they orbited an atmosphere quivering with color. The station was at an altitude of 255 miles (411 kilometers) and above Kyrgyzstan when the photo was taken. Stacking several of the photos also yielded a long-exposure series in which the aurora’s green glow mingles with star trails, moonlight, passing satellites, and city lights in a dazzling jumble of illumination.
Aurora is the Latin word for “dawn” and also the name of the Roman goddess of the dawn. Its use in reference to the atmospheric phenomenon likely comes from Europeans living far from the Arctic Circle, who would have experienced the aurora as a faint red glow to the north, resembling the reddish glow in the east at dawn.
The colorful phenomenon typically starts when the Sun sends charged particles toward Earth through solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), or an active solar wind. These particles interact with the magnetosphere—the invisible, comet-shaped bubble of magnetic field lines surrounding the planet—compressing and changing the configuration of the magnetic field. In the process, some particles within the field are drawn into Earth’s upper atmosphere, where they excite nitrogen and oxygen atoms and molecules, causing them to release photons.
The aurora Meir photographed occurred amid a disturbance associated with a high-speed stream of solar wind from a coronal hole and the lingering effects of multiple coronal mass ejections, according to updates from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. These solar wind disturbances interacted with Earth’s magnetosphere, causing minor (G1) geomagnetic storms.
The colors of auroras are influenced by the type of gas involved and the altitude at which they occur in the atmosphere. Oxygen excited to different energy levels can produce green and red. Green occurs roughly between 60 and 120 miles (100 and 200 kilometers) altitude, and red occurs above 120 miles (200 kilometers). Excited nitrogen gas, from about 60 to 120 miles (100 to 200 kilometers), glows blue or pink depending on the type and energy of the particles it interacts with. Sometimes, the light emitted by gases can appear to mix, making the auroras seem purple, pink, or even white.
While auroras can occur any time of the year, astronauts are especially likely to enjoy the light shows in the spring and fall, around the equinoxes. That’s because the geometry of Earth’s magnetic field relative to the solar wind makes it especially favorable for transferring solar-wind energy into the magnetosphere, a phenomenon known as the Russell-McPherron effect.
This isn’t the only example of Jimi Hendrix’s music making an impression beyond Earth. A selection of Hendrix’s music touched down on the Moon in 2024 with the Odysseus lander. Another Hendrix song, “Voodoo Chile,” made the list of wake-up songs for STS-110, according to a report from NASA’s History Division.
Astronaut photograph ISS075-E-88592 was acquired on September 7, 2026, with a Nikon Z9 digital camera using a focal length of 15 millimeters. It is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 75 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Story by Adam Voiland.
References & Resources
- Far Out (2021, September 15) The book that inspired Jimi Hendrix’s psychedelic masterpiece ‘Purple Haze.’ Accessed September 15, 2026.
- ISS in Real Time (2026, September 7) A real-time journey onboard the International Space Station. Accessed September 15, 2026.
- Meir, J., via X (2026, September 8) Purple Haze. Jimi Hendrix would have rejoiced at the site of the northern lights last night. Accessed September 15, 2026.
- NASA (2026, July 20) Chronology of wakeup calls. Accessed September 15, 2026.
- NASA Science (2025) Aurora. Accessed September 15, 2026.
- NASA Space Place (2026) Aurora. Accessed September 15, 2026.
- NOAA (2026, September) Forecast discussions. Accessed September 15, 2026.
- NOAA (2026, September 15) Current Space Weather Conditions: Alerts, Watches, and Warnings. Accessed September 15, 2026.
- Open Culture (2020, October 12) How Science Fiction Formed Jimi Hendrix. Accessed September 15, 2026.
- Russell, C.T. & McPherron, R.L. (1973) Semiannual variation of geomagnetic activity. Journal of Geophysical Research, 78(1), 92-108.
- Spaceweather.com (2026, September 8) Here’s proof that autumn is approaching. Accessed September 15, 2026.
- UCR (2024, February 28) An unheard Jimi Hendrix song now lives on the Moon. Accessed September 15, 2026.
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An Accidental Impact Crater Discovery
There are roughly 200 confirmed impact structures on Earth, but geologists estimate that hundreds more lurk undiscovered. Now, there’s at least one more—and a large one, at that—in the confirmed bin, spotted by an amateur astronomer planning a camping trip to Quebec.
In 2024, Joël Lapointe was prepping for a camping trip to the remote Côte-Nord region when he noticed a circular feature in online satellite maps near Lake Marsal. Suspecting that the depression might be an impact crater, he contacted experts in both Europe and North America.
His questions led a team of French researchers to list the lake area as the center of a possible 11th-known impact structure in Quebec at a meeting of the Meteoritical Society in 2024—which eventually led to the involvement of Gordon Osinski, a planetary geologist at Western University and director of the Impact Earth database. Osinski was initially skeptical. But with his curiosity piqued, he decided to organize an expedition to the remote site in October 2025 to investigate.
Osinski and colleagues arrived by floatplane and quickly found themselves in unforgiving terrain. The plane couldn’t reach the shore, and the researchers had to wade across 50 meters (165 feet) of water to reach land while laden with gear. The terrain, meanwhile, was rugged, swampy, teeming with bugs, and covered by what Osinski described as “deep, twisty, gnarly vegetation.” Despite having conducted extensive fieldwork on six continents, he described the conditions as among the most challenging he had ever experienced.
Previous geologic mapping suggested that the breccia rocks in the area were the product of a funnel-shaped volcanic feature known as a diatreme—a pipeline of fragmented rock formed by explosive eruptions of magma. Yet by the second day, the researchers had identified distinctive features called shatter cones in many rock outcrops—a sign that the structure was actually an impact crater. “It’s the only unequivocal evidence of an impact event that you can see in the field with the naked eye,” Osinski said.
The object that struck was large enough to create a complex crater structure that spanned 25 kilometers (16 miles), complete with a central uplift and tall cliffs marked by columnar jointing. Were an object of a similar size to strike Quebec today, it would cause “regional devastation on a scale that would wipe out major cities and have global climate impacts,” Osinski said.
Rock samples indicated that the impact crater likely formed about 390 million years ago, about 100 million years before a surge in cratering on Earth that may be associated with collisions in the asteroid belt.
After consultations with the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit, the research team is calling the crater Uhackatik. While the team considers the crater essentially confirmed, a Meteoritical Society committee is expected to formally recognize the site as an impact crater when it next meets. This is the largest impact crater discovered since the 31-kilometer Hiawatha structure was found in 2018.
Osinski is a member of NASA’s first Artemis Geology Team and helps astronauts with geology training, but he doesn’t expect to see astronauts at Uhackatik anytime soon because of how difficult it is to reach. There’s a younger, more accessible impact crater in Labrador—Kameshtashtan (also called Mistastin Lake)—where astronauts have done geology training in the past, he said.
For Lapointe, tipping off the scientific community to the new crater is something he’ll long remember. He told CityNews he was “over the Moon” when the researchers confirmed it was really a crater. “I encourage everyone to not ignore intuition or an observation, even if it isn’t part of your field of expertise,” he told another outlet.
Citizen scientists hoping to leave their mark on the science world have plenty of opportunities through NASA. With the Daily Minor Planet project, help look for asteroids and comets that might pose a risk to Earth. With Impact Flash, scour dark parts of the Moon for flashes caused by meteoroid impacts. And with Exoasteroids, hunt for signs of asteroids beyond our Solar System.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Photos by Gordon Osinski (Western University). Story by Adam Voiland.
References & Resources
- Cavosie, A.J., et al. (2026) Impact-diagnostic criteria for use in confirming a meteorite impact origin of terrestrial geological structures: Recommendations by the Impact Cratering Committee of the Meteoritical Society. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 61(7), 1538-1565.
- CBC (2026, July 14) He saw a pit on Google Maps. It turned out to be a 390-million-year-old meteor crater. Accessed September 11, 2026.
- CityNews (2026, July 19) Pit found by Quebecer confirmed to be a 390-million-years-old meteorite impact crater. Accessed September 11, 2026.
- Gattacceca, J., et al. (2026) Uhackatik: A new 25-km diameter ~390 ma impact structure in Quebec, Canada. The 88th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society.
- Hergarten, S. & Kenkmann, T. (2015) The number of impact craters on Earth: Any room for further discoveries? Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 425, 187-192.
- Impact Earth, Map of Impact Craters and Deposits. Accessed September 11, 2026.
- Kenkmann, T. (2021, June 30) The terrestrial impact crater record: A statistical analysis of morphologies, structures, ages, lithologies, and more. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 56(5), 1024-1070.
- NASA (2019, January 17) NASA’s Moon Data Sheds Light on Earth’s Asteroid Impact History. Accessed September 11, 2026.
- NASA (2023, August 22) NASA Selects Geology Team for the First Crewed Artemis Lunar Landing. Accessed September 11, 2026.
- Rochette, P. (2024) Lake Marsal: a large impact structure candidate in Quebec (Canada). The 86th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society.
- Smithsonian (2026, July 21) An Amateur Astronomer Using Google Maps Spotted a Strange Indentation. It Turned Out to Be a Meteorite Crater From 390 Million Years Ago. Accessed September 11, 2026.
- Space.com (2026, July 21) A massive crater was spotted on Google Earth. It could be a scar from an ancient meteorite impact. Accessed September 11, 2026.
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