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When you look back at 2025 from an altitude of 250 miles, you can see the scale of natural events like hurricanes and volcanic eruptions, as well as incredible detail, thanks to high-definition cameras and instruments. See how AI tools are tracking wildebeest across Kenya or how cameras captured the funeral of Pope Francis in Vatican City. These are the biggest events of 2025, seen from above.
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00:00Seen from above, the world events, natural phenomena and armed conflicts of 2025 take on a new perspective.
00:21Cameras and instruments on board satellites can now peer closer and reveal more than ever before.
00:30Measuring pollution, heat, moisture or just taking crystal-clear, high-definition images.
00:502024 was the warmest year across the globe on record.
00:55By early January 2025, Los Angeles County has had almost no rain for months and the dry Santa Ana winds are blowing hard.
01:04Fire and emergency services are already on high alert, but what comes next shocks everyone.
01:09On January 7th, satellite images capture the first plumes of smoke coming from the hills above LA.
01:18This is the Palisades fire, and by the evening the Eton fire is also burning out of control.
01:28Before and after satellite imagery of the Altadena and Pacific Palisades neighborhoods paints a picture of total destruction.
01:40Over 18,000 homes and structures are damaged or destroyed, and an estimated 440 lives are lost.
01:49These are just some of the so-called miracle homes to survive, while all around is reduced to dust.
01:59Satellites using false-colour infrared to detect moisture show the extent of the fires.
02:09Burned areas appear in brown or green shades. Vegetation is red.
02:14In January, instruments onboard satellites detect drought conditions worldwide, including here in Malawi.
02:31They also capture in incredible detail one of the largest human gatherings of all time.
02:36The Maha, or Great Kum Mela, is a Hindu pilgrimage held once every 144 years at the confluence of the Ganges and the Yamuna rivers in Prayagraj, India.
02:51Satellite images show an entire city emerging on the river banks, as well as temporary bridges and thousands of boats.
03:03Over the course of the 45-day festival, an estimated 663 million people attend.
03:13By bathing in the rivers, pilgrims hope to cleanse sins and liberate themselves from the cycle of reincarnation.
03:21A stampede on the 29th of January kills at least 30 people, but an investigation by the BBC puts that number at more than double.
03:30Conflicts rumble on in 2025.
03:36In Ukraine, Russia continues its creeping advance into Ukrainian territory.
03:42At a huge human cost.
03:46By February in Gaza, a fragile ceasefire brokered in January is still in place.
03:51And many people displaced by the conflict start to head home.
03:56But the UN estimates over 90% of homes have been either damaged or destroyed.
04:03These satellite images from planet labs show tented cities emerging close to Gaza City.
04:10And it's a ceasefire that is not to last.
04:13225,000 miles away on March the 2nd, Firefly Aerospace's blue ghost, Lunar Lander, approaches the surface of the moon.
04:31These are some of the images it took along the way.
04:41And this striking photograph shows our planet as a pale blue dot.
04:46Back on Earth in March, it's almost the end of the summer in the Antarctic.
04:56Here, sea ice cover has reached its second lowest level on record.
05:02But combined with the sea ice in the Arctic, this represents the lowest global level ever recorded.
05:08One piece of ice, though, is attracting more attention than others.
05:20This is A23A, a vast iceberg about the size of Yosemite National Park.
05:27Since 2023, it's been adrift in the Weddell Sea.
05:32But by March 2025, it can be seen stalled near the island of South Georgia,
05:37where it has run aground.
05:42As the month draws to a close, Myanmar is over four years into a civil war.
05:52But there is worse to come.
05:55On the 28th of March, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hits the center of the country,
06:01and is felt as far away as southwest China.
06:03More than 3,000 people lose their lives.
06:07This striking satellite image of the fault line near Mandalay shows how the land is displaced by the quake,
06:14in some places by as much as six meters.
06:17These images show the collapse of the Arva Bridge and temples in Mandalay.
06:24By April, in Australia, a once-in-a-generation event is slowly taking shape.
06:34Heavy rains in Queensland flood towns and farmland,
06:38but also give life to a series of waterways that slowly carry the flood waters south,
06:43towards the normally dry Katy-Thonda Lake-Air salt flats.
06:50April also marks the start of World Expo in Osaka, Japan.
06:55In the culmination of years of construction for the vast Grand Ring,
07:00the world's largest wooden structure.
07:02On the 26th of the month, this high-resolution satellite image allows us to see another marvel of architecture.
07:13St Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City.
07:18Look closer, and you can make out a sea of mourners, gathered for a final farewell to Pope Francis,
07:26who led the Catholic Church for 12 years.
07:28The poles are not the only place to see retreating ice in 2025.
07:35The world's glaciers continue to thin, carve into the sea, or in some places crumble into the valleys below.
07:43By May 28th, Blatton in Switzerland has already been evacuated following warnings by geologists that the Birch Glacier is unstable.
07:53Then, at 3.30pm, a wall of ice and rock thunders down the mountain,
08:02burying most of the village.
08:06Satellite images capture the event, and then the flooding that follows as the Lonza River builds up behind the wall of mud.
08:14The first few months of 2025 bring little for the Ukrainian army to celebrate.
08:24But on the morning of June 1st, an audacious attack on Russian airfields goes some way to changing that.
08:30Waves of attacks by FPV drones armed with explosives and smuggled into trucks are unleashed on bases across the country.
08:37These images show the aftermath of strikes on Balea and Olenya airbases.
08:52June also sees surprise attacks on Iran, by both the US and Israel, targeting its nuclear program and other sites.
08:58These images show the craters left by the American strike on the Fordow nuclear facility on the 22nd of June.
09:09Iran hits back with a counter-strike against the US Al Udayd base in Qatar, hitting this dome used for communications.
09:20Wildfires continue to be a significant feature of 2025.
09:28In the US, there's an exceptionally high number of them in the first half of the year.
09:33And in Europe, record heat and low rainfall combine to deliver the worst wildfire season on record.
09:40This map, created by NASA, shows the emissions of mid-infrared radiation given off by wildfires.
09:51These satellite images show the scars left by fires in France, as well as active fires in Greece and Albania.
10:01In Ukraine, it's clear that the pattern of wildfires follows the front line of the fighting, as dry vegetation is ignited by ammunition or intentional burning.
10:17It's a year of extremes, as in June, Chile's high-altitude Atacama Desert, the driest place on earth, receives a rare blanket of snow.
10:27Two and a half thousand miles to the south by July, iceberg A23A has freed itself from the seabed off South Georgia, and is heading into the South Atlantic.
10:42And as you can see from this satellite image, it continues to break up.
10:46At this point in the year, scenes in Gaza are becoming more and more desperate.
10:59The Israeli offensive continues, and heavy restrictions are imposed on aid crossing the borders into Gaza.
11:05The UN says that nearly 1400 Palestinians have been killed, just trying to access food from the small handful of aid distribution sites permitted to operate.
11:15This image from July 13th shows what looks like a dark smudge, but if you zoom in, you can make out a huge mass of people.
11:25Surging around a line of aid trucks in the desperate hope of getting hold of a few basic ingredients like pasta, oil and flour.
11:33It's August, and in Russia's far east, a sleeping giant is about to awake.
11:44The Krasininikov volcano erupts on August the 3rd, having lain dormant since 1550, triggered by a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake a few days before.
11:57These satellite images show smoke coming from the volcano, and a fresh stream of lava.
12:04The quake triggers a tsunami to race across the Pacific.
12:08Waves picked up by a NASA instrument that detects acoustic waves in the atmosphere.
12:16Meanwhile, over in the Atlantic Ocean, the first hurricane of the season is brewing.
12:21ERIN generates wind speeds of up to 160 miles an hour.
12:28This visualisation by NASA shows the scale and precipitation rates caused by the Category 5 hurricane.
12:34And as ERIN skirts the Caribbean, shipping data projected onto maps shows how vessels have kept well clear of the 500-mile-wide storm.
12:48By September, the floodwaters coursing through the Australian outback have almost filled Katy Thunder Lake air.
12:59The last time it filled to capacity was in 1974.
13:02In Africa, hundreds of thousands of wildebeest are still enjoying the lush green grass of the Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya,
13:13so numerous that they are visible from space.
13:17New studies using AI deep learning tools are allowing researchers to automatically identify and count large animals,
13:26something that's been difficult to do using spotter planes.
13:29Their findings suggest, however, that there may be less than half as many wildebeest as previously thought.
13:39Meanwhile, in southern Africa, fires overrun about a third of Namibia's Etosha National Park.
13:47The scorched earth is visible in these Copernicus satellite images.
13:52And fires continue to ravage Portugal.
13:55September is typhoon season in the Western Pacific, and after a relatively quiet start, Category 5 Super Typhoon Ragassa leads the charge.
14:09The storm barrels past the Philippines, Taiwan, southern China and on to Vietnam, destroying property and unleashing floods and landslides.
14:19Before and after satellite images released by Vantor show destroyed bridges and highways in Taiwan, as well as entire towns engulfed by water and mud.
14:31October marks two years since the start of the war in Gaza.
14:41Around 67,000 people have already been killed here.
14:45A US brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is signed on October the 9th.
14:51Drone images capture the release of hostages and the return of Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
15:02But human rights groups point to frequent violations of the truce with hundreds of Palestinians killed.
15:07While a BBC investigation using images from Planet Labs points to the ongoing destruction of buildings in Gaza City by Israel.
15:20In 2025, the civil war in Sudan rages on.
15:26In October, the rapid support forces complete a brutal takeover of El Fasha from the Sudanese military in North Darfur.
15:34Images provided by Vantor and analysed by Yale Humanitarian Research Lab show evidence of mass killings and fresh burial sites, including here at the site of the former Children's Hospital.
15:46This image shows the charred remains of vehicles close to a ditch constructed by the RSF forces.
15:55Video verified by the BBC confirms that dozens of people died here as they tried to escape the city.
16:02We can also identify active fires.
16:06While before and after Google Earth images show nearby villages burned to the ground.
16:11Off the coast of West Africa, a tropical weather system is developing.
16:20It's approaching the end of the hurricane season, but the biggest is being saved to last.
16:27On October the 28th, Melissa makes landfall in Jamaica as a major category five hurricane.
16:32It's the strongest storm on record to hit the island.
16:38These animations of satellite imagery show how the storm rapidly intensifies, bringing winds of up to 185 miles an hour.
16:46In its wake Melissa leaves utter destruction and an island almost entirely in darkness.
16:55Around 50 people lose their lives in Jamaica and high resolution imagery points to the scale of the task now facing those left to pick up the pieces.
17:04We're in November and all that remains of UPS Flight 2976 is a scar cutting through an industrial zone in Louisville, Kentucky.
17:18On the 4th of November the Boeing aircraft is about to undertake a routine flight to Hawaii when one of the plane's engines separates from the wing on takeoff.
17:27The aircraft clips the roof of this building and crashes soon after, killing the three crew members and 11 people on the ground.
17:42On November the 23rd, the Haley-Gubi volcano in Ethiopia erupts for the first time in recorded history.
17:51The plume of ash reaches up to nine miles above the Earth and spreads as far as India and then China.
17:59Satellite images pick up the ash cloud, while an instrument on board the European Space Agency's Sentinel-5P satellite measures emissions of sulfur dioxide.
18:08But an altogether different kind of display is visible to the naked eye from the International Space Station.
18:15Astronaut Xena Cardman, commander of NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 mission, takes this footage of the Northern Lights as she looks down on North America and the Gulf of Mexico.
18:272025 marks the 25th anniversary of continuous human presence on board the ISS.
18:40And for the first time this year, 4K video is being live streamed from the space station to YouTube.
18:47The cameras operated by British company CEN even capture the arrival and departure of space capsules carrying astronauts.
18:54Even before the year is out, UN scientists warn that 2025 is already one of the hottest on record.
19:04With climate-related extreme weather events on the rise, 2026 seen from space is likely to be no less spectacular.
19:12No less spectacular.
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