11 incredible satellite photos published on Earth Day

Every year on April 22, the world celebrates Earth Day, which once again provides an opportunity to focus on current environmental problems and highlight the efforts that are being made to continue to protect it.

One way to protect planet Earth has been to monitor its changing climate and atmospheric conditions through the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) and Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES).

The GOES satellite network has been in operation since 1975, although the current series, GOES-R, was launched in 2016. The last satellite in the series, GOES-U, is expected to launch in 2024 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

In addition to monitoring our changing planet, the GOES series of satellites can monitor air quality, detect lightning strikes that can lead to wildfires, detect meteors entering Earth's atmosphere, and even warn of dangerous space weather.

Today, NOAA owns and operates ten satellites, including four geostationary, five polar orbiting, and one covering deep space. These satellites are scientists' eyes in the sky and allow us to constantly observe our planet and send back to Earth photos, measurements from various instruments that help improve weather forecasting.

These satellites also help with security and aviation route planning, wildfire and smoke detection, and data collection that provides more detail on the effects of climate change.

On the occasion of Earth Day, Space.com published remarkable photos, which we present below.