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Drought on the Great Plains
| Title |
Drought on the Great Plains |
| Description |
Across the Great Plains of the United States and Canada, devastating drought spread across grasslands and croplands in summer 2006. Poor winter snowfall and a blisteringly hot summer [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13742 ] following several years of dry conditions have created a dire situation for many farmers and ranchers across the region. According to a recent article [ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/29/us/29drought.html?ex=1157688000&en=13a216546b7d4243&ei=5070 ] on the New York Times Website, many people are comparing the conditions to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. The widespread drought conditions are obvious in this vegetation anomaly image based on data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite. Places where vegetation is healthier or more abundant than average are green, places where vegetation is about the same as average are pale yellow, and places where vegetation is not as healthy or abundant as average are brown. Gray patches show where no data were available, probably because of persistent clouds. One of the most common satellite-based vegetation maps is a scale, or index, of vegetation greenness called the "NDVI," short for Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. This image compares NDVI values from July 28-August 12, 2006, to the average values from 2001-2005. Vegetation was faring worst along the Missouri River through North and South Dakota, but below-average vegetation conditions stretch across parts of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, northwestern Nebraska, and Minnesota as well. The plains of Canada's Saskatchewan and Manitoba provinces were suffering drought, too. A few small pockets of green in the image reveal where vegetation greenness values observed by MODIS were higher than average: the mountains of north-central Colorado, southeastern Nebraska, and the Red River Valley. The Red River Valley experienced widespread snowfall and heavy rains in the spring of 2006, leading to significant flooding. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13500 ] The early-season moisture may have helped the vegetation in the area withstand the hot summer. According to the August 29, 2006, update from the U.S. Drought Monitor, [ http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html ] most of the Northern Great Plains, as well as much of Oklahoma and Texas, was still in the midst of drought, with many areas falling into the highest category: exceptional drought. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by Inbal Reshef as part of the Global Agricultural Monitoring Project [ http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/glam.cfm ] between NASA, USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), and the University of Maryland. |
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North and South Platte River
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| Title |
North and South Platte Rivers, Nebraska |
| Description |
Lake McConaughy and a tan-and-green patchwork of thousands of agricultural fields dominate this astronaut photo of western Nebraska and northeastern Colorado. The astronaut who shot this view was looking towards the east-northeast, focusing on the thin, green lines of the floodplains of the North and South Platte rivers. These join to form the Platte River near image upper right. From a geographical perspective, the photograph demonstrates how the Platte River system has determined transportation and settlement patterns for centuries. Modern Highway 80 follows the North Platte, and Highway 76 follows the South Platte. The presence of transport routes and rivers—as sources of water in a semiarid region—in turn determine the location of towns: the city of North Platte stands out as a light gray area on the floodplain at the confluence of the North and South Platte rivers, as do two smaller towns, Gothenburg and Cozad, farther downstream (image top right). The distribution of cropland visible in this image also reveals interesting geographical information about the characteristics of the land surface. The flattest surfaces are easiest to farm and have the highest density of farmed fields. These flat surfaces lie on the river floodplains, but are also present on the higher surrounding surfaces. Between the heavily cultivated land in the river floodplain and the uplands is a strip of rough country that is difficult to farm. As a result, it stands out as a gray strip running parallel to the green croplands of the floodplains. The famous Nebraska Sand Hills, recognizable by their characteristic scalloped texture north of Lake McConaughty, are a hummocky sand dune field (now vegetated). According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, [ http://www.drought.unl.edu ] westernmost Nebraska was abnormally dry in the last three months—covering the time when this image was taken (September 5, 2007). The impact of the water deficit on grass cover can be seen in the image: dry areas are brown (image lower left), and moister areas farther east are greener (image right). Astronaut photograph ISS015-E-27232 [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS015&roll=E&frame=27232 ] was acquired on September 5, 2007, with a Kodak 760C digital camera using a 70 mm lens.. The image was taken by the Expedition 15 crew [ http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.html ], and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program [ http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/home/index.html ], 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/ ] |
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Snow Across the Western Unit
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| Title |
Snow Across the Western United States |
| Description |
The Sunday after Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the busiest travel days of the year in the United States as people return home from the four-day weekend. Sunday, November 28, 2004, was no exception, but this year, Mother Nature snarled traffic across a large swath of the west with an intense snow storm. The storm dumped up to 24 inches (0.6 meters) of snow on the mountains of southern Utah, and blanketed the surrounding states. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image the following day, on November 29, after the clouds moved out. The storm's path is clearly visible in this image: a track of white extends from southeastern Oregon and the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California to Colorado and New Mexico in the east. The National Weather Service reports that the storm moved east across the Plains States of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, and Iowa on November 29 and November 30. The snow highlights some interesting features of the Western United States that might not otherwise be obvious in satellite imagery. Sandwiched between the straight diagonal line of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the west (the straight edge of the snow) and the Rocky Mountains in Central Utah in the east is the Great Basin Desert. This high desert basin covers a heart-shaped region of southern Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and southern Idaho and is clearly outlined in snow. Hemmed between two large mountain ranges that trap moisture from the east and the west, it is the United States' largest desert. It receives on average 7-12 inches of precipitation every year. The water that does fall in the region drains to interior, closed basins instead of the ocean, giving the region its name. The Great Basin Desert is made up of a series of mostly north-south running mountain ranges and valleys that give the land a wrinkled, wash-board appearance, particularly in Nevada. The snow highlights elevation change elsewhere in the image. The imposing Rocky Mountains appear slightly darker than the valleys around them, and the peaks and high plateaus in the south are covered in snow while the pink desert lowlands remain bare. On the right edge of the image, the flat plains of eastern Wyoming and Colorado are an even, uninterrupted white. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Land Processes DAAC |
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Snow Storm in Colorado
| Title |
Snow Storm in Colorado |
| Description |
A big snowstorm brought much-needed moisture to the state of Colorado on January 19, 2006. As reported by the Rocky Mountain News, before the storm, the state's assistant climatologist had warned that drought was beginning to affect the foothills west of the Denver metro area and the plains to the east of the city. A week later, relief arrived, although opinions varied as to whether it was enough to stop the developing drought conditions. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] flying onboard the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite took this picture of Colorado and surrounding states on January 20, 2006. In this image, snow blankets the Rocky Mountains and extends to the east in a counterclockwise direction towards Kansas and Nebraska. The same storm system that brought moisture to Colorado continued dropping precipitation through the Midwest. For Colorado residents, the snow was a mixed blessing. On January 19, temperatures remained warm enough to melt much of the snow as soon as it hit the ground. Overnight temperatures, however, plummeted. The day this image was taken, commuters throughout the state were contending with roads like ice rinks. According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, authorities urged commuters to drive slowly to avoid crashes. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC. |
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Snowstorm in the American Mi
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| Title |
Snowstorm in the American Midwest |
| Description |
The vernal equinox marks the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. But after a record-setting warm winter, the start of spring 2006 came with an ironic twist: a powerful snowstorm that blanketed most of the American Midwest in heavy snow. According to the Associated Press, snow fell as rapidly as two inches an hour in Illinois and Indiana, while in parts of Nebraska, total accumulations were as much as two feet (roughly 60 centimeters) of snow, closing sections of Interstate 80. In Colorado and Kansas, the same snow system also forced closings along Interstate 70 on March 20. The AP was also reporting that at least five deaths had been attributed to the snow in Colorado, Nebraska, and Texas. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite observed the wake behind the storm at 12:55 p.m. Mountain Time (19:45 UTC) on March 21, 2006. In this false-color image, clouds appear white, snow and ice appear blue, and land colors vary from reddish tans to greens in areas of lesser or greater vegetation. While a thin layer of cloud covers much of the area where the heaviest snow fell the previous day, the long, wide swath of blue, occasionally visible through the thin cloud cover, shows the path of the snowstorm. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team. |
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Drought on the Great Plains:
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nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle
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Across the Great Plains of t
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nplainsndvia_tmo_2006209
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2006-08-12 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by Inbal Reshef as part of the www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/glam.cfm Global Agricultural Monitoring Project between NASA, USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), and the University of Maryland. |
| identifier |
nplainsndvia_tmo_2006209 |
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Snowstorm in the American Mi
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
The vernal equinox marks the
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midwest_AMO_2006080
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2006-03-21 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
midwest_AMO_2006080 |
|
Snowstorms in Colorado: Natu
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
* eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/ima
…
colorado_tmo_2006359
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2006-12-25 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
colorado_tmo_2006359 |
|
Snow Storm in Colorado: Natu
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
A big snowstorm brought much
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colorado_tmo_2006020
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2006-01-20 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
colorado_tmo_2006020 |
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Front Range of the Rockies
PIA03406
Sol (our sun)
Multi-angle Imaging SpectroR
…
| Title |
Front Range of the Rockies |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
These MISR images from May 12, 2001 (Terra orbit 7447) include portions of southern Wyoming, central Colorado, and western Nebraska. The top view is from the instrument's vertical-viewing (nadir) camera. The bottom image is a stereo "anaglyph" generated using data from the nadir and 46-degree-forward cameras. Viewing the anaglyph with red/blue glasses (red filter over your left eye) gives a 3-D effect. To facilitate stereo viewing, the images have been oriented with north at the left. Each image measures 422 kilometers x 213 kilometers. The South Platte River enters just to the right of center at the top of the images. It wends its way westward (down), then turns southward (right) where it flows through the city of Denver. Located at the western edge of the Great Plains, Denver is nicknamed the "Mile High City", a consequence of its 1609-meter (5280-foot) elevation above sea level. It shows up in the imagery as a grayish patch surrounded by numerous agricultural fields to the north and east. Denver is situated just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, located in the lower right of the images. The Rockies owe their present forms to tectonic uplift and sculpting by millions of years of erosion. Scattered cumulus clouds floating above the mountain peaks are visible in these images, and stand out most dramatically in the 3-D stereo view. To the north of Denver, other urban areas included within these images are Boulder, Greeley, Longmont, and Fort Collins, Colorado, Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming, and Scottsbluff, Nebraska. 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. |
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View east over the Rocky Mou
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| Title |
View east over the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains |
| Description |
A color oblique view looking east over the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains (40.0N, 106.0W). This view covers a portion of the States of Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska. This entire region, covered with snow, depicts much of the structural and topographic features of the Rocky Mountain chain. Only change to snow pattern seen here is the (right center) metropolitan areas of Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado, which can be observed along the eastern edge of the mountain front. The major inter-montane valleys of South Park (right center), Middle Park (center), and North Park (left center) are clearly visible and separate the Colorado Rockies Front Range from the high rugged mountains that form the core of the Rocky Mountains. Individual mountains can be discovered such as Pikes Peak near right border (center), Mt. Cunnison region, circular feature accentuated by the Cunnison River (dark) in the right center (bottom) of the photograph. The snow covered peaks of Mts. Harvard, Princeton, |
| Date Taken |
1974-02-01 |
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