Education
Learn how our planet works
A hand-picked tour of the best free tools for watching Earth — from real-time weather layers to satellites in orbit and the climate signals scientists follow every day.
Weather Layers
Interactive maps that visualize the atmosphere in motion — how storms, wind and heat move around the planet.
Precipitation Map
Global radar & forecast of rain and snow, updated in near real time.
Precipitation forms when water vapor in the atmosphere condenses into droplets or ice heavy enough to fall. Radar composites show where rain is falling right now, while forecast layers use numerical weather models to predict the next hours to days.
Source · zoom.earth
Wind Speed Map
Live global wind flow at the surface and aloft.
Wind is air moving from high to low pressure, deflected by Earth's rotation (the Coriolis effect). Faster winds usually mean stronger pressure gradients — the sharper the change in pressure over distance, the harder the wind blows.
Source · zoom.earth
Wind Gusts
Short, sudden increases in wind speed.
A gust is a brief burst of wind at least 10 knots stronger than the sustained wind. Gusts are what damage roofs, snap branches and flip small aircraft — often more dangerous than the average wind speed itself.
Source · zoom.earth
Temperature Map
Global air temperature at 2 meters above the surface.
Surface air temperature is measured at 2 m to standardize readings around the world. It's driven by solar heating, elevation, latitude, cloud cover and ocean currents — the same latitude can differ by 20°C depending on those factors.
Source · zoom.earth
Humidity Map
Relative humidity across the globe.
Relative humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air compared to the maximum it could hold at that temperature. Warm air holds more moisture, which is why tropical regions feel muggy and deserts feel dry even at similar water content.
Source · zoom.earth
Satellites & Live Earth
Look down at our planet from orbit — clouds, storms, city lights and the changing surface.
Satellite Imagery
Geostationary satellite view of clouds worldwide.
Geostationary satellites orbit ~36,000 km above the equator, matching Earth's rotation so they always see the same face of the planet. New images arrive every 10 minutes, letting us watch storms grow and dissipate in near real time.
Source · zoom.earth
NOAA Real-Time Earth
Global mosaics from NOAA's environmental satellites.
NOAA operates the GOES and JPSS satellite fleets that monitor weather, oceans and climate. Their real-time imagery mosaics stitch together views from multiple satellites to give a full-Earth picture updated throughout the day.
Source · NOAA NESDIS
NASA Eyes on the Earth
Interactive 3D view of NASA's Earth-observing missions.
NASA has dozens of satellites measuring everything from sea level and soil moisture to CO₂ and ice thickness. Eyes on the Earth lets you fly alongside each one and see what it's measuring right now.
Source · NASA
NASA Worldview
Browse 1,000+ satellite layers day by day.
Worldview taps into NASA's GIBS archive to render full-resolution satellite imagery within hours of acquisition. Slide through dates to watch wildfires spread, phytoplankton bloom or Arctic ice retreat over time.
Source · NASA Earthdata
Explore the Planet
3D globes and living atlases that turn open data into stories you can navigate.
Nullschool: Wind & Weather Globe
Animated 3D visualization of global wind, waves and pollution.
Nullschool renders forecast model output as flowing particle animations on a rotating globe. You can switch layers to see jet streams, ocean currents, CO concentration or particulate pollution moving across the world.
Source · earth.nullschool.net
ArcGIS Living Atlas
A curated library of authoritative maps and layers.
The Living Atlas is a growing collection of geographic datasets from Esri and its partners — everything from historical land cover to daily wildfire perimeters. It's a foundation for building your own maps and analyses.
Source · Esri
Earth 3D Map
Interactive 3D map of the planet's terrain.
3D terrain maps combine elevation data with satellite imagery so you can appreciate the scale of mountains, canyons and coastlines that flat maps flatten. Great for understanding how landforms shape climate and weather.
Source · earth3dmap.com
Climate & Environment
Tools that track how the Earth system is changing — and the pulse of the biosphere.
EOS Earth Observation Solutions
Satellite analytics for agriculture, forestry and land use.
Modern Earth-observation platforms use vegetation indices like NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) to measure plant health from space. Farmers, foresters and city planners rely on these signals to make decisions.
Source · EOS Data Analytics
World Monitor
Dashboard of live environmental indicators.
Global monitors pull together many independent data streams — earthquakes, wildfires, storms, air quality — into a single dashboard so you can grasp how many things are happening on Earth at any given moment.
Source · worldmonitor.app
Copernicus Climate Pulse
Daily updates on global temperature and climate anomalies.
Climate Pulse tracks how each day's temperatures compare to the 1991–2020 average. Persistent 'above normal' streaks are how scientists detect climate change in the noise of everyday weather.
Source · Copernicus (ECMWF)
Electricity Maps
Live carbon intensity of electricity, worldwide.
Electricity Maps shows how many grams of CO₂ are emitted per kWh in each region, updated every 15 minutes. It's a window into how the energy transition is progressing, hour by hour, country by country.
Source · electricitymaps.com