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More Los Angeles Fire Images
Triple-digit temperatures, e
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9/1/09
| Description |
Triple-digit temperatures, extremely low relative humidities, dense vegetation that has not burned in decades, and years of extended drought are all contributing to the explosive growth of wildfires throughout Southern California. The Station fire, which began Aug. 26, 2009, in La Canada/Flintridge, not far from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, had reportedly burned 105,000 acres (164 square miles) of the Angeles National Forest by mid-day Aug. 31, destroying at least 21 homes and threatening more than 12,000 others. It is one of four major fires burning in Southern California at the present time. This image was acquired mid-morning on Aug. 30 by the backward (northward)-viewing camera of the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite. The image is shown in an approximate perspective view at an angle of 46 degrees off of vertical. The area covered by the image is 245 kilometers (152 miles) wide. Several pyrocumulus clouds, created by the Station Fire, are visible above the smoke plumes rising from the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles in the left-center of the image. Smoke from the Station fire is seen covering the interior valleys along the south side of the San Gabriel Mountains, along with parts of the City of Los Angeles and Orange County, and can be seen drifting for hundreds of kilometers to the east over the Mojave Desert. The accompanying plots are histograms that display the heights of the smoke plumes and wind speeds. In this data set, the plume is injecting smoke more than 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) above sea level. MISR observes the daylit Earth continuously and every 9 days views the entire globe between 82 degrees north and 82 degrees south latitude. This image was generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 51601. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The MISR data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team |
| Date |
9/1/09 |
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Extent of Station Fire Burn
On September 6, 2009, the Ad
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9/9/09
| Description |
On September 6, 2009, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite captured this simulated natural color image of the Station fire, burning in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles. The fire started on August 26 in La Canada/Flintridge near NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena (seen at the bottom of the image), and soon grew to become the largest fire in Los Angeles County's history. Ten days after its start, the fire had consumed more than 160,000 acres (251 square miles) of forest, leaving behind a charred, blackened landscape, as it spread eastward. Smoke from the actively burning area can be seen on the right side of the image, the large dark gray area dominating the image is the evidence of forest and chaparral destruction. With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products. The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats, monitoring potentially active volcanoes, identifying crop stress, determining cloud morphology and physical properties, wetlands evaluation, thermal pollution monitoring, coral reef degradation, surface temperature mapping of soils and geology, and measuring surface heat balance. The U.S. science team is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team Text credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| Date |
9/9/09 |
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Great Zoom Mosaic - Zoom In
| Title |
Great Zoom Mosaic - Zoom In |
| Abstract |
This is a mosiac of zooms into 20 different locations prepared to support a paper given at IEEE Visualization 2002. The locations are: Long Beach, CA, New York City, NY, San Fransisco, CA, NASA-Goddard, Boston, MA, New Orleans, LA, Salt Lake City, UT, Sabie River, Africa, Park City, UT, Chicago, IL, Mongu, Africa, Salt Lake City, UT, Amazon, Brazil, Los Angeles, CA, Baltimore, MD, Snwo Basin, UT, Atlanta, GA, Washington, DC, Orlando, FL, and Seattle, WA. Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2002-10-28 |
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Great Zoom Mosaic - Zoom In
| Title |
Great Zoom Mosaic - Zoom In |
| Abstract |
This is a mosiac of zooms into 20 different locations prepared to support a paper given at IEEE Visualization 2002. The locations are: Long Beach, CA, New York City, NY, San Fransisco, CA, NASA-Goddard, Boston, MA, New Orleans, LA, Salt Lake City, UT, Sabie River, Africa, Park City, UT, Chicago, IL, Mongu, Africa, Salt Lake City, UT, Amazon, Brazil, Los Angeles, CA, Baltimore, MD, Snwo Basin, UT, Atlanta, GA, Washington, DC, Orlando, FL, and Seattle, WA. Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2002-10-28 |
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Great Zoom Mosaic - Zoom Out
| Title |
Great Zoom Mosaic - Zoom Out |
| Abstract |
This is a mosiac of zooms out of 20 different locations prepared to support a paper given at IEEE Visualization 2002. The locations are: Long Beach, CA, New York City, NY, San Fransisco, CA, NASA-Goddard, Boston, MA, New Orleans, LA, Salt Lake City, UT, Sabie River, Africa, Park City, UT, Chicago, IL, Mongu, Africa, Salt Lake City, UT, Amazon, Brazil, Los Angeles, CA, Baltimore, MD, Snwo Basin, UT, Atlanta, GA, Washington, DC, Orlando, FL, and Seattle, WA. Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2002-10-28 |
|
Great Zoom into Washington,
…
| Title |
Great Zoom into Washington, DC: NASA Headquarters |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-08-03 |
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Great Zoom into Washington,
…
| Title |
Great Zoom into Washington, DC: NASA Headquarters |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-08-03 |
|
Great Zoom into Washington,
…
| Title |
Great Zoom into Washington, DC: NASA Headquarters |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-08-03 |
|
Great Zoom into Washington,
…
| Title |
Great Zoom into Washington, DC: NASA Headquarters |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-08-03 |
|
Great Zoom into Washington,
…
| Title |
Great Zoom into Washington, DC: NASA Headquarters |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-08-03 |
|
Great Zoom into Washington,
…
| Title |
Great Zoom into Washington, DC: NASA Headquarters |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-08-03 |
|
Great Zoom into Washington,
…
| Title |
Great Zoom into Washington, DC: NASA Headquarters |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-08-03 |
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DC Pan and Zoomout Animation
| Title |
DC Pan and Zoomout Animation |
| Abstract |
This spectacular image of the Mall area was acquired on Saturday, April 1, 2000 by Space Imaging's IKONOS sensor. Here we are moving across the Mall, from west to east and we will pause over the Capitol Building. Let's just sit back for a few seconds and enjoy the view. We will then gradually pull back from this highly localized view from space, to obtain a more regional perspective provided by Landsat 7. This regional view permits us to follow the entire length of the Potomac River, from its headwaters in the Shenandoahs, until it flows into the Chesapeake Bay. We can also see the full extent of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays as they flow into the Atlantic. We will continue to pull back farther to obtain more continental and global views of the Earth as provided by a new instrument known as MODIS, or the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, the primary instrument on the Terra spacecraft. Finally, we rotate the Earth so as to see a representation of the Earth's stable light sources, as derived from DMSP satellites. (Note: This animation is a precursor to the Great Zooms. It is based on the same concept and data sources, but is somewhat less polished, particularly in the area of color matching.) |
| Completed |
2000-09-14 |
|
Canadian Smoke Invades the E
…
| Title |
Canadian Smoke Invades the East Coast |
| Abstract |
Smoke from multiple large wildfires in Canada blanketed the Great Lakes and eastern United States. The enormous smoke plume was almost 200 miles wide. The thick pall affected air quality from New York, to Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. and blocked the sunlight cooling the East Coast. The first image was taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite on July 7, 2002. The second image comes from NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) on the Earth Probe Satellite. |
| Completed |
2004-05-13 |
|
Canadian Smoke Invades the E
…
| Title |
Canadian Smoke Invades the East Coast |
| Abstract |
Smoke from multiple large wildfires in Canada blanketed the Great Lakes and eastern United States. The enormous smoke plume was almost 200 miles wide. The thick pall affected air quality from New York, to Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. and blocked the sunlight cooling the East Coast. The first image was taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite on July 7, 2002. The second image comes from NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) on the Earth Probe Satellite. |
| Completed |
2004-05-13 |
|
Canadian Smoke Invades the E
…
| Title |
Canadian Smoke Invades the East Coast |
| Abstract |
Smoke from multiple large wildfires in Canada blanketed the Great Lakes and eastern United States. The enormous smoke plume was almost 200 miles wide. The thick pall affected air quality from New York, to Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. and blocked the sunlight cooling the East Coast. The first image was taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite on July 7, 2002. The second image comes from NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) on the Earth Probe Satellite. |
| Completed |
2004-05-13 |
|
Great Zoom out of Washington
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| Title |
Great Zoom out of Washington, DC: The US Capitol Building |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-04-10 |
|
Great Zoom out of Washington
…
| Title |
Great Zoom out of Washington, DC: The US Capitol Building |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-04-10 |
|
Great Zoom out of Washington
…
| Title |
Great Zoom out of Washington, DC: The US Capitol Building |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-04-10 |
|
Great Zoom out of Washington
…
| Title |
Great Zoom out of Washington, DC: The US Capitol Building |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-04-10 |
|
Great Zoom out of Washington
…
| Title |
Great Zoom out of Washington, DC: The US Capitol Building |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-04-10 |
|
Great Zoom out of Washington
…
| Title |
Great Zoom out of Washington, DC: The US Capitol Building |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-04-10 |
|
Great Zoom out of Washington
…
| Title |
Great Zoom out of Washington, DC: The US Capitol Building |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-04-10 |
|
Great Zoom out from GWU
| Title |
Great Zoom out from GWU |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. This particular zoom was created for a talk given by Greg Shirah and Jim Williams at the George Washington University. |
| Completed |
2003-03-05 |
|
Great Zoom out from GWU
| Title |
Great Zoom out from GWU |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. This particular zoom was created for a talk given by Greg Shirah and Jim Williams at the George Washington University. |
| Completed |
2003-03-05 |
|
Great Zoom into GWU
| Title |
Great Zoom into GWU |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. This particular zoom was created for a talk given by Greg Shirah and Jim Williams at the George Washington University. |
| Completed |
2003-03-05 |
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Great Zoom into GWU
| Title |
Great Zoom into GWU |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. This particular zoom was created for a talk given by Greg Shirah and Jim Williams at the George Washington University. |
| Completed |
2003-03-05 |
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Great Zoom into Greenbelt, M
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| Title |
Great Zoom into Greenbelt, MD: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-08-03 |
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Great Zoom into Seattle, WA:
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| Title |
Great Zoom into Seattle, WA: The Space Needle |
| Abstract |
Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground. |
| Completed |
2001-08-02 |
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A Summer View of Russia's Le
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| Title |
A Summer View of Russia's Lena Delta and Olenek River |
| Description |
These views of the Russian Arctic were acquired by NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on July 11, 2004. The brief arctic summer had transformed the frozen tundra and the thousands of lakes, channels, and rivers of the Lena Delta into a fertile wetland, and the usual blanket of thick snow had melted from the vast plains and taiga forests. The images show an area in the northern part of the Sakha Republic in eastern Siberia. The Olenek River wends northeast from the bottom of the images to the upper left, and the delta through which the mighty Lena River empties into the Laptev Sea dominate the top portions of the images. Creating accurate maps of vegetation structure is essential for understanding the seasonal exchanges of energy and water at the Earth's surface and for preserving biodiversity. The left-hand image is a natural-color image from MISR's nadir (vertical-viewing) camera, in which the rivers appear murky due to sediment, and photosynthetically active vegetation appears green. The center image is also from MISR's nadir camera, but is a false-color view in which the predominant red color is due to the brightness of vegetation at near-infrared wavelengths. Apart from the Lena Delta, the most photosynthetically active regions are within the lower half of the image and throughout the great stretch of land that curves across the Olenek River. The relatively barren ranges of the Volyoi Mountains appear as the pale tan-colored area to the right of image center. The right-hand image is a multiangle, false-color view made from the red band data of the 60-degree-backward, nadir, and 60-degree-forward cameras, displayed as red, green and blue, respectively. Water appears blue in this image because sun glint makes smooth, wet surfaces look brighter at the forward camera's view angle. Much of the landscape and many low clouds appear purple because these surfaces are both forward and backward scattering, and clouds that are further from the surface appear in a different spot for each view angle, creating a rainbow-like appearance. The highly vegetated region in the natural-color nadir image exhibits a faint greenish hue in the multi-angle composite. This subtle effect suggests that the nadir camera is observing more of the brighter, underlying surface than the oblique cameras, providing information about the distribution and density of trees and shrubs in this area. The Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously, and every 9 days views the entire globe between 82 degrees north and 82 degrees south latitude. The MISR Browse Image Viewer [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/redirect?http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/MISRBR/ ], provides access to low-resolution true-color versions of these images. These data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 24273. The panels cover an area of about 230 kilometers x 420 kilometers, and utilize data from blocks 30 to 34 within World Reference System-2 path 134. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team. [ http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] Text by Clare Averill (Raytheon/JPL). |
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Cloud Heights of Frances and
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| Title |
Cloud Heights of Frances and Ivan |
| Description |
NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer [ http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov ] (MISR) captured these images and cloud-top height retrievals of Hurricane Frances on September 4, 2004, when the eye sat just off the coast of eastern Florida, and Hurricane Ivan on September 5, after the storm had devastated Grenada and was heading toward the central and western Caribbean. Hurricane Frances made landfall in the early hours of September 5, and was downgraded to Tropical Storm status as it swept inland through the Florida panhandle and continued northward. Following on the heels of Frances is Hurricane Ivan, which is on record as the strongest tropical hurricane to form at such a low latitude in the Atlantic, and was the most powerful storm to have hit the Caribbean in nearly a decade. The ability of forecasters to predict the intensity and amount of rainfall associated with hurricanes still requires improvement, especially on the 24- to 48-hour timescale vital for disaster planning. To improve the operational models used to make hurricane forecasts, scientists need to better understand the multi-scale interactions at the cloud, mesoscale and synoptic scales that lead to hurricane intensification and dissipation, as well as the various physical processes that determine hurricane intensity and rainfall distributions. Because these uncertainties with regard to how to represent cloud processes still exist, it is vital that the model findings be evaluated against hurricane observations whenever possible. Two-dimensional maps of cloud height such as those shown here offer an unprecedented opportunity for comparing simulated cloud fields against actual hurricane observations. The lefthand panel in each image pair is a natural-color view from MISR's nadir camera. The righthand panels are cloud-top height retrievals produced by automated computer recognition of the distinctive spatial features between images acquired at different view angles. These results indicate that at the time that these images were acquired, clouds within Frances and Ivan had attained altitudes of 15-16 kilometers (9-10 miles) above sea level, respectively. The height fields pictured here are uncorrected for the effects of cloud motion. Wind-corrected heights (which have higher accuracy but coarser spatial coverage) are within about 1 kilometer of the heights shown here. (Visit the Earth Observatory's Natural Hazards Severe Storms [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?topic=storm ] section to view more recent images of Hurricanes Ivan and Frances.) The MISR observes the daylit Earth continuously and every 9 days views the entire globe between 82° north and 82° south latitude. These data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ], orbits 25081 and 25094. The panels cover an area of 380 kilometers x 924 kilometers, and utilize data from within blocks 65 to 87 within World Reference System-2 paths 14 and 222, respectively. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. NASA image courtesy GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team. [ http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov ] Text acknowledgment: Clare Averill (Raytheon/Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and Greg McFarquhar (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). |
|
Haze over the Eastern United
…
| Title |
Haze over the Eastern United States |
| Description |
Air quality in the heavily populated mid-Atlantic region of the United States reached unhealthy levels on August 2, 2006, warned the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to trapping particulate pollution near the Earth, high heat, stagnant air, and humidity generate more ground level ozone, probably contributing to the filmy haze seen in this image. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image on the morning of August 2, as temperatures were beginning to climb. At the time, a high heat advisory was in effect for the region. The haze appears to be concentrated over the Atlantic Ocean east of Washington, D.C., but this may be an illusion. The white-grey air is easier to see against the dark blue water than over the green and tan land. A string of cement-grey cities, the most probable source of the pollution, line the coast in an arc from Philadelphia in the north to Virginia Beach in the south. However, like weather systems, air pollution can travel across the country, and some of this haze may come from locations farther west. Smoke from a few fires (red dots) may also be adding to the haze. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at Goddard Space Flight Center. |
|
Haze over the Eastern United
…
| Title |
Haze over the Eastern United States |
| Description |
Air quality in the heavily populated mid-Atlantic region of the United States reached unhealthy levels on August 2, 2006, warned the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to trapping particulate pollution near the Earth, high heat, stagnant air, and humidity generate more ground level ozone, probably creating the filmy haze seen in this image. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image on the morning of August 2, as temperatures were beginning to climb. At the time, a high heat advisory was in effect for the region. The haze appears to be concentrated over the Atlantic Ocean east of Washington, D.C., but this may be an illusion. The white-grey air is easier to see against the dark blue water than over the green and tan land. A string of cement-grey cities, the most probable source of the pollution, line the coast in an arc from Philadelphia in the north to Virginia Beach in the south. However, like weather systems, air pollution can travel across the country, and some of this haze may come from locations farther west. Smoke from a few fires (red dots) may also be adding to the haze. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at Goddard Space Flight Center. |
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Heatwave in the Western Unit
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| Title |
Heatwave in the Western United States |
| Description |
The oppressive heat that crept over parts of the western United States during the first few days of July 2007 [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14380 ] took hold of the entire West during the week of July 4 through July 11. Deep red tones blanket every western state in this land surface temperature image, an indication that temperatures were warmer than in previous years. The image was made with data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite and shows temperatures recorded between July 4 and July 11, 2007, compared to the average of temperatures observed during the same period in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Areas that are warmer than during that three-year period are red, while cooler areas are blue. Triple-digit temperatures broke or matched records from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Great Falls, Montana, during this period. In this image, a cluster of red-black over eastern Washington, northern Idaho, and eastern Montana indicates that these regions experienced much warmer temperatures than in previous years. Western South Dakota (the Black Hills region) was also exceptionally warm. On the other end of the scale, Texas was much cooler than it had been in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Heavy rains pounded Texas on and off throughout this period, contributing to wide-spread flooding. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14363 ] You can download a global KMZ file of Land Surface Temperature anomaly [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/kansas_ast_2007187.kmz ] suitable for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/ ] NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Land Processes [ http://modis-land.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team. |
|
Hurricane Katrina
| Title |
Hurricane Katrina |
| Description |
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. Images and movie courtesy of NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team. Caption details provided by Clare Averill (Raytheon ITSS/Jet Propulsion Laboratory), David J. Diner, Mike Garay and Ralph Kahn (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and Greg McFarquhar (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)., MISR stereo-height estimates (not shown here) indicate that the highest clouds reach 18-19 kilometers above the surface of the Earth. The stereo anaglyph shows relative height variations and enhances the appearance of thin clouds, such as those that mark the series of gravity waves north-east of the eyewall. Atmospheric gravity waves are caused by air displacements in an otherwise stable air layer. In this case, the gravity waves are above the hurricane arms in the upper troposphere, and were probably generated as the towering storm updraft tried to push into the stable air between the troposphere and the stratosphere (known as the tropopause). Some of Katrina's cloud tops were about 2 kilometers above the tropopause. Such high "overshooting tops" are also characteristic of strong and rapidly growing storms. The animation progresses from MISR's most forward-pointing camera, which views the scene first, to the most backward-pointing camera, which views the scene last. It was created by aligning the views from all 9 cameras using the high clouds within the eyewall as a reference point. North is at the top. The convective cloud towers, especially those along the eastern sides of the inner and outer eyewalls, attain the highest altitudes and indicate that the storm is strengthening. Those areas that do not exhibit cloud-top convection are clouds experiencing vertical wind shear, and tend to be lower than the towering cloud structures. The vertical and horizontal development of the convective clouds and the formation of an outer ring of growing clouds (referred to as an "eyewall replacement cycle") also indicate rapid strengthening. During this stage of hurricane development, an outer band of clouds may gradually move inward to replace the existing hurricane eyewall, causing the central pressure to increase and weaken the storm in the short term. However, eyewall replacement may sometimes be a forerunner for rapid strengthening in the longer term. This was the case with Hurricane Katrina, whose central pressure increased slightly on Saturday, but then dropped again significantly on Sunday when Katrina became a Category 5 storm. Observing the development of a concentric eyewall at this spatial and temporal resolution is a unique feature of these MISR observations. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously, viewing the entire globe between 82 degrees North and 82 degrees South latitude every nine days. The still images each cover an area of about 827 kilometers by 380 kilometers, and the animation covers an area of about 202 kilometers by 214 kilometers. The data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 30280 and utilize data from blocks 69 to 74 within World Reference System-2 path 17. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's, This image and animation from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) show the strong convective development of Hurricane Katrina on Saturday, August 27, as it moved west through the Gulf of Mexico. Over 7 minutes during which all 9 MISR cameras viewed Katrina, the animation captures the cloud-top sides, the counterclockwise rotation of the eyewall, and the bubbling growth of the towering cloud structures. At this time, Katrina was undergoing rapid development it had just been upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane, and within 24 hours it would reach Category 5. On Monday morning when the eyewall made landfall over the United States, it was a Category 4 storm. Hurricane Katrina was one of the most powerful and destructive storms on record for the Atlantic Basin. The image above is a false-color view (near-infrared, red, and blue wavelengths of reflected light displayed as red, green and blue) from MISR's nadir (pointing straight down) camera. In the image above, north is up. The high resolution image linked above shows a wider view of this false-color image, with north to the left. The vegetated Alabama coast in the upper left-hand corner in this high-resolution image appears in red hues. The bottom panel in the high-resolution image is a 3-D stereo anaglyph created with red band data from MISR's 70-degree-forward-viewing and 60-degree-forward-viewing cameras, displayed as red and green/blue, respectively. To observe the height variations in 3-D, you will need to use red/blue glasses. [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/Help/VendorList.html#Glasses ] |
|
Hurricane Katrina
| Title |
Hurricane Katrina |
| Description |
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. Images and movie courtesy of NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team. Caption details provided by Clare Averill (Raytheon ITSS/Jet Propulsion Laboratory), David J. Diner, Mike Garay and Ralph Kahn (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and Greg McFarquhar (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)., MISR stereo-height estimates (not shown here) indicate that the highest clouds reach 18-19 kilometers above the surface of the Earth. The stereo anaglyph shows relative height variations and enhances the appearance of thin clouds, such as those that mark the series of gravity waves north-east of the eyewall. Atmospheric gravity waves are caused by air displacements in an otherwise stable air layer. In this case, the gravity waves are above the hurricane arms in the upper troposphere, and were probably generated as the towering storm updraft tried to push into the stable air between the troposphere and the stratosphere (known as the tropopause). Some of Katrina's cloud tops were about 2 kilometers above the tropopause. Such high "overshooting tops" are also characteristic of strong and rapidly growing storms. The animation progresses from MISR's most forward-pointing camera, which views the scene first, to the most backward-pointing camera, which views the scene last. It was created by aligning the views from all 9 cameras using the high clouds within the eyewall as a reference point. North is at the top. The convective cloud towers, especially those along the eastern sides of the inner and outer eyewalls, attain the highest altitudes and indicate that the storm is strengthening. Those areas that do not exhibit cloud-top convection are clouds experiencing vertical wind shear, and tend to be lower than the towering cloud structures. The vertical and horizontal development of the convective clouds and the formation of an outer ring of growing clouds (referred to as an "eyewall replacement cycle") also indicate rapid strengthening. During this stage of hurricane development, an outer band of clouds may gradually move inward to replace the existing hurricane eyewall, causing the central pressure to increase and weaken the storm in the short term. However, eyewall replacement may sometimes be a forerunner for rapid strengthening in the longer term. This was the case with Hurricane Katrina, whose central pressure increased slightly on Saturday, but then dropped again significantly on Sunday when Katrina became a Category 5 storm. Observing the development of a concentric eyewall at this spatial and temporal resolution is a unique feature of these MISR observations. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously, viewing the entire globe between 82 degrees North and 82 degrees South latitude every nine days. The still images each cover an area of about 827 kilometers by 380 kilometers, and the animation covers an area of about 202 kilometers by 214 kilometers. The data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 30280 and utilize data from blocks 69 to 74 within World Reference System-2 path 17. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's, This image and animation from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) show the strong convective development of Hurricane Katrina on Saturday, August 27, as it moved west through the Gulf of Mexico. Over 7 minutes during which all 9 MISR cameras viewed Katrina, the animation captures the cloud-top sides, the counterclockwise rotation of the eyewall, and the bubbling growth of the towering cloud structures. At this time, Katrina was undergoing rapid development it had just been upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane, and within 24 hours it would reach Category 5. On Monday morning when the eyewall made landfall over the United States, it was a Category 4 storm. Hurricane Katrina was one of the most powerful and destructive storms on record for the Atlantic Basin. The image above is a false-color view (near-infrared, red, and blue wavelengths of reflected light displayed as red, green and blue) from MISR's nadir (pointing straight down) camera. In the image above, north is up. The high resolution image linked above shows a wider view of this false-color image, with north to the left. The vegetated Alabama coast in the upper left-hand corner in this high-resolution image appears in red hues. The bottom panel in the high-resolution image is a 3-D stereo anaglyph created with red band data from MISR's 70-degree-forward-viewing and 60-degree-forward-viewing cameras, displayed as red and green/blue, respectively. To observe the height variations in 3-D, you will need to use red/blue glasses. [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/Help/VendorList.html#Glasses ] |
|
Hurricane Katrina
| Title |
Hurricane Katrina |
| Description |
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. Images and movie courtesy of NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team. Caption details provided by Clare Averill (Raytheon ITSS/Jet Propulsion Laboratory), David J. Diner, Mike Garay and Ralph Kahn (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and Greg McFarquhar (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)., MISR stereo-height estimates (not shown here) indicate that the highest clouds reach 18-19 kilometers above the surface of the Earth. The stereo anaglyph shows relative height variations and enhances the appearance of thin clouds, such as those that mark the series of gravity waves north-east of the eyewall. Atmospheric gravity waves are caused by air displacements in an otherwise stable air layer. In this case, the gravity waves are above the hurricane arms in the upper troposphere, and were probably generated as the towering storm updraft tried to push into the stable air between the troposphere and the stratosphere (known as the tropopause). Some of Katrina's cloud tops were about 2 kilometers above the tropopause. Such high "overshooting tops" are also characteristic of strong and rapidly growing storms. The animation progresses from MISR's most forward-pointing camera, which views the scene first, to the most backward-pointing camera, which views the scene last. It was created by aligning the views from all 9 cameras using the high clouds within the eyewall as a reference point. North is at the top. The convective cloud towers, especially those along the eastern sides of the inner and outer eyewalls, attain the highest altitudes and indicate that the storm is strengthening. Those areas that do not exhibit cloud-top convection are clouds experiencing vertical wind shear, and tend to be lower than the towering cloud structures. The vertical and horizontal development of the convective clouds and the formation of an outer ring of growing clouds (referred to as an "eyewall replacement cycle") also indicate rapid strengthening. During this stage of hurricane development, an outer band of clouds may gradually move inward to replace the existing hurricane eyewall, causing the central pressure to increase and weaken the storm in the short term. However, eyewall replacement may sometimes be a forerunner for rapid strengthening in the longer term. This was the case with Hurricane Katrina, whose central pressure increased slightly on Saturday, but then dropped again significantly on Sunday when Katrina became a Category 5 storm. Observing the development of a concentric eyewall at this spatial and temporal resolution is a unique feature of these MISR observations. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously, viewing the entire globe between 82 degrees North and 82 degrees South latitude every nine days. The still images each cover an area of about 827 kilometers by 380 kilometers, and the animation covers an area of about 202 kilometers by 214 kilometers. The data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 30280 and utilize data from blocks 69 to 74 within World Reference System-2 path 17. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's, This image and animation from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) show the strong convective development of Hurricane Katrina on Saturday, August 27, as it moved west through the Gulf of Mexico. Over 7 minutes during which all 9 MISR cameras viewed Katrina, the animation captures the cloud-top sides, the counterclockwise rotation of the eyewall, and the bubbling growth of the towering cloud structures. At this time, Katrina was undergoing rapid development it had just been upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane, and within 24 hours it would reach Category 5. On Monday morning when the eyewall made landfall over the United States, it was a Category 4 storm. Hurricane Katrina was one of the most powerful and destructive storms on record for the Atlantic Basin. The image above is a false-color view (near-infrared, red, and blue wavelengths of reflected light displayed as red, green and blue) from MISR's nadir (pointing straight down) camera. In the image above, north is up. The high resolution image linked above shows a wider view of this false-color image, with north to the left. The vegetated Alabama coast in the upper left-hand corner in this high-resolution image appears in red hues. The bottom panel in the high-resolution image is a 3-D stereo anaglyph created with red band data from MISR's 70-degree-forward-viewing and 60-degree-forward-viewing cameras, displayed as red and green/blue, respectively. To observe the height variations in 3-D, you will need to use red/blue glasses. [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/Help/VendorList.html#Glasses ] |
|
Eruption of Anatahan
| Title |
Eruption of Anatahan |
| Description |
A thick cloud of ash erupts from the Anatahan Volcano in this Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) image collected on April 5, 2005. According to the Washington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center, a series of low-level eruptions starting on April 4 have created this plume. The same processes that fueled this eruption created Anatahan and the other islands in the Northern Mariana Islands. The island arc frames the eastern edge of the Philippine plate, a large section of the Earth?s crust that floats on a layer of softer rock. To the east of the Marianas, the slab of crust that carries the Pacific Ocean crashes against the Philippine Plate. In the clash, the colder, denser Pacific Plate sinks beneath the Philippine Plate, forming the Mariana Trench, a deep gorge that plunges to a depth of 10,920 meters (35,827 feet), the deepest known point in any ocean. Plummeting deep into the Earth, the Pacific Plate crumbles, and the pressure heats some of the breaking rock. The hot rock forces its way back to the surface through weak points in the overriding Philippine Plate, creating the arc of volcanoes that make up the Northern Mariana Islands. Among the 14 small islands in the Northern Mariana Islands, there are 12 major volcanoes, including Anatahan. When geologists explored Anatahan in 1990, layers of rock on the volcano pointed to explosive eruptions with fast-moving ash and rock, though the volcano had shown no signs of life for centuries. The volcano?s first recorded eruption occurred on May 30, 2003 [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=10664 ]. It erupted for a second time between April and June 2004, and commenced its third recorded eruption in January 2005. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. The image is available in additional resolutions [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Anatahan/2005095 ]. |
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Eruption of Sicily's Mt. Etn
…
| Title |
Eruption of Sicily's Mt. Etna |
| Description |
Italy?s Mount Etna is the focus of this 3-D perspective view made from data collected by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal and Emission Radiometer (ASTER), flying aboard NASA?s Terra spacecraft, and overlaid on Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) topography. The image is looking south with dark lava flows from the 1600s (center) to 1981 (long flow at lower right) visible in the foreground and the summit of Etna above. The city of Catania is barely visible behind Etna on the bay at the upper left. In late October 2002, Etna erupted again, sending lava flows down the south and east sides of the volcano, out of sight in this view. In addition to the terrestrial applications of these data for understanding active volcanoes and hazards associated with them such as lava flows and explosive eruptions, geologists studying Mars find these data useful as an analog to martian landforms and geologic processes. In late September 2002, a field conference with the theme of Terrestrial Analogs to Mars focused on Mount Etna, allowing Mars geologists to see in person the types of features they can only sample remotely. Elevation data used in this image was acquired by SRTM aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on Feb. 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect 3-D measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter (approximately 200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between NASA, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) of the U.S. Department of Defense and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA?s Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, D.C. Size: Varies across scene Location: 38 degrees North latitude, 15.5 degrees East longitude Orientation: Looking south Image Data: ASTER bands 2, 3, 1 as red, green, blue, respectively. Original Data Resolution: SRTM 1 arc-second (30 meters or 98 feet) Date Acquired: February 2000 (SRTM), July 29, 2001 (ASTER) Image courtesy ASTER and SRTM Teams, NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
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Eruption of Sicily's Mt. Etn
…
| Title |
Eruption of Sicily's Mt. Etna |
| Description |
Italy?s Aeolian Islands and Mount Etna are the focus of this 3-D perspective view made from an Advanced Spaceborne Thermal and Emission Radiometer (ASTER) image from NASA?s Terra spacecraft and overlaid on Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) topography. The image is looking south with the islands of Lipari and Vulcano in the foreground and Etna with its dark lava flows on the skyline. Vulcano also hosts an active volcano, the cone of which is prominent. In late October 2002, Etna erupted again, sending lava flows down the south and east sides of the volcano, out of sight in this view. In addition to the terrestrial applications of these data for understanding active volcanoes and hazards associated with them such as lava flows and explosive eruptions, geologists studying Mars find these data useful as an analog to martian landforms and geologic processes. In late September 2002, a field conference with the theme of Terrestrial Analogs to Mars focused on Mount Etna allowing Mars geologists to see in person the types of features they can only sample remotely. Elevation data used in this image was acquired by SRTM aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on Feb. 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect 3-D measurements of the Earth?s surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter (approximately 200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between NASA, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) of the U.S. Department of Defense and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA?s Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, D.C. Size: Varies across scene Location: 38.25 degrees North latitude, 15 degrees East longitude Orientation: Looking south Image Data: ASTER bands 2, 3, 1 as red, green, blue, respectively. Original Data Resolution: SRTM 1 arc-second (30 meters or 98 feet) Date Acquired: February 2000 (SRTM), July 29, 2001 (ASTER) Image courtesy ASTER and SRTM Teams, NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
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Mount St. Helens
| Title |
Mount St. Helens |
| Description |
After more than a decade of inactivity, Mt. St. Helens in Washington began rumbling in late September with a series of small earthquakes, some of which were of the long-period type that geologists have come to recognize as the telltale sign that magma from the Earth?s interior is rising up to the surface. On October 1, 2004, the volcano released a small explosion of steam and ash and briefly quieted down, but in the days since, the earthquake activity resumed. Scientists raised the volcano?s alert level to three, the final step below active eruption. On October 4, the day this image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA?s Terra satellite, Mt. St. Helens again emitted steam and ash: during a 30-minute episode in the morning and for a 10-minute episode in the early afternoon. According to reports form the U.S. Geological Survey, the steam was likely produced by hot rock pushed up onto the mountain?s glacier that melted the ice and generated steam. Mt. St. Helens is located to the left of the center of this image, and the ash and steam plume are visible drifting away from the volcano to the southeast, toward the glacier-covered peak of Mt. Adams. Other large mountains in the scene are Mt. Rainer (top) and Mt. Hood (bottom). The Columbia River cuts east-west through the lower part of the image, and the city of Portland appears as a gray patch along its banks at lower left. Other signs that an eruption is likely in the near future are a bubbling (boiling) lake that has formed in the vent where the ash and steam were released on October 4, a quick return to earthquake activity following the emission episodes, the continued rising of part of the glacier and the south flank of the lava dome, opening cracks in the lava dome, and the detection of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide gases at numerous sites. For more information on the current status of the volcano, please visit the U.S.G.S. Cascades Volcano Observatory [ http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/News/ ]Website. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-GSFC |
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Powerful Windstorm in the Pa
…
| Title |
Powerful Windstorm in the Pacific Northwest |
| Description |
Oregon and Washington State suffered the worst windstorm in a decade on December 14, 2006. Winds as high as 180 kilometers per hour (113 miles per hour) were recorded on Mount Rainer, according to the Associated Press, and a new observed wind speed record of 110 km/hr (69 mph) was registered at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The winds took out power lines, leaving 240,000 customers without power through the weekend. As of Monday, December 18, ten people had died from causes related to the storm, and at least one hundred had developed carbon monoxide poisoning symptoms, caused by using portable generators for electricity and charcoal grills to cook without adequate ventilation. This photo-like image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] on the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on December 15, 2006, at 11:10 a.m. local time (19:10 UTC). The small image above shows a close-up section of the Washington coastline just north of the mouth of the Columbia River centered on the inlet of Greys Harbor. Large powerful thunderstorms dominate the scene, with cloud towers projecting up above the surrounding cloud deck where strong updrafts are lifting moist ocean air, a signature of powerful thunderstorms. Along the coast, white dashes show where waves are pounding the shoreline. It is rare for surf to be so dramatic and large that it can be discerned even at MODIS' moderate resolution, in which features smaller than 250 meters are not easily discerned. However, whipped by the powerful winds, the surf was so rough and large that it shows up clearly. NASA image by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center. |
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Rice Cultivation in Northwes
…
| Title |
Rice Cultivation in Northwest Italy |
| Description |
The lowlands of Lombardy and Piedmont in northwest Italy are some of the most highly developed irrigation areas in the world. Irrigated lands cover at least 160,000 acres in this part of Italy, where rice is the most important crop. These views of the region were acquired on May 8, 2005, by NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR). The multiple viewing angles provided by MISR's nine cameras make it possible to tell wet surfaces, including flooded lands, from other surfaces, and they also make cities easy to locate. The left-hand image is a natural-color view acquired by MISR's downward-looking (nadir) camera, and the right-hand image is a combination of red band data from MISR's 60-degree-backward-, nadir, and 60-degree-forward-viewing cameras. (Red band is what scientists call the "channel" on the sensor that detects red light.) Color changes indicate surface texture, which is influenced by terrain, vegetation structure, soil type, and surface wetness. Wet surfaces or areas with standing water appear in blue or purple-blue hues. The purple-blue areas that dominate the center-left part of the image are part of the extensive irrigation network that exists throughout the plains and meadows of the region. Cities with tall buildings appear in red-orange hues. In this type of image, the city of Milan is the most obvious. The small orange area in the center of the purple inundated area indicates the location of Vercelli, and the larger city of Milan is the orange area to the northeast, on the other side of the Ticino River. To a lesser extent, the cities of Novara, Pavia, Galliate, Mortara, and Vigevano are also identifiable by their orange hues. MISR can tell various surface features like cities or irrigated areas apart because of the way surfaces reflect light. A smooth water surface tends to reflect sunlight away from the Sun. This effect is most apparent when a satellite views the surface with the Sun in front of the camera. Similarly, rough surfaces tend to reflect light back towards the Sun, and this "backward scattering" is most obvious when a satellites views a surface with the Sun behind the camera. Clouds present over the high country to the west of the Lago Maggiore (upper left corner) and along the coast of the Golfo di Genova (bottom) appear in a different spot for each view angle, creating a rainbow-like appearance. Mountains also have a "wavy" look in the multi-angle combination because, like clouds, their height above the surface makes them appear in a different spot in each camera's view angle. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously, viewing the entire globe between 82 degrees North and 82 degrees South latitude every nine days. This image covers an area of about 131 kilometers by 191 kilometers. These data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 28660 and utilize data from block 54 within World Reference System-2 path 193. MISR was, built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team. [ http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] Text by Clare Averill (Raytheon ITSS/JPL) |
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Fires in the Western United
…
| Title |
Fires in the Western United States |
| Description |
Thick, white smoke seeps through the valleys of the Rocky Mountains ranges that run through Idaho, Washington, and Oregon in this photo-like image taken on September 12, 2006. At the time, firefighters were monitoring 29 wild fires in the three states, said the National Interagency Fire Center. [ http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html ] Many of the fires were started by lightning, as suggested by the clusters of fires (red dots) seen in this image. The image was taken in the early afternoon by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. Most of the fires are burning in the deep-green, pine-covered mountains. Sage, scrub, and grass-covered desert is tan, while agricultural land creates a pattern of tiny, bright green and gold dots. Between January 1 and September 12, 2006, a total of 8,653,883 acres of land had burned in the United States, exceeding the totals for the same period of any other year since 2000. Many of the fires that burned in remote areas were simply monitored as part of a long-term land-management strategy, but those that threatened structures were actively combated. Some of the large fires shown here include the Columbia Complex, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13804 ] which had burned 103,100 acres and was 80 percent contained on September 12, the Elkhorn Complex, which had burned 870 acres and was 15 percent contained, the Payette Complex, which had burned 10,729 acres, the South Fork Complex, 41,600 acres and 20 percent contained, the Boundary Complex, 22,785 acres and 5 percent contained, the Red Mountain Fire, 32,825 acres and 30 percent contained, and the Rattlesnake Complex, 37,421 acres and 30 percent contained. Several other large fires burned in the western United States on September 12. The Derby Fire [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13832 ] in western Montana (just beyond the right edge of the image) had threatened homes and forced hundred of evacuations in early September. By September 12, it had burned 207,644 acres and was 70 percent contained, said the National Interagency Fire Center. The Day Fire [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13848 ] was burning in Los Padres National Forest about 40 miles north of Los Angeles, California. Its thick smoke temporarily closed Interstate 5 on September 12. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team. |
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Tropical Cyclone Monty
| Title |
Tropical Cyclone Monty |
| Description |
The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) acquired these natural color images and cloud top height measurements for Monty before and after the storm made landfall over the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia, on February 29 and March 2, 2004 (shown as the left and right-hand image sets, respectively). On February 29, Monty was upgraded to category 4 cyclone status. After traveling inland about 300 kilometers to the south, the cyclonic circulation had decayed considerably, although category 3 force winds were reported on the ground. Some parts of the drought-affected Pilbara region received more than 300 millimeters of rainfall, and serious and extensive flooding has occurred. The natural color images cover much of the same area, although the right-hand panels are offset slightly to the east. Automated stereoscopic processing of data from multiple MISR cameras was utilized to produce the cloud-top height fields. The distinctive spatial patterns of the clouds provide the necessary contrast to enable automated feature matching between images acquired at different view angles. The height retrievals are at this stage uncorrected for the effects of the high winds associated with cyclone rotation. Areas where heights could not be retrieved are shown in dark gray. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously and every 9 days views the entire globe between 82 degrees north and 82 degrees south latitude. These data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbits 22335 and 22364. The panels cover an area of about 380 kilometers x 985 kilometers, and utilize data from blocks 105 to 111 within World Reference System-2 paths 115 and 113. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL MISR Team [ http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/ ], caption courtesy Clare Averill, Raytheon/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. |
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Spring Flooding on the Missi
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| Title |
Spring Flooding on the Mississippi |
| Description |
The mighty Mississippi River, from its source at Lake Itasca, Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, is approximately 3780 kilometers long and has flooded many times during its history. In April 2001, residents of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois once again battled near-record water levels. These Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) images, acquired one month apart, illustrate the effects of snowmelt and heavy rainfall on areas traversed by the upper Mississippi River. Each image in this pair covers an identical 195-kilometer x 339-kilometer area. The one on the left was acquired March 26, 2001 (Terra orbit 6762), and the one on the right is from April 27 (Terra orbit 7228). Both are false-color composites, displaying data from the near-infrared band of the instrument's nadir (vertical-viewing) camera as red, the green band of the nadir camera as green, and the red band of the 26-degree forward camera as blue. Data from the forward-viewing camera is included to enhance the reflectivity of water. The near-infrared data provide a good indicator of the abundance of vegetation since plants are highly reflective in this spectral region. The redder color of the right-hand image is due to increased vegetation cover brought about by wet conditions and the onset of spring. Locations of major cities are marked on the left-hand image, major rivers are marked on the right. The portion of the Mississippi River captured in these views extends from just north of La Crosse, Wisconsin to south of Davenport, Iowa. The Wisconsin River joins the Mississippi just below Prairie du Chien. On March 26, snow can clearly be seen over much of the northern portions of the left-hand image. At this point in time, the snow had already begun to melt and the Wapsipinicon River was 52 centimeters above flood stage at De Witt, Iowa (between Clinton and Davenport). By mid-April heavy rainfall swelled the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers. In the early morning of April 25, two days before the right-hand image was acquired, the Mississippi River crested in Davenport, Iowa at 680 centimeters, slightly below the level reached in the record-setting flood of 1993. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. |
| Date |
07.11.2001 |
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Cloud Heights of Frances and
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nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle
…
NASA's www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov
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Ivan_TMI2004249
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2004-09-04 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA image courtesy GSFC/LaRC/JPL, www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov MISR Team. Text acknowledgment: Clare Averill (Raytheon/Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and Greg McFarquhar (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). |
| identifier |
Ivan_TMI2004249 |
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Mouth of the Amazon : Image
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nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle
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Flowing more than 6,450 kilo
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amazon_mouth
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2000-09-08 |
| creator |
NASA -- Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/JPL, MISR Team |
| identifier |
amazon_mouth |
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Burn Scars Across Southern C
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nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle
…
Brush fires consumed nearly
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SCalifornia_TMI2003322
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2003-11-18 |
| creator |
NASA -- Image courtesy: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/'' target=''_blank MISR Team. Text by Clare Averill (Raytheon / Jet Propulsion Laboratory). |
| identifier |
SCalifornia_TMI2003322 |
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Multi-angle views of the Fir
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nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle
…
These true-color images cove
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MISRLosAlamos
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2000-05-09 |
| creator |
NASA -- Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/JPL, MISR Science Team |
| identifier |
MISRLosAlamos |
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