It was a busy – and successful – year for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service. We celebrated 50 years of NOAA’s GOES satellites in 2025. The last of our GOES-R Series satellites, GOES-19, became operational in April. And we launched our groundbreaking SWFO-L1 space weather observatory, which is now making its way to an orbit one million miles from Earth.
Closer to home, NOAA satellites were continually watching our world from their lofty perspective in space, capturing the beauty and extremes that unfolded around our dynamic planet over the course of the year.
They served as our sentinels in the sky as devastating wildfires swept across the landscape, record-setting hurricanes churned up the Atlantic, and dazzling auroras danced in our night sky. They tracked blinding dust storms and spotted restless volcanoes spewing smoke and magma. Our satellites even monitored the sun – and caught a passing glimpse of the moon – during our cosmic journey through the solar system this year.
Without further ado, here are some of the most compelling images from 2025, presented in chronological order, as seen from NOAA’s GOES and JPSS satellites.
