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Glenn at the Cape
Title Glenn at the Cape
Full Description Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. in his silver Mercury spacesuit during pre- flight training activities at Cape Canaveral. On February 20, 1962 Glenn lifted off into space aboard his Mercury Atlas (MA-6) rocket and became the first American to orbit the Earth. After orbiting the Earth 3 times, Friendship 7 landed in the Atlantic Ocean 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds later, just East of Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas. Glenn and his capsule were recovered by the Navy Destroyer Noa, 21 minutes after splashdown.
Date 02/27/1964
NASA Center Johnson Space Center
Glenn Enters his Mercury Cap …
Title Glenn Enters his Mercury Capsule
Full Description Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. enters his Mercury capsule, "Friendship 7" as he prepares for launch of the Mercury-Atlas rocket. On February 20, 1962 Glenn lifted off into space aboard his Mercury Atlas 6 (MA-6) rocket and became the first American to orbit the Earth. After orbiting the Earth 3 times, Friendship 7 landed in the Atlantic Ocean 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds later, just East of Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas. Glenn and his capsule were recovered by the Navy Destroyer Noa, 21 minutes after splashdown.
Date 02/20/1962
NASA Center Johnson Space Center
Glenn Suits-Up for Launch
Title Glenn Suits-Up for Launch
Full Description Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. dons his silver Mercury pressure suit in preparation for launch. On February 20, 1962 Glenn lifted off into space aboard his Mercury Atlas (MA-6) rocket and became the first American to orbit the Earth. After orbiting the Earth 3 times, Friendship 7 landed in the Atlantic Ocean 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds later, just East of Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas. Glenn and his capsule were recovered by the Navy Destroyer Noa, 21 minutes after splashdown.
Date 02/20/1962
NASA Center Johnson Space Center
John Glenn OK
Title John Glenn OK
Full Description Astronaut John Glenn and technicians inspect artwork that will be painted on the outside of his Mercury spacecraft. John Glenn nicknamed his capsule "Friendship 7". On February 20, 1962 astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. lifted off into space aboard his Mercury Atlas (MA-6) rocket and became the first American to orbit the Earth. After orbiting the Earth 3 times, Friendship 7 landed in the Atlantic Ocean 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds later, just East of Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas. Glenn and his capsule were recovered by the Navy Destroyer Noa, 21 minutes after splashdown.
Date 02/02/1962
NASA Center Johnson Space Center
Satellite Imagery of Hurrica …
Title Satellite Imagery of Hurricane Dennis (WMS)
Abstract Hurricane Dennis started as a tropical depression on August 23, 1999, became a tropical storm on August 24, and was classified as a hurricane early on August 26, near the Bahamas. From August 26 through August 31, Dennis proceeded up the coast of the United States until it stalled off the coast of North Carolina for four days because the pressure trough that was pushing it out to sea left it behind. This animation shows images of Dennis during its hurricane period from August 26 through August 31, 1999, when the stall began. The images were taken by the GOES-8 satellite, a weather satellite in geostationary orbit above the western hemisphere. The continuous white cloud progression came from infrared images from GOES, and the yellowish clouds that come and go with the daylight came from data taken in the visible spectrum, also from GOES. The GOES images were not taken at regular times, so the hurricane appears to slow down when the time between images gets small and speed up when the time between images gets large.
Completed 2004-02-10
MAP '05 Models Hurricane Kat …
Title MAP '05 Models Hurricane Katrina's Winds from August 23, 2005 through August 31, 2005
Abstract During the summer of 2005, the Earth-Sun Exploration Division of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center(GSFC) brought together resources from NASA to study tropical cyclones. The MAP '05 Project, so named for its affiliation with NASA's Modeling, Analysis, and Prediction (MAP) program, applies NASA's advanced satellite remote sensing technologies and earth system modeling capabilities to improve our understanding of tropical cyclones that develop in and move across the Atlantic basin. MAP '05 implemented the most recent version of the NASA/Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) fifth-generation global atmospheric model and the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) analysis system under development as a collaboration between NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) at GSFC. This animation displays MAP '05's wind analysis data for every 6 hour interval from August 23 through August 31, 2005.
Completed 2006-05-30
International Space Station
Name of Image International Space Station
Date of Image 1998-01-01
Full Description This artist's concept depicts the completely assembled International Space Station (ISS) passing over Florida and the Bahamas. As a gateway to permanent human presence in space, the Space Station Program is to expand knowledge benefiting all people and nations. The ISS is a multidisciplinary laboratory, technology test bed, and observatory that will provide unprecedented undertakings in scientific, technological, and international experimentation. Experiments to be conducted in the ISS include: microgravity research, Earth science, space science, life sciences, space product development, and engineering research and technology. The sixteen countries participating in the ISS are: United States, Russian Federation, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and Brazil.
Hurricane Frances
Title Hurricane Frances
Description AIRS Science Team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory., These images generated from data retrieved by the sensors in the AIRS instrument suite show Hurricane Frances on Monday, August 30. With sustaining winds of 125 mph (195 km/hr) reaching out 85 miles from the eye, this powerful storm was a category 3 hurricane at the time this image was taken. Located in the Atlantic about 265 miles (425 km) east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands, Frances on August 30 was moving westward north of Puerto Rico towards the Bahamas at 12 mph (19 km/hr). The image above shows how the storm looks through an AIRS Infrared window channel. Window channels measure the temperature of the cloud tops or the surface of the Earth in cloud-free regions. The lowest temperatures are associated with high, cold cloud tops that make up the top of the hurricane. The infrared signal does not penetrate through clouds, so the purple color indicates the cool cloud tops of the storm. In cloud-free areas, the infrared signal is retrieved at the Earth's surface, revealing warmer temperatures. Cooler areas are pushing to purple and warmer areas are pushing to red. The microwave image reveals where the heaviest precipitation in Frances is taking place - these are the blue areas surrounding the eye of the storm. Rain appears cold in the microwave, and blue in this image. (The extensive blue patches away from Frances indicate clear skies. A clear ocean surface looks very cold in the microwave, the warmer green patches are areas where clouds obscure the ocean surface.) An interesting and unusual aspect of these images is cold microwave temperatures associated with warm infrared temperatures in an arc north of the eye of the storm. Normally, very cold microwave temperatures in cloudy regions indicate the presence of convection and precipitation. Corresponding infrared temperatures are then also low, indicating high, cold clouds. In this case, the infrared temperatures are warmer than the surrounding regions. The warm anomaly is about 15 degrees Kelvin (27 F), which is what one would observe if the cloud tops were 50-100 mb lower in the atmosphere (where it is that much warmer). One explanation for such a lowering would be an upper level downdraft that lowers the cirrus shield that is always present over a hurricane. Another explanation would be that the latent heat released by the intense convection may cause the local air temperature to rise by that much. Finally, it is also possible that the area is almost clear. The microwave instrument would then see the ocean surface (which appears very cold and sometimes looks similar to the precipitation signature), and the infrared instrument would see a mix of cold cloud tops and warm ocean surface, which would appear warmer than surrounding areas that are completely covered by clouds. The AIRS retrieved quantities are silent on this issue since the system is unable to peer deeply into this region of wild winds, heavy rain and thick clouds. NASA image courtesy of the
Hurricane Frances
Title Hurricane Frances
Description AIRS Science Team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory., These images generated from data retrieved by the sensors in the AIRS instrument suite show Hurricane Frances on Monday, August 30. With sustaining winds of 125 mph (195 km/hr) reaching out 85 miles from the eye, this powerful storm was a category 3 hurricane at the time this image was taken. Located in the Atlantic about 265 miles (425 km) east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands, Frances on August 30 was moving westward north of Puerto Rico towards the Bahamas at 12 mph (19 km/hr). The image above shows how the storm looks through an AIRS Infrared window channel. Window channels measure the temperature of the cloud tops or the surface of the Earth in cloud-free regions. The lowest temperatures are associated with high, cold cloud tops that make up the top of the hurricane. The infrared signal does not penetrate through clouds, so the purple color indicates the cool cloud tops of the storm. In cloud-free areas, the infrared signal is retrieved at the Earth's surface, revealing warmer temperatures. Cooler areas are pushing to purple and warmer areas are pushing to red. The microwave image reveals where the heaviest precipitation in Frances is taking place - these are the blue areas surrounding the eye of the storm. Rain appears cold in the microwave, and blue in this image. (The extensive blue patches away from Frances indicate clear skies. A clear ocean surface looks very cold in the microwave, the warmer green patches are areas where clouds obscure the ocean surface.) An interesting and unusual aspect of these images is cold microwave temperatures associated with warm infrared temperatures in an arc north of the eye of the storm. Normally, very cold microwave temperatures in cloudy regions indicate the presence of convection and precipitation. Corresponding infrared temperatures are then also low, indicating high, cold clouds. In this case, the infrared temperatures are warmer than the surrounding regions. The warm anomaly is about 15 degrees Kelvin (27 F), which is what one would observe if the cloud tops were 50-100 mb lower in the atmosphere (where it is that much warmer). One explanation for such a lowering would be an upper level downdraft that lowers the cirrus shield that is always present over a hurricane. Another explanation would be that the latent heat released by the intense convection may cause the local air temperature to rise by that much. Finally, it is also possible that the area is almost clear. The microwave instrument would then see the ocean surface (which appears very cold and sometimes looks similar to the precipitation signature), and the infrared instrument would see a mix of cold cloud tops and warm ocean surface, which would appear warmer than surrounding areas that are completely covered by clouds. The AIRS retrieved quantities are silent on this issue since the system is unable to peer deeply into this region of wild winds, heavy rain and thick clouds. NASA image courtesy of the
Hurricane Frances
Title Hurricane Frances
Description This image of Hurricane Frances was acquired by the crew of the International Space Station early on August 30 as the storm was moving westward some 265 miles east-northeast of the northern Windward Islands. The storm was packing winds of 120 miles per hour at the time and appeared to be tracking towards the Bahamas Islands and eventually Florida. A large, ragged eye is visible with a large arc of high clouds flowing away from the top of the storm. Astronaut photograph ISS009-E-20909 [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS009&roll=E&frame=20909 ] was acquired August 30, 2004, at 12:16:47 GMT with a Kodak K760C digital camera with an 26 mm lens, and is provided by the Earth Observations Laboratory [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ ], Johnson Space Center. The International Space Station Program [ http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/ ] supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov ].
Hurricane Frances
Title Hurricane Frances
Description The MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured this true-color image of Hurricane Frances on September 3, 2004 at 15:15 UTC (11:15 AM EDT). At the time this image was taken, Frances was located approximately 65 km (40 miles) northwest of Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. Maximum sustained winds had decreased to 185 km/hr (115 mph) and the minimum central pressure had risen to 957 millibars. Frances was moving towards the northwest at 9 mph. NASA image courtesy Jesse Allen, NASA's Earth Observatory.
Hurricane Rita
Title Hurricane Rita
Description A tropical depression formed in the Bahamas on September 17, 2005. Once it was organized enough to have winds of over 62 kilometers per hour (39 miles per hour), it was classified as a tropical storm and given the name Rita, becoming the 17th named storm system of the 2005 hurricane season. With the season not yet over, 2005 is already the 5th most active storm season since naming records were started in 1851. According to the National Hurricane Center, 21 tropical storms formed in 1933, 19 developed in 1995 and 1887, and 18 formed in 1969. Rita is also the earliest "R" named storm in a season. Rita crossed the threshold to tropical storm status around 5:00 p.m. (local time) on September 18, 2005. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image of Rita roughly fives hours earlier at 11:40 a.m. while the storm was still an organizing tropical depression. The classical spiral structure of a hurricane is not yet fully formed, nor is there a well-organized eye of the storm, but these nascent features of the developing system are apparent already. Forecasters are particularly concerned about Rita as it is projected to pass through the Florida Key Islands as it reaches hurricane strength. The storm track projections as of September 19 have it crossing the Gulf of Mexico to make landfall in the general vicinity of southern Texas, but forecasting hurricanes several days in advance is still an uncertain science and there are fears that Rita could turn in the Gulf and head into areas recently battered by Katrina. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.
Tropical Storm Adrian
Title Tropical Storm Adrian
Description Tropical Storm Adrian is developing and moving steadily closer to the west coast of Central America. The storm is the first of the 2005 Pacific hurricane season, which runs from May 15 to November 30, and it has the potential to inundate Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras with heavy rains. These mountainous regions are prone to mudslides and flash floods. Adrian is not a powerful storm, but it has continued to intensify since it formed on May 17. The National Hurricane Center [ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ ] predicts that the storm may become a weak hurricane before it makes landfall late on May 19 or early on May 20. This image of Tropical Storm Adrian was taken on May 19, 2005, by one of the GOES satellites. The GOES sensors maintain a constant watch over a particular section of the Earth to provide important weather information. As such, the GOES satellite can watch the development of the storm. The animation provided above shows the storm as it became more and more organized on May 18. When it blows ashore, Adrian will become only the fifth tropical cyclone to make landfall over Guatemala or El Salvador since 1966, according to the National Hurricane Center. Of those storms, none has ever crossed Central America this early in May, making Adrian unusual. Even more unusual than the timing of this storm is its path. Typically, hurricanes that form in the Eastern Pacific curve west to dissipate over the ocean, or they may move north into Mexico. Adrian is moving east and is expected to make landfall over El Salvador and Guatemala on May 19 or May 20. Its path is predicted to take it over the same region that was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Unlike Adrian, Mitch formed in the Atlantic and crossed this section of Central America from the east. If Adrian survives its encounter with the high mountains of Central America, it could re-emerge in the Caribbean and move over Cuba and the Bahamas. While storms occasionally cross from the Atlantic into the Pacific, it is extremely rare for a storm to move into the Atlantic from the Pacific, however. Image courtesy GOES Project Science [ http://meso-a.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ ] at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, data from NOAA-GOES, animation by Rob Simmon, NASA Earth Observatory
Tropical Storm Adrian
Title Tropical Storm Adrian
Description Tropical Storm Adrian is developing and moving steadily closer to the west coast of Central America. The storm is the first of the 2005 Pacific hurricane season, which runs from May 15 to November 30, and it has the potential to inundate Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras with heavy rains. These mountainous regions are prone to mudslides and flash floods. Adrian is not a powerful storm, but it has continued to intensify since it formed on May 17. The National Hurricane Center [ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ ] predicts that the storm may become a weak hurricane before it makes landfall late on May 19 or early on May 20. This image of Tropical Storm Adrian was taken on May 19, 2005, by one of the GOES satellites. The GOES sensors maintain a constant watch over a particular section of the Earth to provide important weather information. As such, the GOES satellite can watch the development of the storm. The animation provided above shows the storm as it became more and more organized on May 18. When it blows ashore, Adrian will become only the fifth tropical cyclone to make landfall over Guatemala or El Salvador since 1966, according to the National Hurricane Center. Of those storms, none has ever crossed Central America this early in May, making Adrian unusual. Even more unusual than the timing of this storm is its path. Typically, hurricanes that form in the Eastern Pacific curve west to dissipate over the ocean, or they may move north into Mexico. Adrian is moving east and is expected to make landfall over El Salvador and Guatemala on May 19 or May 20. Its path is predicted to take it over the same region that was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Unlike Adrian, Mitch formed in the Atlantic and crossed this section of Central America from the east. If Adrian survives its encounter with the high mountains of Central America, it could re-emerge in the Caribbean and move over Cuba and the Bahamas. While storms occasionally cross from the Atlantic into the Pacific, it is extremely rare for a storm to move into the Atlantic from the Pacific, however. Image courtesy GOES Project Science [ http://meso-a.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ ] at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, data from NOAA-GOES, animation by Rob Simmon, NASA Earth Observatory
Water Turbidity in the Baham …
Title Water Turbidity in the Bahamas
Description The water around Andros Island in the Bahamas has turned a chalky white in the wake of Hurricane Frances [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12417 ] in the top image, acquired on September 6, 2004, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. The storm churned the ocean waters, bringing white carbonate sediment (chalk) to the surface. As can be seen in the lower image, the waters around the island typically appear to be bright turquoise, an effect of the reflection of the coral on the Great Bahama Bank through the clear, shallow water. After the storm, the chalk-clouded water is even brighter than normal. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by the MODIS Rapid Response team at Goddard Space Flight Center
Water Turbidity in the Baham …
Title Water Turbidity in the Bahamas
Description The water around Andros Island in the Bahamas has turned a chalky white in the wake of Hurricane Frances [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12417 ] in the top image, acquired on September 6, 2004, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. The storm churned the ocean waters, bringing white carbonate sediment (chalk) to the surface. As can be seen in the lower image, the waters around the island typically appear to be bright turquoise, an effect of the reflection of the coral on the Great Bahama Bank through the clear, shallow water. After the storm, the chalk-clouded water is even brighter than normal. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by the MODIS Rapid Response team at Goddard Space Flight Center
Hurricane Isabel Approaches
Title Hurricane Isabel Approaches
Explanation Where will Hurricane Isabel [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/ ] go? One of the stronger storm systems [ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastint.html ] of modern times appears headed for one the more populated seaboards on planet Earth -- the east coast of the USA [ http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html ]. Hurricane Isabel, pictured yesteday as it passed east of the Bahamas [ http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/bf.html ], has flirted with category 5 [ http://www.srcc.lsu.edu/OEP/hurr_scale.html ] status, the most powerful hurricane category [ http://www.hawaii.navy.mil/hurricane/hurr_info.htm ]. Hurricanes are huge swirling storms [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960920.html ] with cloud systems typically larger than a state. Tropical cyclones, called hurricanes in Earth's Western Hemisphere and typhoons [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970819.html ] in the Eastern Hemisphere, get their immense energy from warm evaporated ocean water. As this water vapor cools and condenses, it heats the air, lowers pressure [ http://www.howstuffworks.com/hurricane.htm ] and hence causes cooler air to come swooshing in. Winds can reach over 250 kilometers per hour and become very dangerous [ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/miami/peopleevents/pande07.html ]. Much remains unknown about cyclones [ http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/tcfaqHED.html ], including how they are formed and the exact path they will take.
Earth observations taken dur …
johnsonspacecentermediaarchi …
Earth observations taken dur …
sts098-720a-085
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 02/17/01
creator NASA
identifier sts098-720a-085
Earth observations during ST …
johnsonspacecentermediaarchi …
Earth observations taken dur …
STS058-107-083
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 1993-10-28
creator NASA
identifier STS058-107-083
Wake Shield Facility in orbi …
johnsonspacecentermediaarchi …
Approach views of the free-f …
STS069-719-016
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 1995-09-14
creator NASA
identifier STS069-719-016
Tropical Storm Adrian: Natur …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Tropical Storm Adrian is dev …
Adrian_GOES_2005139
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2005-05-19
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier Adrian_GOES_2005139
Hurricane Jeanne Cloud Heigh …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
After causing widespread des …
PIA04368
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 09/24/04
creator NASA -- Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/ MISR Team. Text by Clare Averill (Raytheon/JPL).
identifier PIA04368
Hurricane Frances: Natural H …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
The MODIS instrument aboard …
terra_frances_03sep04
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2004-09-03
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier terra_frances_03sep04
Payload bay and earth
johnsonspacecentermediaarchi …
Views of the Columbia's payl …
STS083-464-005
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 1997-04-24
creator NASA
identifier STS083-464-005
Earth observations taken dur …
johnsonspacecentermediaarchi …
Earth observations taken dur …
sts098-720a-051
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 02/17/01
creator NASA
identifier sts098-720a-051
Natural Color Mosaic of Nort …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
This natural-color image com …
PIA04361
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2004
creator NASA -- NASA image courtesy GSFC/LaRC/JPL www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/ MISR Team. Please note that the high-resolution JPEG image is provided here at a pixel resolution of approximately 2.2 kilometers, but a more detailed version (at 278 meters per pixel) is available from the producer of the multi-path mosaic: Jim Knighton of Clear Light Image Products ( mailto:jknighton@clear-light.com jknighton@clear-light.com ). Text by Clare Averill, Raytheon ITSS/JPL
identifier PIA04361
Hurricane Frances: Natural H …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
This image of Hurricane Fran …
Frances_ISS_2004243
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2004-08-30
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier Frances_ISS_2004243
Hurricane Rita: Natural Haza …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
A tropical depression formed …
rita_tmo_18sep05
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2005-09-18
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier rita_tmo_18sep05
Hurricane Frances: Natural H …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
These images generated from …
Frances_AIRS20040830
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2004-08-30
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier Frances_AIRS20040830
Anaglyph, North America
PIA03378
Sol (our sun)
C-Band Interferometric Radar
Title Anaglyph, North America
Original Caption Released with Image This anaglyph (stereoscopic view) of North America was generated with data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). It is best viewed at or near full resolution with anaglyph glasses. For this broad view the resolution of the data was first reduced to 30 arcseconds (about 928 meters north-south and 736 meters east-west in central North America), matching the best previously existing global digital topographic data set called GTOPO30. The data were then resampled to a Mercator projection with approximately square pixels (about one kilometer, or 0.6 miles, on each side). Even at this decreased resolution the variety of landforms comprising the North American continent is readily apparent. Active tectonics (structural deformation of the Earth's crust) along and near the Pacific North American plate boundary creates the great topographic relief seen along the Pacific coast. Earth's crustal plates converge in southern Mexico and in the northwest United States, melting the crust and producing volcanic cones. Along the California coast, the plates are sliding laterally past each other, producing a pattern of slices within the San Andreas fault system. And, where the plates are diverging, the crust appears torn apart as one huge tear along the Gulf of California (northwest Mexico), and as the several fractures comprising the Basin and Range province (in and around Nevada). Across the Great Plains, erosional patterns dominate, with stream channels surrounding and penetrating the remnants of older smooth slopes east of the Rocky Mountains. This same erosion process is exposing the bedrock structural patterns of the Black Hills in South Dakota and the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. Lateral erosion and sediment deposition by the Mississippi River has produced the flatlands of the lower Mississippi Valley and the Mississippi Delta. To the north, evidence of the glaciers of the last ice age is widely found, particularly east of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and around the Great Lakes. From northeastern British Columbia, across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba to North Dakota and Minnesota, huge striations clearly show the flow pattern of the glaciers. And southwest of Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie, arcing ridges of sediment, called terminal moraines, show where glaciers dumped sediment at their melting ends. In eastern Canada, New York, and New England, the terrain has been scoured by glaciers, and eroded by streams, particularly along fractures in the bedrock. In Labrador and Quebec, the Mistastin, Manicougan, and Clearwater Lakes meteor impact craters can also be seen. Further south, narrow curving ridges of upturned and eroded layered rocks form most of the Appalachian Mountains. In contrast, around the Caribbean Sea region (Yucatan, Florida, and the Bahamas), flat-lying, stable limestone platforms are common, while the most eastern islands of the Caribbean include active volcanoes along another convergence zone of tectonic plates. This, anaglyph was created by deriving a shaded relief image from the SRTM data, draping it back over the SRTM elevation model, and then generating two differing perspectives, one for each eye. Illumination is from the north (top). When viewed through special glasses, the anaglyph is a vertically exaggerated view of the Earth's surface in its full three dimensions. Anaglyph glasses cover the left eye with a red filter and cover the right eye with a blue filter. Elevation data used in this image were acquired by the 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. Location: 15 to 60 degrees North latitude, 50 to 130 degrees West longitude Orientation: North toward the top, Mercator projection Image Data: Shaded SRTM elevation model Original Data Resolution: SRTM 1 arcsecond (about 30 meters or 98 feet) Date Acquired: February 2000
Shaded Relief with Height as …
PIA03377
Sol (our sun)
C-Band Interferometric Radar
Title Shaded Relief with Height as Color, North America
Original Caption Released with Image This image of North America was generated with data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). For this broad view the resolution of the data was first reduced to 30 arcseconds (about 928 meters north-south and 736 meters east-west in central North America), matching the best previously existing global digital topographic data set called GTOPO30. The data were then resampled to a Mercator projection with approximately square pixels (about one kilometer, or 0.6 miles, on each side). Even at this decreased resolution the variety of landforms comprising the North American continent is readily apparent. Active tectonics (structural deformation of the Earth's crust) along and near the Pacific -- North American plate boundary creates the great topographic relief seen along the Pacific coast. Earth's crustal plates converge in southern Mexico and in the northwest United States, melting the crust and producing volcanic cones. Along the California coast, the plates are sliding laterally past each other, producing a pattern of slices within the San Andreas fault system. And, where the plates are diverging, the crust appears torn apart as one huge tear along the Gulf of California (northwest Mexico), and as the several fractures comprising the Basin and Range province (in and around Nevada). Across the Great Plains, erosional patterns dominate, with streams channels surrounding and penetrating the remnants of older smooth slopes east of the Rocky Mountains. This same erosion process is exposing the bedrock structural patterns of the Black Hills in South Dakota and the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. Lateral erosion and sediment deposition by the Mississippi River has produced the flatlands of the lower Mississippi Valley and the Mississippi Delta. To the north, evidence of the glaciers of the last ice age is widely found, particularly east of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and around the Great Lakes. From northeastern British Columbia, across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba to North Dakota and Minnesota, huge striations clearly show the flow pattern of the glaciers. And southwest of Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie, arcing ridges of sediment, called terminal moraines, show where glaciers dumped sediment at their melting ends. In eastern Canada, New York, and New England, the terrain has been scoured by glaciers, and eroded by streams, particularly along fractures in the bedrock. In Labrador and Quebec, the Mistastin, Manicougan, and Clearwater Lakes meteor impact craters can also be seen. Further south, narrow curving ridges of upturned and eroded layered rocks form most of the Appalachian Mountains. In contrast, around the Caribbean Sea region (Yucatan, Florida, and the Bahamas), flat-lying, stable limestone platforms are common, while the most eastern islands of the Caribbean include active volcanoes along another convergence zone of tectonic plates. Two visualization methods were combined to produce the image: shading and color coding of, topographic height. The shade image was derived by computing topographic slope in the northwest-southeast direction, so that northwest slopes appear bright and southeast slopes appear dark. Color coding is directly related to topographic height, with green at the lower elevations, rising through yellow and tan, to white at the highest elevations. Elevation data used in this image were acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission 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. Location: 15 to 60 degrees North latitude, 50 to 130 degrees West longitude Orientation: North toward the top, Mercator projection Image Data: shaded and colored SRTM elevation model Original Data Resolution: SRTM 1 arcsecond (about 30 meters or 98 feet) Date Acquired: February 2000
Hurricane Jeanne Cloud Heigh …
PIA04368
Sol (our sun)
Multi-angle Imaging SpectroR …
Title Hurricane Jeanne Cloud Height and Motion
Original Caption Released with Image After causing widespread destruction on Puerto Rico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Hurricane Jeanne was weakened to Tropical Storm status for several days before it regained strength over the Bahamas as a Category 2 hurricane. When Jeanne made landfall in U.S. territory on September 26 it was the fourth major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season to strike Florida. These visualizations of Hurricane Jeanne on September 24 were captured by NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR). The still panels include a natural color view from MISR's 26-degree forward-viewing camera (left) and a two dimensional map of cloud-top heights (right). In addition, a "multi-angle fly-over" is provided as an animation using views from all nine MISR cameras. The nine camera views which make up the animation have been processed to give an approximate perspective view. The animation makes visible the relative heights of clouds within the scene. Some of the real cloud motion over the seven minutes during which all nine MISR cameras observed the scene are also indicated by the animation. The cloud height map was produced by automated computer recognition of the distinctive spatial features between images acquired at different view angles. Two-dimensional maps of cloud height such as these offer an opportunity to compare simulated cloud fields against actual hurricane observations. Results indicate that clouds within Jeanne had attained altitudes of more than 16 kilometers above sea level. The height field pictured here is uncorrected for the effects of cloud motion. Wind-corrected heights have higher accuracy but sparser spatial coverage. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer 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 orbit 25372. The still image panels cover an area of about 400 kilometers x 884 kilometers, and utilize data from within blocks 68 to 71 and within World Reference System-2 path 10. 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 Technolog
Natural Color Mosaic of Nort …
PIA04361
Sol (our sun)
C-Band Interferometric Radar …
Title Natural Color Mosaic of North America
Original Caption Released with Image This natural-color image combines cloud-free data from over 500 Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) orbits with shaded relief Digital Terrain Elevation models from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and other sources. An astonishing diversity of geological features, ecological systems and human landscapes across North America is indicated within the image, which spans from 56N, 136W at the upper left to 16N 48W at lower right. In addition to the contiguous United States, the scene spans from British Columbia in the northwest to Newfoundland in the northeast, and extends eastward to the lonely Bermuda Islands and southward to the Bahamas, Cuba and Mexico. Draped in green, the eastern and central United States and Canada contrast with the vibrant geology that is laid bare across the arid portions of the southwestern United States and central Mexico. Along Mexico's east coast, the lush vegetation to the east of the Sierra Madre mountain range indicates the orographic rainfall gradient along this subtropical-tropical coast. In the high Rocky Mountains and in British Columbia's Coast Range, many peaks remain snow-covered year-round. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously and every 9 days views the entire globe between 82 north and 82 south latitude. This data product was generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during years 2000 - 2004. The image is displayed in an Albers Conic Equal Area projection with the projection center at 36 North, 92 West. 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.
SeaWinds Global Coverage wit …
PIA02455
Sol (our sun)
SeaWinds Scatterometer
Title SeaWinds Global Coverage with Detail of Hurricane Floyd
Original Caption Released with Image The distribution of ocean surface winds over the Atlantic Ocean, based on September 1999 data from NASA's SeaWinds instrument on the QuikScat satellite, shows wind direction (white streamlines) at a resolution of 25 kilometers (15.5 miles), superimposed on the color image indicating wind speed. Over the ocean, the strong (seen in violet) trade winds blow steadily from the cooler subtropical oceans to warm waters just north of the equator. The air rises over these warm waters and sinks in the subtropics at the horse latitudes. Low wind speeds are indicated in blue. In the mid-latitudes, the high vorticity caused by the rotation of the Earth generates the spirals of weather systems. The North Atlantic is dominated by a high-pressure system, whose anti-cyclonic (clockwise) flow creates strong winds blowing parallel to the coast of Spain and Morocco. This creates strong ocean upwelling and cold temperature. Hurricane Floyd, with its high winds (yellow), is clearly visible west of the Bahamas. Tropical depression Gert is seen as it was forming in the tropical mid-Atlantic (as an anti-clockwise spiral), it later developed into a full-blown hurricane. Because the atmosphere is largely transparent to microwaves, SeaWinds is able to cover 93 percent of the global oceans, under both clear and cloudy conditions, in a single day, with the capability of a synoptic view of the ocean. The high resolution of the data also gives detailed description of small and intense weather systems, like Hurricane Floyd. The image in the insert is based on data specially produced at 12.5 kilometers (7.7 miles). In the insert, white arrows of wind vector are imposed on the color image of wind speed. The insert represents a 3-degree area occupied by Hurricane Floyd. After these data were acquired, Hurricane Floyd turned north. Its strength and proximity to the Atlantic coast of the U.S. caused the largest evacuation of citizens in U.S. history. Its landfall on September 16, 1999 resulted in severe flooding and devastation in the Carolinas. The high-resolution SeaWinds data provided an opportunity to monitor and study this hurricane. NASA's Earth Science Enterprise is a long-term research and technology program designed to examine Earth's land, oceans, atmosphere, ice and life as a total integrated system. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.
Tropical Storm Katrina
PIA07432
Sol (our sun)
SeaWinds Scatterometer
Title Tropical Storm Katrina
Original Caption Released with Image . QuikScat is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC, by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. JPL also built the SeaWinds radar instrument and is providing ground science processing systems. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, managed development of the satellite, designed and built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, CO. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has contributed support to ground systems processing and related activities., Tropical Storm Katrina is shown here as observed by NASA's QuikScat satellite on August 25, 2005, at 08:37 UTC (4:37 a.m. in Florida). At this time, the storm had 80 kilometers per hour (50 miles per hour, 43 knots) sustained winds. The storm does not appear to yet have reached hurricane strength. The greater danger may be not with her winds, but with Katrina's rains. The storm is moving slowly, just 13 km/hr (8 mph), and is expected to slow as it moves over land. This means that Katrina 's heavy rains will linger longer over one area, dumping 15-25 centimeters (6-10 inches) of rain over Florida and the Bahamas and possibly up to 38 cm (15 inches) in some regions, the National Hurricane Center warns. The image depicts wind speed in color and wind direction with small barbs. White barbs point to areas of heavy rain. The highest wind speeds, shown in purple, surround the center of the storm. Measurements of the wind strength of Tropical Storm Katrina show sustained winds similar to those shown by these QuikScat observations, though not identical. This is because the power of the storm makes accurate measurements difficult. The scatterometer sends pulses of microwave energy through the atmosphere to the ocean surface, and measures the energy that bounces back from the wind-roughened surface. The energy of the microwave pulses changes depending on wind speed and direction, giving scientists a way to monitor wind around the world. Tropical cyclones (the generic term for hurricanes and typhoons) and to a lesser extent, weaker storm systems like Katrina, are difficult to measure. To relate the radar energy return to actual wind speed, scientists compare measurements taken from buoys and other ground stations to data the satellite acquired at the same time and place. Because the high wind speeds generated by cyclones are rare, scientists do not have corresponding ground information to know how to translate data from the satellite for wind speeds above 50 knots (about 93 km/hr or 58 mph). Also, the unusually heavy rain found in a cyclone distorts the microwave pulses in a number of ways, making a conversion to accurate wind speed difficult. Instead, the scatterometer provides a nice picture of the relative wind speeds within the storm and shows wind direction. For more information about the storm, please visit the National Hurricane Center [ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ ]. "QuikScat Background" NASA's Quick Scatterometer (QuikScat) spacecraft was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on June 19, 1999. QuikScat carries the SeaWinds scatterometer, a specialized microwave radar that measures near-surface wind speed and direction under all weather and cloud conditions over the Earth's oceans. More information about the QuikScat mission and observations is available at http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07432 http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov ]
Tarpum Bay, Bahamas
PIA03877
Sol (our sun)
ASTER
Title Tarpum Bay, Bahamas
Original Caption Released with Image In this ASTER image the features that look like folded material are carbonate sand dunes in the shallow waters of Tarpum Bay, southwest of Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. The sand making up the dunes comes from the erosion of limestone coral reefs, and has been shaped into dunes by ocean currents. This image was acquired on May 12, 2002 by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite. 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 will provide 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. Dr. Anne Kahle at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, is the U.S. Science team leader, Bjorn Eng of JPL is the project manager. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, a long- term research effort to understand and protect our home planet. Through the study of Earth, NASA will help to provide sound science to policy and economic decision-makers so as to better life here, while developing the technologies needed to explore the universe and search for life beyond our home planet. Size: 30.7 x 46.1 km (19.0 x 28.2 miles) Location: 25.1 deg. North lat., 76.4 deg. West long. Orientation: North at top Image Data: ASTER bands 1,2, and 3. Original Data Resolution: 15 m Date Acquired: May 12, 2002
General Description International Space Station Imagery
General Description International Space Station Imagery
General Description STS-100 Shuttle Mission Imagery
Southeastern United States a …
Title Southeastern United States and Caribbean Sea from Apollo 8 spacecraft
Description Most of the southeastern United States and Caribbean Sea, the U.S. coastline from Chesapeake Bay to the Florida peninsula can be seen from the Apollo 8 spacecraft in orbit above the Earth. The Bahamas and the Islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispiniola and Puerto Rico extend across the Caribbean. The light blue of the shallow Bahama banks contrasts with the darker hue of the deeper water especially in the Tongue of the Ocean area.
Date Taken 1968-12-22
Bahama Islands as seen from …
Title Bahama Islands as seen from Gemini 7 spacecraft
Description Andros, New Providence and Berry Islands in the Bahama Islands are photographed by Astronaut Frank Borman and James A. Lovell during the 15th revolution of the Gemini 7 mission.
Date Taken 1965-12-05
State of Florida as seen fro …
Title State of Florida as seen from Skylab
Description An oblique view of the State of Florida (26.5N, 81.5W), looking northward up the peninsula, as photographed from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit by one of the Skylab 4 crewmen. This view shows almost the entire state, except the panhandle region. The Bahama Banks area appears in the southeast part of the picture as the light blue water. Andros Island in the Bahamas group is the island in the lower right corner. The Gulfstream flows between Florida and the Bahama Banks. A portion of Cuba is seen in the lower left corner of the picture.
Date Taken 1974-01-10
Eleuthera Island, Bahamas
Title Eleuthera Island, Bahamas
Description Eleuthera Island, (24.5N, 76.0W) Bahamas Island Group, is one of several within the archipelago surrounded by shallow seas, visible here as light blue. Mosaic patterns of sand waves built by sea bottom currents in the shallows stand out in stark contrast to the deep blue of the ocean depths of a thousand feet in the Exuma Sound.
Date Taken 1981-04-14
View of the Columbia's RMS a …
Title View of the Columbia's RMS arm and end effector grasping IECM
Description The North Atlantic Ocean southeast of the Bahamas is in the background as Columbia's remote manipulator system (RMS) arm and end effector grasp a multi-instrument monitor for detecting contaminants. The experiment is called the induced environment contaminant monitor (IECM). Below the IECM the tail of the orbiter can be seen.
Date Taken 1982-07-04
Clouds and Open Ocean near t …
Title Clouds and Open Ocean near the Bahamas
Description Sunglint reflects off the water of the Sargasso Sea, North Atlantic Ocean east of the Bahama Island archipelago. This area is sometimes referred to as "The Bermuda Triangle".
Date Taken 1982-07-04
Tongue of the ocean, Bahamas …
Title Tongue of the ocean, Bahamas Archipelago
Description A portion of the tongue of the ocean (24.0N, 77.0W), and the Bahamas Bank, Bahamas Archipelago. The light blue region is the shalow sea bottom where the Bahama Bank is no more than 30 ft. deep. At the contact between light and dark blue, an underwater shear cliff drops over a mile in depth. The wavey lines of various shades of blue are caused by the differential coral growth relative to the warm/cool water transfer in and out of the tongue.
Date Taken 1982-11-16
Bahama Islands
Title Bahama Islands
Description This beautiful photograph from space shows the contrast between islands, clouds, shallow water and deep water of the Bahamas (25.0N, 76.5E). The Bahama Islands of Nassau (the smaller island) and Eleuthera are at the edge of the Bahama Bank where the water is shallow revealing the bottom in pale blue detail contrasted to the dark depths of the Exuma Sound where the bottom is over a thousand feet deep.
Date Taken 1983-04-09
Florida, Bahama Islands, Cub …
Title Florida, Bahama Islands, Cuba as seen from Gemini 12 spacecraft
Description Florida (south half), Bahama Islands (Andros-Grand Bahamas-Bimini), and Cuba, looking south as seen from Gemini 12 spacecraft on its 15th revolution of the earth.
Date Taken 1966-11-13
Florida Peninsula, Bahama Ba …
Title Florida Peninsula, Bahama Banks
Description The Florida Peninsula (27.0N, 81.0W) is neatly bracketed between the Earth Limb across the Gulf of Mexico and the Bahama Banks in the foreground. Geographic relationships of Cape Canaveral, Lake Okeechobe, the Miami urban complex and the shallow waters of Florida Bay and the Florida Keys are displayed in a single well composed photo.
Date Taken 1989-05-08
Hubble Space Telescope Deplo …
Title Hubble Space Telescope Deploy, Cuba, Bahamas and Gulf of Mexico
Description Hubble Space Telescope Deploy with the entire island of Cuba, Bahamas and Gulf of Mexico in the background (22.0N, 78.0W).
Date Taken 1990-04-29
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