JSL submersible offers a panoramic view of the underwater world including dense coral

Voyage to Inner Space

NOAA and its ancestor agencies have been exploring the sea for over 170 years now, ever since the first lead line was cast from a boat surveying the coast for the United States Coast Survey.

geodetic map

Coast & Geodetic Survey

These images document the geodetic surveying of the United States and its territories, the nautical charting work associated with producing charts for the marine waterways of the United States.

national marine sanctuary

Sanctuaries

Images from the Nation's National Marine Sanctuaries - areas that have been set aside because of their natural beauty, diversity of marine life, unique habitats, or cultural treasures.

storm cloud at sunset

National Weather Service

Images that document the work of the National Weather Service and its service to communities across America.

The NOAA Photo Library collections reflect NOAA’s broad mission of advancing science “from the bottom of the ocean to the surface of the Sun.” Images within the NOAA Photo Library are contributed by NOAA staff and help depict NOAA’s work to explain and interpret our changing environment. The collection includes thousands of weather and space images, hundreds of images of shores and coastal seas, and thousands of images of marine species, ranging from whales to the most minute plankton.

The NOAA Photo Library has been a service of the NOAA Central Library since 1998. An update in 2019 organized approximately 80,000 images into broad collections, further arranged into specific galleries. In 2024, the new Photo Library was relaunched on NOAA.gov to expand access and provide a more comprehensive search capability. The photos have been cataloged over decades and are currently being reviewed to ensure they are appropriately tagged and categorized for optimum access. New assets, including our vast heritage collection, are continually being digitized and added to enhance the library further.

The NOAA Photo Library is not the only source of photography and imagery from NOAA, although we are working to consolidate the assets to this library; many offices and programs within our agency produce photographs. You are advised to contact the owners of specific sites within NOAA if you find images on those web pages you are interested in using. A portion of this large collection is also offered through our Flickr account.

Using NOAA Images

Images in the NOAA Photo Library are in the public domain and cannot be copyrighted. There is no fee for downloading any images on the site. Educational use is encouraged as the primary goal of the NOAA Photo Library is to help all understand our oceans and atmosphere.

This general permission does not extend to use of the NOAA emblem (logo). The NOAA emblem may not be used by persons who are not NOAA employees or on products (including webpages) that are not NOAA-sponsored without written consent from NOAA.

Requests from entities such as publishers to sign over copyright privileges for publication purposes are unnecessary. If the NOAA material is to be used for commercial purposes, especially including advertisements, it must not explicitly or implicitly convey NOAA's endorsement of commercial goods or services. If a NOAA image includes an identifiable person, using the image for commercial purposes may infringe that person's right of privacy or publicity, and permission should be obtained from the person. If using an image, please credit NOAA and photographer, if noted, as well as their affiliated organization.

Contact Information

For all questions about the NOAA Photo Library, contact us at: photolibrary@noaa.gov