Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15483...

Land of Many Waters and Much Sediment

The Guiana Shield’s rugged terrain shapes Guyana’s waterways, but mining has altered their clarity.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

5

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

This satellite image highlights the confluence of three of Guyana’s major rivers—the Cuyuni, the Mazaruni, and the Essequibo. Darker waters likely contained less suspended sediment. Light brown waters likely contained enormous amounts of fine-grained sediment🧪

1 4 18

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15481...

Reshaping the Forests Around Kisangani

Satellite data show decades of gradual but persistent change to forests around one of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s largest cities.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

2

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

Reshaping the Forests Around Kisangani: This map details where forest losses have occurred around Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo, between 2001 and 2024, older losses in purple and pink and more recent losses in orange and yellow 🧪

1 8

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15481...

Mozambique’s Rio Lúrio

Sediment from the riverbed, especially during periods of higher flow, helps shape the surrounding beaches and sandbars.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

3

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this downward-looking photo of part of Mozambique’s northern coast in southeastern Africa. The light-toned Rio Lúrio snakes across the top half of the scene. Its delta empties into Baía do Lúrio, which opens into the Mozambique Channel.🧪

1 1 8

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15480...

Cooper Creek Replenishes Lake Eyre

Another major tributary reached the Australian outback lake in 2025, extending the months-long flood of the vast, ephemeral inland sea.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

1 3

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

Cooper Creek Replenishes Lake Eyre: Floodwaters in Cooper Creek began filling Lake Eyre in late July. These false-color images show the shift in contributing tributaries and the changes in the lake’s extent.

1 5

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15480...

Australia’s Howick River

Winding across the Jeannie catchment in northern Queensland, the river sustains diverse ecosystems on its way to the Coral Sea.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

2

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

Australia’s Howick River: Winding across the Jeannie catchment in northern Queensland, the river sustains diverse ecosystems on its way to the Coral Sea.🧪

1 3 9

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15479...

Greenland Ice Sheet Gets a Refresh

A moderately intense season of surface melting left part of the ice sheet dirty gray in summer 2025, but snowfall has since freshened its appearance.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

2

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

Greenland Ice Sheet Gets a Refresh: A moderately intense season of surface melting left part of the ice sheet dirty gray in summer 2025, but snowfall has since freshened its appearance. 🧪

1 8

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15475...

A Northwest Night Awash in Light

The glow of city lights, the aurora, and a rising Moon illuminate the night along the northwest coast of North America.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

4

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this photograph of the glow of city lights, the aurora, and a rising Moon illuminate the night along the northwest coast of North America 🧪

2 9 62

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15473...

Dark Skies Over the Great Basin

Far from large urban areas, Great Basin National Park offers unencumbered views of the night sky and opportunities to study distant stars and exoplanets.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

1

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

Dark Skies Over the Great Basin: Far from large urban areas, Great Basin National Park offers unencumbered views of the night sky and opportunities to study distant stars and exoplanets. 🧪

1 1 6

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15466...

Browns Canyon National Monument

The remote and rugged landscape in central Colorado is known for outdoor recreation by day and exceptional stargazing by night.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

2

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

Browns Canyon National Monument: The remote and rugged landscape in central Colorado is known for outdoor recreation by day and exceptional stargazing by night. 🧪

1 4

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15471...

Kamchatka Peaks Pierce the Clouds

The peninsula in eastern Siberia features rugged terrain with towering, snow-covered peaks and cloud-filled valleys stretching between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

4

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · 9d

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this photograph of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The highly oblique image gives an enhanced sense of the topography. Kamchatka Peninsula experiences frequent tectonic activity 🧪

1 6 30

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · Aug 12

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15465...

Sprawling Gifford Fire Scorches California

The fast-growing blaze charred more than 100,000 acres in the span of a week.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

1 4

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · Aug 12

Sprawling Gifford Fire Scorches California: The fast-growing blaze charred more than 100,000 acres in the span of a week 🧪

1 4 22

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · Aug 12

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15460...

Lost Towns of the Quabbin

Forests play a key role in filtering the waters of a reservoir in central Massachusetts that’s home to submerged towns and nesting eagles.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

1 11

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · Aug 12

Quabbin Reservoir is one of the largest unfiltered drinking water supplies in the United States. It supplies water to nearly 2.7 million people in the Greater Boston area, as well as three towns in Western Massachusetts 🧪

1 4 27

Wanmei L 🌎🛰️ @mapsbyw.com · Aug 12

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15464...

Nighttime Over the Eastern Pacific

A long-exposure photo taken from low Earth orbit captured the brilliant illumination coming from airglow, lightning, and stars.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

3