nasa_eo

NASA Earth Observatory

NASA images, stories, and discoveries about climate and the environment. #eartheveryday earthobservatory.nasa.gov
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A Cut in the Clouds Like a ship carving its way through the sea, the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands parted the clouds. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this natural-color image on February 2, 2017. The ripples in the clouds are known as gravity waves. http://go.nasa.gov/2kAIAKk @nasa #nasaearth #clouds #southgeorgiaisland
Melbourne, Australia Flying over southeastern #Australia, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of the center of #Melbourne. With a population of about 4.5 million people (as of 2015), greater Melbourne is the second-most populous city in Australia after Sydney. The city straddles the Yarra River, which runs through the view as a darker line. Like most high-rise city centers, the center of Melbourne appears darker due to the long shadows cast by closely-spaced, tall buildings. The riverside sector is the tourist and conventioneer magnet; the Convention Center is one of the largest buildings in the neighborhood. Angular patterns along the river (the Docklands) and the protected shoreline of Port Phillip Bay are transhipment facilities—interchanges between road, rail, and sea transportation. Melbourne is Australia’s busiest container port, with a well-developed railroad and freeway network to distribute goods, as shown by the tracks and highways immediately north of the Docklands. Green patches in the image are parks, the largest being immediately east of the city center. The Sports and Entertainment Precinct occupies one of these open spaces. It is home to the largest (circular) stadium in the southern hemisphere, the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (founded in 1853). On the opposite bank of the Yarra River lies the state governor’s mansion known as the Government House. A smaller park hosts the Royal Exhibition Building, the venue of the first Parliament of Australia. With a design based partly on Florence Cathedral, the building was the first non-Aboriginal cultural site in Australia to win UNESCO’s World Heritage listing. Various place names reflect the time when Melbourne was founded. At its founding in 1835, the city was named in honor of the British Prime Minister (William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne). In 1851, it became the capital of the newly founded colony of Victoria, named for the British Queen. Roads and parks are also named after Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert. http://go.nasa.gov/2kKBIvT @nasa #nasaearth
Houston at Night Houston, Texas, is about to become the center of the football universe. Since September 2016, professional U.S. football teams have been vying to advance to the annual championship game. Two out of 32 teams remain, and on February 5, 2017, the New England Patriots will line up against the Atlanta Falcons at NRG Stadium for Super Bowl LI (51). It marks the third time that the National Football League has selected Houston to host the event. The city lights of Houston, including the stadium, are visible in this photograph shot by an astronaut on August 9, 2014. At the time, the stadium had just recently been renamed NRG (previously Reliant). The names reflect the major role of energy resource industries in the city. Stadium lights will still shine even after a Super Bowl winner has been declared. The NFL’s Houston Texans play there, and it is the site of other sporting events, concerts, and a rodeo. Lights also shine from Johnson Space Center, a permanent hub of NASA’s universe. On February 1, 2017, two American astronauts on the International Space Station called down to Johnson to welcome fans to Super Bowl festivities. Elsewhere around the city, lights are especially noticeable along the Buffalo Bayou, which flows east through the city to Galveston Bay. The waterway is Houston’s main drainage corridor, and has played an important role in the city’s industrial and economic growth. The river itself is barely visible in this image; it is primarily discernible by the absence of light between dense clusters of light from refineries and other industrial sites along the shoreline. City lights also reveal the geometric patterns of the city’s roadways. Beltway 8 rings the city with 134 kilometers (83 miles) of pavement. Interstate 610 is the smaller loop that passes just south of NRG stadium. Major roads radiate like spokes from the central Houston, connecting the patchwork of business districts with urban and suburban areas. http://go.nasa.gov/2kCiSqX @nasa #nasaearth
Cloud vortices off Cheju Do, South Korea This image shows cloud vortices behind the island of Cheju Do, South Korea (top center). The event was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA's Terra satellite on January 31, 2017. @nasa #nasaearth #clouds #cloudvortex #chejudo
Underwater Eruption Near Tongatapu Murray Ford was scanning satellite imagery of a young island in #Tonga called Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai when he noticed something odd—a turquoise plume of water—in the corner of an image. The coastal geologist from the University of Auckland had stumbled across an underwater volcano in the midst of an eruption. That plume is coming from a #seamount located 33 kilometers (20 miles) from Tonga’s main island of #Tongatapu. The images above were captured on January 27, 2017, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on #Landsat 8. The discolored water was likely caused by the underwater release of gases, rocks, and volcanic fluids. The eruption also may have disturbed sediment on the seamount. Other images collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on NASA and NOAA satellites suggest that the eruption began on January 23, 2017. “It may continue for some days or weeks, and an island may form temporarily,” said Martin Jutzeler, a University of Tasmania geologist who studies underwater eruptions. “However, new volcanic islands are easily eroded by wave action.” Underwater eruptions are relatively common in this area, which is part of the Tonga-Kermadec volcanic arc and the Pacific Ring of Fire. This plume appears to have originated from a seamount that geologists call “Submarine Volcano III.” It has shown signs of activity in 1911, 1923, 1970, 1990, and 2007. Ash from volcanic eruptions on land are a well-known threat to airplanes, and underwater eruptions can likewise pose a hazard to ships. Some underwater eruptions produce rafts of light, porous rock called pumice that float on the sea surface and can clog ship engines. http://go.nasa.gov/2k4n81E @nasa #nasaearth
The Curious Incident of Snow in The Netherlands It was as though a spotlight had illuminated them: a few dozen fields in Heensche Molen glowed white. Yet the snow that left a distinct patch on this hamlet in The Netherlands also left neighboring areas untouched, with the landscape cloaked in the muted browns and greens of winter. #Snow fell that January 2017 day in northwestern Europe, but not everywhere. The #Netherlands and Belgium were dusted in a freckle-pattern, with white powder covering some fields, while others remained completely bare. The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on #Landsat 8 captured a view of this anomaly on January 19, 2017, a couple of days after the snowfall. Those white freckles were signs of a rare and somewhat obscure phenomenon. Fog-induced snow (not a formal scientific term) typically forms next to industrial sites. Big chimneys release water vapor and other gases and particulates, which can lead to the formation of fog. It also turns out that these emissions can create snow when the weather gets cold enough. In December 2007, a cold fog over The Netherlands started to develop into a thick stratus cloud. Wim van den Berg, a researcher for MeteoGroup Netherlands, described the event in a 2007 paper: “Mixing within the fog caused the temperature to drop gradually to -4 or -5 degrees Celsius (25 Fahrenheit) throughout the cloud. The temperature decrease caused additional condensation into tiny water droplets but also ice crystals. In such a mixed cloud the Wegener-Bergeron process starts, and ice nuclei grow at the expense of water droplets with small snowflakes as a result...Locally, really large snowflakes were observed and a snow depth resulted of 3–5 centimeters (1.2–2 inches).” That is likely what happened in January 2017, van den Berg believes. “After many days with fog and/or low clouds and subfreezing temperatures, on January 17 several places reported snow,” he wrote in an email. “It was very local, mostly west of industry,” as surface wind was light easterly, “but it did cause some unexpected slipperiness.” http://go.nasa.gov/2jY39BO @nasa #nasaearth #northbrabant
Snow Across the Southwest On January 28, 2017, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (#MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of #snow cover across the American Southwest, including California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. http://go.nasa.gov/2kcRv4i @nasa #nasaearth
Checkerboarding in Northern Idaho An astronaut aboard the International Space Station observed this distinctive checkerboard pattern alongside the Priest River in northern #Idaho. The photograph was taken just before sunset, so some mountainsides glow while others are covered in long shadows because of the low Sun angle. The white squares in the checkerboard show where snow has fallen on deforested ground—where trees have been removed for logging. These patches alternate with dark brown-green squares of dense forest, where trees obscure the snow from the astronaut’s view. The checkerboard pattern is the result of an agreement made in the early 1800s where alternate parcels of land were granted by the U.S. government to the Northern Pacific Railroad. These parcels were later sold to private companies and stripped for timber. The pattern is now seen as a method of maintaining the sustainability of forested tracts while still enabling logging companies to harvest trees. The forested squares are reserves managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Whitetail Butte has historically been used by the Forest Service as a lookout point for forest fires. Dense vegetation acts as a natural filtration system for nearby rivers, preserving water quality from soil eroded off deforested hillsides. The Priest River, winding through the scene from top to bottom, is bordered on both sides by a forest buffer to further protect the quality of its water. For nearly a century, the river was used to transport logs. Its function changed in 1968 when the river’s main stem was added to a list of “wild and scenic rivers” in order to preserve its “outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free-flowing condition for the enjoyment of present and future generations.” http://go.nasa.gov/2jKEPmO @nasa #nasaearth
Snowy Kamchatka On January 18, 2017, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (#MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of the #Kamchatka Peninsula. This remote part of #Russia was covered in snow and unobscured by clouds. A string of volcanoes can be seen dotting Kamchatka’s eastern flank. http://go.nasa.gov/2jFn0Fs @nasa #nasaearth
Fissure Eruptions on Erta Ale In Africa’s Danakil (or Afar) Depression three tectonic plates are tearing themselves apart in spectacular fashion. As the plates separate, several active volcanoes have emerged along the seams. One of the most active is Erta Ale, a shield #volcano near the Ethiopian and Eritrean border. It is known as the “smoking mountain” and the “gateway to hell” in the Afar language. Erta Ale has a long-lived lava lake that has gurgled and spattered in its caldera for decades, but the most recent bout of activity involves the southeast flank of the gently sloping mountain. According to reports posted by Volcano Discovery, new fissures opened up on January 21, 2017, about 7 kilometers (4 miles) from the summit caldera, spilling large amounts of lava. Meanwhile, at least one of the lava lakes has experienced large changes in the level of its lava that have led to overflows and intense spattering. This image was captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensor on #Landsat 8 on January 26, 2017. It is a composite of natural color (OLI bands 4-3-2) and shortwave infrared (OLI band 7). Shortwave infrared light (SWIR) is invisible to the naked eye, but strong SWIR signals indicate increased temperatures. Infrared hot spots representing two distinct lava flows are visible. Plumes of volcanic gases and steam drift from the lava lakes. http://go.nasa.gov/2k47EZZ @nasa #nasaearth #ethiopia #eritrea #shieldvolcano
Thick Haze in Eastern China The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (#VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this natural-color image of eastern China on January 25, 2017. Milky, gray #smog shrouds many of the valleys and lowlands. The brightest, whiter areas (left, top, and bottom edges) are likely clouds or fog. Outbreaks of smog and haze like this tend to occur during the winter because of temperature inversions. Air naturally cools as it rises in altitude; but during an inversion, warm air masses settle over a layer of cool air near the surface. The warm air acts like a lid and traps gases and pollutants near the surface, especially in basins and valleys. http://go.nasa.gov/2jZ6oY9 @nasa #nasaearth
First Light from GOES-16 The future of weather monitoring and forecasting just got more colorful and a whole lot clearer. In November 2016, the GOES-R satellite lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying next-generation instruments and imagers primarily geared toward weather forecasting. After taking several weeks to reach geostationary orbit and a few more weeks for setting up and calibrating instruments, the satellite now known as GOES-16 has sent back its first images. The color images on this page were acquired on January 15, 2017, by the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) on GOES-16. The satellite is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which includes the National Weather Service. NASA helps develop and launch the GOES series of satellites, which observe Earth from about 36,000 kilometers (22,000 miles) above the equator. ABI can provide a full-disk image of Earth every 15 minutes and an image of the continental United States every five minutes. The instrument also allows the GOES team to target areas of severe weather, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, and other environmental phenomena as often as every 30 seconds. ABI observes the planet in 16 spectral bands, compared to five bands observed by existing U.S. geostationary meteorological satellites. The spatial resolution of ABI is four times better and the scanning rate five times faster than previous GOES satellites. Those improvements should help meteorologists better distinguish between clouds, water vapor, smoke, ice, and volcanic ash in the atmosphere. The camera was built by the same team that made the Advanced Himawari Imager on Japan’s Himawari-8 satellite. “One of our GOES-16 scientists compared this to seeing a newborn baby’s first pictures—it’s that exciting for us,” said Stephen Volz, director of NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service. “The incredibly sharp images are everything we hoped for based on our tests before launch.” http://go.nasa.gov/2jWvpD7 @nasa #nasaearth
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