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Earth Day 2012 NASA Images Chronicle Drastic Impact of Earths Climatic Change
Carroll Glacier. Left: August 1906. Right: September 7, 2003. 1906 photo taken by Charles Will Wright; 2003 photo taken by Bruce F. Molnia. Courtesy of the Glacier Photograph Collection, National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology. NASA

To mark this year's Earth Day Sunday, NASA's Global Climate Change program has published a series of images highlighting the drastic impact of climatic change on the earth's environment.

NASA's Global Climate Change website aims to improve understanding of the earth's changing climate and provides easy-to-understand information about the causes and effects of these changes.

Called the "State of Flux," each of the images taken from space chronicles changes that have taken place on earth's surface over a period of time.

The images are presented in pairs highlighting the "before and after" effects of climatic change. This includes changes seen during destructive natural events like floods and droughts and the retreat of glaciers.

The images also portray the expanding footprint of urban areas due to population growth.

"Seeing our planet from space gives us a global view that we can't get elsewhere," said Amber Jenkins, editor of the Global Climate Change site.

"It underscores how fragile and interconnected our planet is, and how it is constantly changing. With this new version of the gallery, we want people to be better able to immerse themselves in the images, and gain that sense of perspective," he said.

More than 160 comparison images have been released by Nasa's Global Climate Change website showing the drastic impact of ice, human impact, water, land cover and other extreme events on the earth's environment.

A particularly interesting feature of the image gallery released by the site is that it has a "map view" which places each image into its geographical context. This enables viewers to zoom into particular locations on the map, or select by region, and see where particular changes are taking place around the globe.

NASA also has organized a number of programs on the occasion of the 2012 Earth Day to increase awareness of the general public. This includes a series of activities and exhibits at the National Mall in Washington along with other programs held at the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Start the slideshow to catch a glimpse of the drastic impacts of earth's climatic change on its environment:

NASA Climate Change