Starting loads the interactive globe and begins streaming live data — flights, ships, weather, satellites, internet events and more — to your browser.
_ga). No ads, no cross-site trackers, no data sales.Live on the globe now: —
This layer replaces the base map with NASA's true-color satellite imagery — the real Earth as seen from orbit, refreshed daily. It comes from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), which serves the MODIS Corrected Reflectance "true colour" product (bands 1, 4 and 3) as the human eye would see it: real clouds, seasonal vegetation, snow, dust and ocean colour, mosaicked from the satellite's passes over the previous day. We request the full-globe image over standard WMS and composite it straight into the globe's surface shader, so it sits exactly over the right geography and is lit by the live day/night terminator — bright on the sunlit side, dark across the night side. It is a raster image overlay rather than clickable points, off by default — toggle "Satellite imagery" under the Environmental group. Because the mosaic is daily it shows the most recent complete day, not minute-by-minute motion; for live cloud movement use the Live clouds layer. It is one of around 33 live layers you can stack on the same interactive Earth.
Data source: NASA GIBS (MODIS)
From NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), specifically the MODIS Corrected Reflectance true-colour product. We pull the full-globe image over the open WMS interface and drape it on the globe. It is open NASA data.
It is a daily mosaic — the satellite images each part of Earth once during its local daytime, and those passes are combined into one global picture, so it shows the most recent complete day rather than real-time motion.
Live clouds is a fast-updating cloud-only overlay you lay over the base map. This layer replaces the whole base map with NASA's actual satellite photo of Earth — real clouds, land, snow and ocean colour together — refreshed once a day.
No — it is a raster image, not point data. It is off by default; toggle "Satellite imagery" under Environmental to show or hide it.