Daily Overview

With the smoke clearing over Pacific Palisades, we now have clear, high-resolution imagery revealing the extent of the destruction there. This clip shows utter devastation along the gridded streets in the center of the Palisades.

The Palisades Fire has burned over 23,000 acres and destroyed at least 1,280 structures in the area. The economic damage so far is estimated to be greater than $50 billion USD.

Please note, this image was captured by aircraft from our partners at Nearmap—not drones, which remain restricted to avoid interfering with rescue aircraft.

CAIRO, 🇪🇬

Cairo, Egypt’s capital, is part of the largest metropolitan area in Africa and the Arab world. It is located along the Nile River, near the Nile Delta — an advantageous position for agriculture and global trade since antiquity. Cairo blends millennia of history with modern urban design, particularly east of the Nile where master-planned communities like New Cairo and 10th of Ramadan have been constructed in recent years to ease congestion in the city center.

30.044444°, 31.235833°

Source imagery: ESA - European Space Agency

The Palisades Fire, the most destructive fire in Los Angeles history, seen here raging overnight with Santa Monica and the Pacific Coast in the background. It has now scorched more than 20,000 acres (31 square miles) across Pacific Palisades, Malibu and other communities in the Santa Monica Mountains. Containment has slowly expanded to 8% as firefighters struggle with access to water and other blazes throughout the county. More than 5,000 structures have been destroyed by the Palisades Fire, with damages estimated in the tens of billions of dollars.

📸: Chris Christi / ABC7 Eyewitness News KABC-TV LA

Thousands of structures have been destroyed in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, as fire crews work to contain the more than 17,000-acre blaze that started there on Tuesday. The Palisades Fire, exacerbated by wind gusts up to 60 mph (96.5 km/h), spread rapidly through residential and commercial districts of the affluent coastal community, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate. It is now considered the most destructive fire in Los Angeles history.

34.048056°, -118.526944°

Source imagery: Kit Karzen / Marcel Melanson / Unknown / Planet

The Palisades Fire, seen from the window of a passenger flight landing at Los Angeles International Airport. What started as a Tuesday morning brush fire has quickly burned across 3,000 acres of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, destroying numerous homes and spreading with 0% containment. It is one of three wildfires scorching through Los Angeles County, fanned by high winds, prompting evacuation orders for tens of thousands of Southern California residents.

34.048056°, -118.526944°

📸: Mark Viniello

111 West 57th Street is a residential skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, constructed between 2015 and 2021. Also known as Steinway Tower, it is the fourth-tallest building in the United States at 1,428 feet (435 m) and the world’s thinnest skyscraper with a width-to-height ratio of about 1:24. Its 84 floors contain 60 luxury condominiums.

40.764878°, -73.977511°

Source imagery: Nearmap 3D

Congress convenes today at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC, to certify the 2024 election of President-elect Donald Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris, who was defeated in November’s election, will preside over the counting and certification of electoral college votes. In response to the violent breach of the Capitol that occurred during the last election certification in January 2021, a robust national security presence surrounds the area today, with tall black fencing flanking the building.

38.889722°, -77.008889°

Source imagery: Nearmap

Lake Urmia, in northwestern Iran, was once the sixth-largest saltwater lake on the planet with a surface area of roughly 2,300 square miles (6,000 sq. km). By 2017, it had shrunk to 10% of its original size due to drought and damming of inflow rivers, but it has been refilling since 2019 thanks to a restoration program and above average precipitation.

37.700000°, 45.366667°

Source imagery: NASA / Google Timelapse / Planet

Waves of the Atlantic Ocean roll into the coast of Praia Grande, Brazil. Located in the state of São Paulo, the municipality is known for its beaches. Two of the most popular areas — Praia Ocian and Praia Aviação — are visible in this Overview.

-24.006111°, -46.402778°

Source imagery: Maxar

The Nile River is commonly regarded as the longest river in the world, flowing for 4,258 miles (6,853 km) over 11 countries in northeastern Africa. In this Overview, it is shown flowing north through Egypt, forming a large delta before emptying into the Mediterranean Sea. Civilizations since ancient times have depended on the waters of the Nile to flood and fertilize the surrounding desert lands.

29.336389°, 31.224667°

Source imagery: Airbus Space

It’s New Year’s Eve, and cities around the globe have already begun celebrations as 2024 turns to 2025. In Sydney, Australia, fireworks were launched from barges in Port Jackson, as well as from nearby landmarks such as the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. As one of the first major cities to celebrate the New Year, Sydney’s celebration is widely-viewed worldwide and is attended by about 1.5 million people. Wherever you are celebrating, we wish you a Happy New Year!

📸: City of Sydney

Doha became the capital city of Qatar in 1971, and shortly thereafter, began growing at rapid speed. The city’s population exploded from 90,000 in the 1970’s to more than 2.3 million today. Doha’s cityscape has also expanded drastically, sprawling outward into the desert and the Persian Gulf atop reclaimed land.

25.272044°, 51.501867°

Source imagery: NASA / Google Timelapse / Planet

Cape Coral is a city of approximately 215,000 on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Though its total area is 120 square miles (310 sq. km), it has more than 400 miles (640 km) of navigable waterways — more than any other city on Earth. Like many cities in Florida, Cape Coral was master-planned and built on top of existing waterways, which gives it a distinct and intricate pattern from the Overview perspective.

26.639722°, -81.982500°

Source imagery: Maxar

Salmas is a city in northwestern Iran, about 20 miles (32 km) from the Turkish border. It is one of few cities in the Middle East with a continental climate and among a small number of Iranian cities surrounded by farmland, most of which is used to grow wheat. Around 130,000 people live in Salmas.

38.202231°, 44.767615°

Source imagery: Maxar

Merry Christmas! Check out this great drone capture above a Christmas tree farm in Whitehouse, Ohio. Of the more than 15 million cut Christmas trees sold in the United States in 2017, roughly 155,000 were from Ohio. The largest Christmas tree producer in the U.S. is Oregon, where upwards of 4.7 million trees were cut for sale in 2017.

41.541927°, -83.814027°

Source imagery: Eric Ward

Venice Beach Skatepark is a public skatepark in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The 16,000-square-foot (1,486-square-meter) space cost $3.5 million to build and is reportedly the most expensive skatepark in the world. Modern skateboarding emerged in Southern California in the 1950s, when surfers were looking for an activity while waves were flat.

33.987100°, -118.475500°

Source imagery: Nearmap

SÃO PAULO, 🇧🇷

São Paulo, Brazil, is the world’s fourth-most populous city, and the most populous outside of Asia. Its metro population has grown rapidly, increasing five-fold since the 1960s. The Pinheiros River is seen here flowing through the city, as are the Guarapiranga Reservoir (bottom left) and Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (top right).

-23.550000°, -46.633333°

Source imagery: ESA - European Space Agency