For the past decade NASA's Terra spacecraft has examined key attributes of Earth's land, oceans and atmosphere much the way a doctor tracks a patient's vital signs. And like planetary physicians, Terra scientists have used this continuous stream of information to make an array of new diagnoses about the planet's changing climate and environment.

The flagship of NASA's Earth-observing fleet, Terra was the first spacecraft designed to carry a suite of instruments uniquely able to accumulate an ongoing record of a wide variety of planetary health indicators—from carbon storage and cloud cover to wildfires and oil spills. Indeed, Terra's five onboard sensors have scanned the entire globe every one to two days since they saw "first light" on February 24, 2000, and are expected to continue at that pace for another five years [see "Monitoring Earth's Vital Signs," in the April 2000 issue of Scientific American ].

Taking stock of Terra's first 10 years, scientists gathered in May at mission control, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., to showcase some of the mission's premier discoveries—among them, that droughts are decreasing the planet's carbon storage capacity and that pollution travels much higher and farther than once assumed. The ability of satellite operators to point Terra's sensors at specific targets has aided disaster-relief efforts with an unprecedented ability to track natural hazards as they unfold: the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland and the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are just two examples. Time-series images taken over the course of Terra mission have made for compelling visual documentation of longer-term changes to the environment and landscape as well.

For many of the indicators that Terra tracks, composite global maps and raw data sets are available for every month of mission. In other cases it is simply the spectacular, high-resolution imagery that tells the story. Myriad examples are archived and posted regularly on the Terra mission Web site and that of the NASA Earth Observatory. We gathered some of our favorites for the series that follows.

Click here to view a slide show of 10 vital views of Earth from the perspective of NASA's Terra spacecraft and its five onboard sensors.

19 Comments

1. 1. olderone 11:19 PM 6/1/10

   Between global warming & mans carelessness, one wonders just how much Mother Earth can take.

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2. 2. tsale 07:55 AM 6/2/10

   Time to ramp up production of electric cars and solar cells so we dont have to pollute our envirnment by digging up fossil fuels to run our modern world. How can we call ourselves modern when we rely on ancient technology like petroleum fueled cars and coal powered electricity generators to run our whiz bang modern computers,tv's etc etc etc.

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3. 3. Angus63 in reply to olderone 02:50 PM 6/3/10

   Mother earth can take care of herself, despite what we are doing to her. Whether or not we are around to see it happen is another story entirely.

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4. 4. Spiff 03:48 PM 6/3/10

   It has been with great interest that I notice so many folks want to "...ramp up production of electric cars and solar cells...", can't it be understood that you need the fossil fuels to "ramp up production" of anything! And if we don't want fossil fuels used, we will have to find an equal form of clean energy, maybe atomic - but no, we are against that too...
   Spiff

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5. 5. jack.123 06:14 PM 6/3/10

   Come On give me a break we are no longer the biggest polluter or user of oil.The focus now has to be on China,who is the largest user of oil,and coal.

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6. 6. Tanstaafl in reply to jack.123 06:55 PM 6/3/10

   Care to cite a reference for that Jack?

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7. 7. Tanstaafl in reply to jack.123 06:57 PM 6/3/10

   Care to cite a reference for that, Jack?
   
   Just because someone is worse than you, doesn't make you any better (whether 'you' are American, European or Martian)
   
   T

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8. 8. EmilyCragg 07:21 PM 6/3/10

   Too bad it's not that blue anymore; but a muddy brown. This photo's hue saturation is exceeding reality.

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9. 9. eleaders in reply to tsale 07:28 PM 6/3/10

   Electric cars may end up putting more carbon into the atmosphere. It certainly will put more caustic batteries into lanfils. Just another mitigation nightmare. About the only real answer might be using windmills to compress a gas that has the ability to be compressed to great extents.

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10. 10. pradeep_athavale 02:10 AM 6/4/10

    all the photos are taken dexterously, with fine level of thechnological & scientofic endeavour, indeed.
    But, alas, they show the effects.
    The real McCoy is :: How to stop this .
    For that everybody , who is somebody, seems to be clueless!!
    SO WHAT'S NEEDED IS SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEMS RATHER THAN VIVID DESCRIPTION IN ALL 3D FULL COLOUR GLORY(sic).
    pradeep athavale.,Pune,India.

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11. 11. pradeep_athavale 02:21 AM 6/4/10

    ALL THE PHOTOGRAPHS DEPICT EXCELLENCE OF HUMAN TECHNOLOGICAL ENDEAVOUR EVER. THEY SHOW THE EFFECTS OF POLLUTION.
    THE REAL ISSUE IS :: WHAT'S THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM? ALL THE COLLECTIVE CONFABULATIONS OF THE POWERS THAT BE IN THE WORLD ARE MUTE SPECTATORS WITHOUT ANY VIABLE PERMANENT SOLUTION. It reminisces of the Greek Tragedies of the yore.
    ...PRADEEP ATHAVALE,PUNE,INDIA.

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12. 12. Spiff 12:48 PM 6/4/10

    You are right Pradeep, but as long as Politics and Politicians are allowed to shape science, there will be no meaningful solutions...just beautiful photographs!
    Spiff

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13. 13. chtRAcht 06:48 PM 6/8/10

    They do not treat their sewage and it goes into the lake with laundry soap and other effluents including pesticides, estrogen, phosphates, nitrates, etc.

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14. 14. Skeptical Realist in reply to tsale 10:30 AM 6/10/10

    Wow, I wonder if anyone knows the processes of manufacturing anything...i.e. solar cells, wind mills, batteries, cars, trucks,pharmacueticals and on and on...
    Oh, and this just in...the earth is going through a warming
    cycle, it's got nothing to do with man...don't get me wrong,
    I'm all for cleaning up the air,water and land...but for all
    you chicken little's out there, please take Al Gore and David
    Suzuki with you and jet around the world with their entourage and tell everyone how to live...but leave the rest of us alone
    
    

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15. 15. Ramil 03:24 PM 6/10/10

    Is it just me, or does anyone else see a "Man in the Rockies"? Specifically, an Asian-looking man looking to his left, toward the Great Plains, in the first Earth picture. How prophetic, and scary.

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16. 16. richarris in reply to jack.123 10:44 PM 6/22/10

    this is a reply to a comment by jack.123, we all agree the focus has to be on China's pollution (they are opening a new coal based energy plant every week). But think for a moment, we are sourcing most of our consumer goods from China, so... who is ultimately responsible of China's pollution?

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17. 17. crankycello 12:51 PM 6/23/10

    Yes we are alarmed by the changes that show pollution and heat. If our global human signature is heating up the Earth and adding too much carbon into the environment, should not the basic solution be to reduce our population? Can we or are we capable of such reductions or perhaps we should let our Mother Earth take care of that?

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18. 18. Chuks 12:15 PM 6/27/10

    Science is the only way,if we apply it properly.

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19. 19. Chuks 12:26 PM 6/27/10

    Its constant in life for the nagative side of things to interfere with the good.science has sure had its own share.what we ought to be worried about is fixing what has been done.

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