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Text, Viewspace. The show will continue in 15 seconds. Coming up: Explore national parks with NASA satellites!
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The text appears on a background of stars which move slowly towards and past us.
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Text, Did You Know? Olympic National Park
An aerial view of the Olympic Mountains
Text, Did You Know? There are rainforests in the U.S.
Temperate rainforests are sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and the Olympic Mountains in Washington State's Olympic National Park.
Temperate rainforests are cooler than tropical rainforests, but can receive just as much precipitation.
More than 450 centimeters (180 inches) of rain, mist, and snow fall each year in the wettest portions of Olympic National Park.
Its lush, green canopies are made up of coniferous and deciduous trees that thrive in Olympic's moderate temperatures, which seldom drop below freezing or rise above 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ferns, mosses, and many other plants carpet the trees and the forest floor.
Olympic National Park covers more than 3,500 square kilometers (900,000 acres). It includes 3,000 rivers and streams, 60 named glaciers, and 1,200 native plants. In addition to temperate rainforest, the park features rocky slopes, glacier-fed rivers, sandy beaches, and islands.
This satellite view of Olympic National Park is rare. Clouds typically blanket the rainforest below.
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Text, Where on Earth?
A relief map shows variation in elevation and roughness of Earth's surface.
High mountain ridges are highlighted in purple and blue. Low valleys are green.
Where on Earth are these ridges and valleys?
A, in the Amazon rainforest, B, on the floor of the Indian Ocean, C, beneath the ice sheet in Antarctica, D, in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia
D, in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, is highlighted.
This relief map from the Space Shuttle Endeavour shows parallel ridges in Virginia's George Washington National Forest and Shenandoah National Park.
Shifting continents, volcanic eruptions, and running water shaped these ridges over millions of years.
To the west, Massanutten Mountain has a perimeter of smooth, straight crests encircling a valley.
Erosion-resistant sandstone gives it a distinct, bony shape.
To the east, the Blue Ridge Mountains are wider with irregular, knobby shapes.
Its rocks include greenstones, remnants of ancient lava flows, that cap many of its highest peaks.
This diagram illustrates the layering of the rocks below the surface.
The sediments that form Massanutten Mountain were folded during a collision millions of years ago.
Older, deeper crystalline rocks were thrust upward to form the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Over millions of years, water wore away the softer and weaker rock throughout the region, leaving behind erosion-resistant rock.
A natural-color image from the Landsat 8 shows the landscape in reflected sunlight.
Some of the oldest rocks in Virginia exist in George Washington National Forest and Shenandoah National Park.
We zoom out in space until the Earth is in full view.
Text, Music courtesy of Yesh Music (A S C A P)
Where on Earth?
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Text, World of Change
Ice Loss in Glacier National Park
Snow-capped mountains around a lake. Text, Glacier National Park, Montana, United States. World of Change, 1984 to 2015.
In 1850, roughly 150 glaciers were documented in the region of the Rocky Mountains that is now Glacier National Park.
Most were still there when the park was established in 1910.
Today, there are only 26.
Scientists have tracked dramatic changes in places like the Blackfoot-Jackson Glacier Basin for more than a century.
Blackfoot and Jackson glaciers once ran together.
By 2009, the glaciers had retreated into separate valleys.
This series of false-color images from Landsat satellites chronicles the changes in the central area of park between 1984 and 2015.
In these images, clouds are in white, vegetation is in green, and water is black. Permanent snow and ice appear blue.
Although some year-to-year changes reflect weather variations, the majority of the ice loss is caused by long-term temperature increases in the region.
An aerial view of Blackfoot Glacier, Jackson Glacier, and Grinnell Glacier in 1984
An aerial view of Blackfoot Glacier, Jackson Glacier, and Grinnell Glacier from 1984 to 2015 as the amount of permanent snow and ice fluctuate.
Aerial views from 1984 and 2015 side by side. By 2015, a large amount of snow and ice has disappeared.
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A montage of satellite images. Title, Islands in National Parks. Text, Undersea volcanic eruptions and advancing and retreating glaciers have formed islands around the world. Some are covered in snow and ice, while others are surrounded. by warm, tropical waters.
Animation, the planet Earth rotates in dark space. a white dot appears in the Pacific Ocean. We switch to a satellite image from Operational Land Imager, Landsat 8. Text, Haleakala National Park, Founded in 1961, Maui, Hawaii, United States, Subalpine to Subtropical Climate. The Hawaiian Islands consist of layers of lava that built up over time on the seafloor. Steep, conical hills—the remnants of ancient eruptions—in Haleakala National Part provide evidence of volcanism. Millions of years of erosion have shaped the valley and slopes of the park
Back to the rotating planet earth. A white dot appears near the Great Lakes Region of North America. We switch to a satellite image from Advanced Land Imager, Earth Observing 1, Text, Apostle Island National Lakeshore, Founded in 1970, Bayfield Wisconsin, United States, Temperate Climate. Advancing and retreating glaciers carved this landscape for millions of years, creating more than 20 islands. Temperate, hardwood forests–culled for decades by loggers–still dominate the landscape. Surrounded by Lake Superior, the park is famous for its shoreline cliffs, sea caves, sandbars, and beaches.
A white dot appears on the top of the rotating earth. We switch to a satellite image from MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC. Quttinirpaaq National Park, Founded in 1988, Pond Inlet, Canada, Polar Desert Climate. Glaciers carved the ancient rock of Quttinirpaaq National Park, shaping its valleys and fjords. Hundreds of glaciers and vast ice fields still dominate the terrain of this park. Its northern coast is a mere 720 kilometers (450 miles) from the North Pole. In the summer, the region receives 24 hours of daylight, allowing flowers, mosses, and lichens to flourish.
A white dot appears in the northeastern part of North America. We switch to a satellite image from Operational Land Imager, Landsat 8. Acadia National Park, Founded in 1929, Bar Harbor, Maine, United States, Temperate Climate. For millions of years, glaciers also shaped the terrain of this park. As they scoured the landscape, they sculpted granite ridges, creating broad, U-shaped valleys, which filled with water that eventually submerged the coastline.
Mount Desert Island was once part of the continental mainland. As the sea level rose, it separated this mountainous area from the mainland. Today, the island juts out from the Atlantic like a lobster's claw.
I white dot appears in the Caribbean Sea. We switch to a satellite image from Advanced Land Imager, Earth Observing 1. Virgin Islands National Park, Founded in 1956, US Virgin Islands, Subtropical Climate.
Formed millions of years ago by submarine volcanoes, the island of St. John has steep slopes and a rocky, irregular coastline. Thorny vines dominate its forests. Along and just off the coast are many interdependent, fragile ecosystems, including mangrove forests, seagrass, and coral reefs.
Archeological sites in this park date to 840 BCE. In the 1800s, the land was clear-cut for sugar cane production. Slowly, the forests have been restored.
A white dot appears on the islands north of Australia.
We switch to a satellite photo from Advanced Spaceborne, Terra. Komodo National Park, Founded in 1980, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, Tropical Climate. This park's islands were also created by volcanic eruptions. The terrain is rugged and hilly, except along the flat shorelines. These islands see little or no rainfall for roughly eight months a year until the rainy monsoon season begins. Initially established to protect Komodo dragons—the world's largest lizard—the park expanded to protect terrestrial and marine habitats from human overpopulation.
Side-by-side image strips show each of the six national parks. Text, Islands are part of national parks around the world. Their designation preserves fragile ecosystems and native flora and fauna for current and future generations of visitors.
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Text, Where on Earth?
An expanse of white photographed by the Advanced Land Imager, Earth Observing-1 satellite
Text, what is blanketing this landscape in white?
A, snowfall in Arizona, B, clouds over Argentina, C, volcanic haze in Guatemala, D, gypsum sand in New Mexico
D, gypsum sand in New Mexico, is highlighted
Text, the white sands of White Sands National Park are made almost entirely of gypsum, a soft, bright white mineral. Like clouds and snow, gypsum has a very high albedo. It reflects almost all of the sunlight that strikes it.
White Sands is located in a large basin in the Chihuahuan Desert. The sand is derived from layers of gypsum rock in the neighboring mountains.
Rain and snowmelt have eroded and dissolved the rock, and carried it into the basin, where it reforms as crystals when the water evaporates.
Wind picks up the crystals, causing them to crash into each other, break apart, and form fine, rounded grains of sand. The sand is then swept into dunes, which shift continuously with the winds.
Gypsum sands are so rare because the mineral dissolves so easily in water. Covering more than 700 square kilometers (275 square miles), White Sands is the largest gypsum field on Earth.
We zoom out in space until the Earth is in full view.
Text, Where on Earth?
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Text, Did You Know? Crater Lake, Oregon.
The deepest lake in the U.S. is above a dormant volcano. A satellite image of large circular lake in a crater surrounded by a snowy ridge and puffy white clouds. Crater Lake, National Park. Photographed by Expedition 52 Crew, International Space Station. Thousands of years ago, Mount Mazama, a volcano in southern Oregon, erupted catastrophically. It ejected volcanic ash that settled as far as Alberta, Canada, more than 1,700 kilometers, or 1,050 miles away. As its magma reservoir nearly emptied, the peak collapsed, forming a caldera, a large volcanic depression. Now filled with water, the caldera is known as Crater Lake. It is more than 580 meters, or 1,900 feet, deep. A topography and bathymetry map based on LIDAR survey and multi-beam sonar survey, by the U.S. Geological Service, shows the rim of the caldera clearly with several dome like islands inside. Researchers have been able to untangle the volcano's history by studying the geological evidence, layers of pumice and ash, and the topography of the bottom of the lake and the region in general. Carbon dating of charred trees revealed that the eruption happened around 7,000 years ago. Over centuries, rain and snow filled the basin. Minor eruptions continued inside the newly formed caldera in the centuries that followed, building Wizard Island and Merriam Cone. The two inclusions are labelled on the image.
A view of the lake from along the ridge of the caldera, photographed by the National Park Service. Today, Crater Lake's water levels are relatively stable. No rivers or streams flow in or out, and snow typically blankets the surrounding slopes through June. Evaporation and seepage are the lake's only routes of water loss.
A cone shaped hill marks the center of an island in the middle of the lake under a sunny sky, with puffy white clouds on the horizon. Although the water in Crater Lake often appears to be a deep shade of blue, it is actually colorless. Its deep waters remain free of suspended sediment. The color seen in this image is caused in part by a reflection of the sky, clouds, and crater walls.
Crater Lake lies along a chain of active, dormant, and extinct volcanoes that extends from California to British Columbia.
Although another eruption at Crater Lake is unlikely, the area is still monitored for volcanic activity.
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A collage of satellite imagery. Text, Where on Earth?
A squiggly tan river twists and turns across a completely green forest terrain. Photographed by Operational Land Imager, Landsat 8. What on Earth is this winding, brown ribbon? A. A river in Peru. B. A footpath in Spain. C. A tornado track in New Zealand. D. The route for the Tour de France.
The correct answer is A, a river in Peru.
Yaguas River, Yaguas National Park, Peru. In 2018, Peru's Ministry of the Environment formally declared the area surrounding the Yaguas River a national park.
The park protects more than 8,000 square kilometers, 2 million acres, of Amazon rainforest, including this winding, or meandering, river. A vegetation map based on data from Global Forest Watch shows the park boundaries south of the Putumayo River.
Over time, the Yaguas River's looping meanders have become more pronounced. When two loops in the river meet, they eventually connect, rerouting the river and leaving behind crescent-shaped oxbow lakes. Several oxbows are pointed out on the image.
Yaguas National Park's rainforest has many other riches, including giant otters, river dolphins, and more than 550 species of freshwater fish.
It also protects the livelihoods of six indigenous peoples, who call Yaguas sachamma, roughly translating to "mother jungle."
Zooming out from the Yaguas to the whole Earth in space. Google Earth, Landsat, Copernicus, SIO, NOAA, US Navy, NGA, GEBCO, USGS. Music courtesy of Yesh Music, ASCAP. Where on Earth?