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European Heat Wave
| Title |
European Heat Wave |
| Description |
Europe is experiencing an historic heat wave that has been responsible for at 3,000 deaths in France alone. Compared to July 2001, temperatures in July 2003 were sizzling. This image shows the differences in day time land surface temperatures collected in the two years by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite. A blanket of deep red across southern and eastern France (left of image center) shows where temperatures were 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter this summer. White areas show where temperatures were similar, and blue shows where temperatures were cooler in 2003 than 2001. Even the Alps, which arc across southeastern France, Switzerland, Austria, and northern Italy (just below image center), are very warm this year. Glaciers are melting rapidly and swelling rivers and lakes to dangerously high levels. Climbers had to be evacuated from Switzerland's famous Matterhorn after melting triggered the collapse of a rock face. The popular climbing destination has been closed while geologists assess the possibility of further collapses. The heat wave stretches northward all the way to the United Kingdom, particularly southern England (bottom of island) and Scotland (top of island). In London, trains were shut down over fears that tracks would buckle in the heat, while in Scotland the high temperatures combined with falling water levels in rivers and streams are threatening the spawning and survival of salmon. Throughout France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, the intense heat and dry conditions sparked devastating forest fires that killed at least 15 people. Image by Reto Stockli and Robert Simmon, NASA?s Earth Observatory Team. |
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Pasterze Glacier, Austria
| Title |
Pasterze Glacier, Austria |
| Description |
The Pasterze Glacier in western Austria has been receding since 1856. A combination of higher summer temperatures and lower winter snowfall is causing the retreat. Glaciers in nearby Switzerland receded more rapidly in 2003 than in any other year since annual measurements began in 1880. Despite the record heat in Europe that summer, scientists from the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences attributed the melting to long-term climate change. NASA scientists use satellite data to measure the advance and retreat of glaciers all around the world. This true-color image was acquired by Space Imaging's Ikonos satellite on October 3, 2001. The full-resolution image has a resolution of 4 meters per pixel. For more information about monitoring Glaciers, read At the Edge: Monitoring Glaciers to Watch Global Change. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Glaciers/ ] Image by Robert Simmon, NASA's Earth Observatory, based on data copyright Space Imaging [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ] |
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Aerosols over Central and Ea
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nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle
…
Particulate air pollution is
…
PIA04325
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2003-02-23 |
| creator |
NASA -- Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/ MISR Team. Text by Clare Averill (Acro Service Corporation/JPL) |
| identifier |
PIA04325 |
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Haze over Europe: Natural Ha
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Particulate air pollution is
…
MISR_PIA04325
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2003-03-28 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
MISR_PIA04325 |
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Aerosols over Central and Ea
…
PIA04325
Sol (our sun)
Multi-angle Imaging SpectroR
…
| Title |
Aerosols over Central and Eastern Europe |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Particulate air pollution is a complex mixture of particles of varying origins and compositions. Determining the type and abundance of tiny airborne particles, known as aerosols, is needed for monitoring air quality and for understanding climate change. During the last weeks of March 2003, unusually high and widespread aerosol pollution was detected over Europe by several satellite-borne instruments. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite determines aerosol amount and information about particle properties by examining the variation in scene brightness at different view angles. These images and data products illustrate the amount of aerosols on two dates over parts of Central and Eastern Europe, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Adriatic Sea in the south. Two groups of three panels are shown. Within each group, the left and center views are natural-color images from MISR's vertical-viewing (nadir) and most obliquely forward-viewing cameras, respectively, and the right-hand panel is a map of retrieved aerosol amount, parameterized by a quantity called the optical depth. A color scale is used to represent this quantity, and high aerosol amount is indicated by yellow or green pixels, and clearer skies are indicated by blue pixels. The left-hand group of panels is comprised of data acquired on February 23, 2003, when most of the land area was still partially frozen. The right-hand group of panels portrays the same area about one month later, on March 27. The nadir camera enables surface features to stand out most clearly, whereas MISR's oblique cameras enhance sensitivity to even thin layers of aerosols. In the March image, the only strong indications of haze from the nadir view are the thin tendrils of grayish pixels over the dark waters of the Baltic Sea. Although aerosols are conventionally difficult to discern over bright surfaces, MISR is able to produce an aerosol abundance map for both the earlier snow-covered scene and for the later date, though fewer successful retrievals were obtained in the winter data. Skies were relatively clear in the earlier view, and the high optical depths implied by the red pixels are probably blunders due either to the homogeneity of the underlying snow-covered surface or the presence of unscreened clouds. In contrast, the March data show a thick haze over most of the lower-elevation parts of the observed area. Optical depths are relatively lower over the Julian Alps and the mountains of western Croatia (just north of the Adriatic), whereas higher abundances are observed to the north of the mountains and over eastern Croatia. There is a gradual transition from higher optical depths in western Poland to lower optical depths in Lithuania and along the eastern coast of the Baltic. Higher optical depths are also indicated over much of Hungary, Slovakia and eastern Austria. Places where clouds or other factors precluded an aerosol retrieval are otherwise shown in, dark gray. An overview [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=8637 ] of the haze extent and meteorological conditions for March 28, 2003 is also available from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) sensor. 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 16937 and 17403. The panels cover an area of about 380 kilometers x 1775 kilometers, and use data from blocks 43 to 55 within World Reference System-2 path 190. 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 ofTechnology. |
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