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Seeing Stars in Serpens
Title Seeing Stars in Serpens
Description Infant stars are glowing gloriously in this infrared image of the Serpens star-forming region, captured by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The reddish-pink dots are baby stars deeply embedded in the cosmic cloud of gas and dust that collapsed to create it. A dusty disk of cosmic debris, or "protoplanetary disk," that may eventually form planets, surrounds the infant stars. Wisps of green throughout the image indicate the presence of carbon rich molecules called, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). On Earth, PAHs can be found on charred barbecue grills and in automobile exhaust. Blue specks sprinkled throughout the image are background stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. The Serpens star-forming region is located approximately 848 light-years away in the Serpens constellation. The image is a three-channel false-color composite, where emission at 4.5 microns is blue, emission at 8.0 microns is green, and 24 micron emission is red.
Hubble Snaps Picture of Rema …
Title Hubble Snaps Picture of Remarkable Double Cluster
NASA's Hubble Finds Hundreds …
Title NASA's Hubble Finds Hundreds of Young Galaxies in Early Universe
NASA's Hubble Finds Hundreds …
Title NASA's Hubble Finds Hundreds of Young Galaxies in Early Universe
NASA's Hubble Finds Hundreds …
Title NASA's Hubble Finds Hundreds of Young Galaxies in Early Universe
Hubble Approaches the Final …
Title Hubble Approaches the Final Frontier: The Dawn of Galaxies
Double Exposure Image of Spa …
Name of Image Double Exposure Image of Spacelab-1 in Cargo Bay of Orbiter Columbia
Date of Image 1983-01-01
Full Description This double exposure image shows Spacelab-1 in the cargo bay of orbiter Columbia. From top to bottom inside the cargo bay are the Spacelab Access Turnel, which is connected to the mid-deck of the orbiter, the Spacelab module, a pressurized module in which scientists conduct experiments not possible on Earth, and Spacelab pallets, which can hold instruments for the experiments requiring direct exposure to space. The first Spacelab mission, Spacelab-1, sponsored jointly and shared equally by NASA and the European Space Agency, was a multidisciplinary mission, that is, investigations were performed in several different fields of scientific research. The overall goal of the mission was to verify Spacelab performance through a variety of scientific experiments. The disciplines represented by these experiments were astronomy and solar physics, earth observations, space plasma physics, materials sciences, atmospheric physics, and life sciences. International in nature, Spacelab-1 conducted experiments from the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Beluga, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. Spacelab-1 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on November 28, 1983 aboard the orbiter Columbia (STS-9). The Marshall Space Flight Center was responsible for managing the Spacelab missions.
Spacelab-1 Module
Name of Image Spacelab-1 Module
Date of Image 1983-01-01
Full Description This photograph shows the Spacelab-1 module and Spacelab access turnel being installed in the cargo bay of orbiter Columbia for the STS-9 mission. The oribiting laboratory, built by the European Space Agency, is capable of supporting many types of scientific research that can best be performed in space. The Spacelab access tunnel, the only major piece of Spacelab hardware made in the U.S., connects the module with the mid-deck level of the orbiter cabin. The first Spacelab mission, Spacelab-1, sponsored jointly and shared equally by NASA and the European Space Agency, was a multidisciplinary mission, that is, investigations were performed in several different fields of scientific research. The overall goal of the mission was to verify Spacelab performance through a variety of scientific experiments. The disciplines represented by these experiments were: astronomy and solar physics, earth observations, space plasma physics, materials sciences, atmospheric physics, and life sciences. International in nature, Spacelab-1 conducted experiments from the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Beluga, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. Spacelab-1, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on November 28, 1983 aboard the orbiter Columbia (STS-9). The Marshall Space Flight Center was responsible for managing the Spacelab missions.
International Space Station
Name of Image International Space Station
Date of Image 1998-01-01
Full Description This artist's digital concept depicts the completely assembled International Space Station (ISS) passing over Florida. 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 the ISS are: United States, Russian Federation, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and Brazil.
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.
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 the Straits of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea. 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 the ISS are: United States, Russian Federation, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and Brazil.
International Space Station …
Name of Image International Space Station Assembly
Date of Image 1999-01-01
Full Description The International Space Station (ISS) is an unparalleled international scientific and technological cooperative venture that will usher in a new era of human space exploration and research and provide benefits to people on Earth. On-Orbit assembly began on November 20, 1998, with the launch of the first ISS component, Zarya, on a Russian Proton rocket. The Space Shuttle followed on December 4, 1998, carrying the U.S.-built Unity cornecting Module. Sixteen nations are participating in the ISS program: the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The ISS will include six laboratories and be four times larger and more capable than any previous space station. The United States provides two laboratories (United States Laboratory and Centrifuge Accommodation Module) and a habitation module. There will be two Russian research modules, one Japanese laboratory, referred to as the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), and one European Space Agency (ESA) laboratory called the Columbus Orbital Facility (COF). The station's internal volume will be roughly equivalent to the passenger cabin volume of two 747 jets. Over five years, a total of more than 40 space flights by at least three different vehicles - the Space Shuttle, the Russian Proton Rocket, and the Russian Soyuz rocket - will bring together more than 100 different station components and the ISS crew. Astronauts will perform many spacewalks and use new robotics and other technologies to assemble ISS components in space.
Payload Operations Center (P …
Name of Image Payload Operations Center (POC) for the International Space Station (ISS)
Date of Image 2001-02-01
Full Description The International Space Station (ISS) Payload Operations Center (POC) at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, is the world's primary science command post for the International Space Station (ISS), the most ambitious space research facility in human history. The Payload Operations team is responsible for managing all science research experiments aboard the Station. The center is also home for coordination of the mission-plarning work of variety of international sources, all science payload deliveries and retrieval, and payload training and safety programs for the Station crew and all ground personnel. Within the POC, critical payload information from the ISS is displayed on a dedicated workstation, reading both S-band (low data rate) and Ku-band (high data rate) signals from a variety of experiments and procedures operated by the ISS crew and their colleagues on Earth. The POC is the focal point for incorporating research and experiment requirements from all international partners into an integrated ISS payload mission plan. This photograph is an overall view of the MSFC Payload Operations Center displaying the flags of the countries participating the ISS. The flags at the left portray The United States, Canada, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Japan, Brazil, and Sweden. The flags at the right portray The Russian Federation, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Spain, United Kingdom, Denmark, and Norway.
Payload Operations Center (P …
Name of Image Payload Operations Center (POC) for the International Space Station (ISS)
Date of Image 2000-02-01
Full Description The International Space Station (ISS) Payload Operations Center (POC) at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, is the world's primary science command post for the (ISS), the most ambitious space research facility in human history. The Payload Operations team is responsible for managing all science research experiments aboard the Station. The center is also home for coordination of the mission-plarning work of variety of international sources, all science payload deliveries and retrieval, and payload training and safety programs for the Station crew and all ground personnel. Within the POC, critical payload information from the ISS is displayed on a dedicated workstation, reading both S-band (low data rate) and Ku-band (high data rate) signals from a variety of experiments and procedures operated by the ISS crew and their colleagues on Earth. The POC is the focal point for incorporating research and experiment requirements from all international partners into an integrated ISS payload mission plan. This photograph is an overall view of the MSFC Payload Operations Center displaying the flags of the countries participating in the ISS. The flags at the left portray The United States, Canada, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Japan, Brazil, and Sweden. The flags at the right portray The Russian Federation, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Spain, United Kingdom, Denmark, and Norway.
A Danish Perspective
Title A Danish Perspective
Description high resolution 1000 pixel-wide image (600 KB JPEG) The Kingdom of Denmark, with an area of 16,639 square miles, consists of the Jutland Peninsula and roughly 500 islands. It is also a part of the generally fertile and mostly agricultural region known as the North European Plain. This entire region is generally flat to slightly rolling and is overlain with deposits of Pleistocene glaciers. (The Pleistocene lasted from 1.8 million to 11,000 years ago, during which time several ice ages occured.) Taking advantage of remarkably fair weather over north central Europe for this time of year, the crew of the International Space Station took this panoramic view that extends from the North Sea coast of the Netherlands on the left to the Baltic Sea shores of Sweden on the right. The late-winter landscape has little snow cover except over northeastern Germany, Sweden, and the rugged mountains of Norway. Such images, composed by astronauts, provide unique, synoptic perspectives of the Earth's geography and natural processes. Astronaut photograph ISS006-E-33901 [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS006&roll=E&frame=33901 ] was taken February 26, 2003, with an Electronic Still Camera equipped with 28 mm lens and is provided by the Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory at Johnson Space Center. 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/ ]
Chilly Temperatures During t …
Title Chilly Temperatures During the Maunder Minimum
Description Many things can change temperatures on Earth: a volcano erupts, swathing the Earth with bright haze that blocks sunlight, and temperatures drop, greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, and temperatures climb. From 1650 to 1710, temperatures across much of the Northern Hemisphere plunged when the Sun entered a quiet phase now called the Maunder Minimum. During this period, very few sunspots appeared on the surface of the Sun, and the overall brightness of the Sun decreased slightly. Already in the midst of a colder-than-average period called the Little Ice Age, Europe and North America went into a deep freeze: alpine glaciers extended over valley farmland, sea ice crept south from the Arctic, and the famous canals in the Netherlands froze regularly—an event that is rare today. The impact of the solar minimum is clear in this image, which shows the temperature difference between 1680, a year at the center of the Maunder Minimum, and 1780, a year of normal solar activity, as calculated by a general circulation model. Deep blue across eastern and central North America and northern Eurasia illustrates where the drop in temperature was the greatest. Nearly all other land areas were also cooler in 1680, as indicated by the varying shades of blue. The few regions that appear to have been warmer in 1680 are Alaska and the eastern Pacific Ocean (left), the North Atlantic Ocean south of Greenland (left of center), and north of Iceland (top center). If energy from the Sun decreased only slightly, why did temperatures drop so severely in the Northern Hemisphere? Climate scientist Drew Shindell and colleagues at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies tackled that question by combining temperature records gleaned from tree rings, ice cores, corals, and the few measurements recorded in the historical record, with an advanced computer model of the Earth's climate. The group first calculated the amount of energy coming from the Sun during the Maunder Minimum and entered the information into a general circulation model. The model is a mathematical representation of the way various Earth systems—ocean surface temperatures, different layers of the atmosphere, energy reflected and absorbed from land, and so forth—interact to produce the climate. When the model started with the decreased solar energy and returned temperatures that matched the paleoclimate record, Shindell and his colleagues knew that the model was showing how the Maunder Minimum could have caused the extreme drop in temperatures. The model showed that the drop in temperature was related to ozone [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Ozone/ozone_2.html ], in the stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere that is between 10 and 50 kilometers from the Earth's surface. Ozone is created when high-energy ultraviolet light from the Sun interacts with oxygen. During the Maunder Minimum, the Sun emitted less strong ultraviolet light, and so less ozone formed. The decrease in ozone affected planetary waves, the giant wiggles in the jet stream that we are used to seeing on television weather reports. The change to the planetary waves kicked the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/NAO_200307/NAO.html ]—the balance between a permanent low-pressure system near Greenland and a permanent high-pressure system to its south—into a negative phase. When the NAO is negative, both pressure systems are relatively weak. Under these conditions, winter storms crossing the Atlantic generally head eastward toward Europe, which experiences a more severe winter. (When the NAO is positive, winter storms track farther north, making winters in Europe milder.) The model results, shown above, illustrate that the NAO was more negative on average during the Maunder Minimum, and Europe remained unusually cold. These results matched the paleoclimate record. By creating a model that could reproduce temperatures recorded in paleoclimate records, Shindell and colleagues reached a better understanding of how changes in the stratosphere influence weather patterns. With such an understanding, scientists are better poised to understand what factors could influence Earth's climate in the future. To read more about how ancient temperature records are used to improve climate models, see Paleoclimatology: Understanding the Past to Predict the Future, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Paleoclimatology_Understanding/paleoclimatology_understanding.html ] the final installment of a series of articles [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Paleoclimatology/paleoclimatology_intro.html ] about paleoclimatology on the Earth Observatory. Map adapted from Shindell et al., 2001, copyright AAAS 2001. Terms and conditions of use for material copyright AAAS: Readers may view, browse, and/or download material for temporary copying purposes only, provided these uses are for noncommercial personal purposes. Except as provided by law, this material may not be further reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, adapted, performed, displayed, published, or sold in whole or in part, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Continued Eruption of Manam …
Title Continued Eruption of Manam Volcano
Description When the Manam volcano erupted explosively in the middle of the night on January 27, 2005, it sent a cloud of ash and sulfur dioxide over New Guinea. The large eruption killed at least one person, injured several others, and destroyed the volcano monitoring station on the small volcanic island. About 12 hours after the eruption (January 28), the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI [ http://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/instruments/omi/introduction.html ]) flew over on NASA?s new Aura [ http://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html ] satellite. This image was produced from preliminary, uncalibrated data provided by OMI. OMI saw a large cloud of sulfur dioxide drifting west over the island of New Guinea. The gas is measured in Dobson Units (DU), the number of molecules in a square centimeter of the atmosphere. Red pixels cover the areas of highest concentration, while the lowest concentrations are represented by pink pixels. If you were to compress all of the sulfur dioxide a column of the atmosphere into a flat layer at standard temperature and pressure, one Dobson Unit would be 0.01 millimeters thick and would contain 0.0285 grams of SO2 per square meter. On January 28, the atmosphere over New Guinea contained up to 50 Dobson Units (red regions), or 1.425 grams of SO2 per square meter. Once in the atmosphere, sulfur dioxide combines with water to create a highly reflective haze of sulfuric acid. The haze reflects sunlight away from the Earth, so if the eruption is big enough, it can lead to cooler temperatures for several years before the sulfuric acid falls out of the atmosphere as rain. In 1991, Mount Pinatubo sent millions of tons of SO2 into the atmosphere, and global temperatures, which had been expected to rise because of the greenhouse effect, leveled out. While large, Manam?s eruption does not compare to Mount Pinatubo in magnitude, and it is not clear if or how the eruption will impact regional climate. For more information about Manam?s eruption, please visit the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Center. [ http://www.bom.gov.au/info/vaac/manam05.shtml ] OMI was added to the Aura satellite as part of a collaboration between the Netherlands? Agency for Aerospace Programs and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. The sensor tracks global ozone change and monitors aerosols in the atmosphere. NASA image courtesy Simon Carn, Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology [ http://www.jcet.umbc.edu/ ] (JCET), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
Heat Wave in Western Europe
Title Heat Wave in Western Europe
Description Western Europe continued to bake in late July 2006. Following an unusually warm spell between July 12 and 19, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13743 ] temperatures across most of the region remained much warmer than normal. This image shows land surface (as opposed to air) temperatures collected from July 20-27, 2006, compared to the average temperatures for that period over the past six years (2000-2005). Places that were up to ten degrees Celsius warmer than average are deep red, while places that were up to ten degrees cooler than average are deep blue. Places where the temperatures were average are white. The temperatures were measured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite. In the center of the image, deep red areas of very warm temperatures spread across Germany, as well as France (to the west), and Poland (to the east). To the north (top center), both Norway (west) and Sweden (east) were much warmer than average. Only small pockets of the region were cooler than average: northeastern Spain, the "toe" of Italy's boot and the western half of the island of Sicily, and parts of Greece (lower right). July 2006 was a record-breaking month for heat in many Western European countries, coming in as the hottest July on record in several countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of Zhengming Wan, MODIS Land Surface Temperature Group, Institute for Computational Earth System Science [ http://www.icess.ucsb.edu/ ], University of California, Santa Barbara.
Eruption of Anatahan
Title Eruption of Anatahan
Description A long plume of sulfur dioxide extends northeast and southwest of the Anatahan volcano in the Northern Mariana Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. The volcano has been erupting almost continuously since January 5, 2005, when it started its third eruption in recorded history. This image, collected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA?s Aura [ http://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html ] satellite, shows sulfur dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere between January 31 and February 4, 2005. In the above image, the edge of the sulfur dioxide plume covers Guam (the southernmost island) and the other Mariana Islands immediately north and south of the volcano. Highest concentrations are shown in red, with the lowest concentrations in pale pink. The Ozone Monitoring Instrument measured sulfur dioxide concentrations in Dobson Units?the number of molecules per square centimeter of atmosphere. One Dobson Unit equals 0.0285 grams of sulfur dioxide per square meter.Sulfur dioxide is one of the gases that can be emitted in volcanic eruptions. Once in the atmosphere, sulfur dioxide combines with water to create a sulfuric acid haze. Called ?vog,? this haze can cause illness and make breathing difficult. Volcanic haze grew so thick during the first week of February that the National Weather Service issued a volcanic haze advisory on Guam,where several illnesses were reported. Added to the Aura satellite as part of a collaboration between the Netherlands? Agency for Aerospace Programs and the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the Ozone Monitoring Instrument was tracks global ozone change and monitors aerosols like sulfates in the atmosphere. NASA image courtesy Simon Carn, Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology [ http://www.jcet.umbc.edu/ ] (JCET), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
Eruption of Anatahan
Title Eruption of Anatahan
Description Explosive volcanic eruptions inject gases and ash into the Earth?s atmosphere, creating hazardous conditions for passing aircraft and the potential for climate effects. By the end of April 2005, two largest explosive eruptions had occurred at Manam (Papua New Guinea) on January 27-28, 2005, and at Anatahan (Mariana Islands) on April 5-6, 2005. These eruptions were of similar magnitude and both occurred on small islands causing major damage and evacuations on Manam island (which is inhabited) and concern over ashfall on islands south of Anatahan (which is uninhabited), respectively. The above image of Anatahan shows sulfur dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere on April 7, 2005, over 30 hours after the eruption. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from the eruption were measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA?s EOS/Aura satellite. OMI detects the total column amount of SO2 between the sensor and the Earth?s surface and maps this quantity as it orbits the planet. A new perspective on the vertical distribution of the SO2 is revealed by combining the OMI data with coincident measurements made by the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), also part of the Aura mission. The MLS data crisscross the OMI image and clearly show that some, but not all, of the SO2 measured by OMI east of the volcano was in the upper troposphere or above. At these altitudes, sulfur dioxide?and the sulfate aerosols that form from it?can stay in the atmosphere and affect the climate for a longer period of time. A weaker SO2 signal was also measured in the same region during the nighttime MLS overpass, which crosses the image from upper right to lower left. The daytime data, running from upper left to lower right, coincide with the OMI measurements. The MLS data west of Anatahan show no significant SO2 signal, indicating that the SO2 measured by OMI in this region was in the lower troposphere. MLS measures thermal emissions from the Earth?s limb, so unlike the OMI sensor it also collects data at night. It is designed to measure vertical profiles of atmospheric gases that are important for studying the Earth?s ozone layer, climate, and air quality, such as SO2. These images, derived from preliminary, unvalidated OMI and MLS data, show MLS SO2 columns (filled circles) measured every 165 km along the Aura orbit, plotted over the OMI SO2 map. The MLS SO2 columns shown here are derived from profile measurements made from the upper troposphere into the stratosphere (~215 ? 0 hPa or ~12 km altitude and above), and the circles do not represent the actual size of the MLS footprint, which is roughly 165 kilometers by 6 kilometers. The Manam image, from January 28, 2005, shows larger SO2 amounts measured by MLS and OMI, though these data were collected only approximately 14 hours after the eruption on January 27-28. For both eruptions, peak SO2 amounts were measured by MLS at or just above the likely tropopause altitude, at the lowermost boundary of the stratosphere. Sulfate particles (aerosols) that form from sulfur gases in the stratosphere have a cooling effect on the Earth?s surface. The principal source of sulfate particles is large explosive volcanic eruptions, and the remaining sulfates in the atmosphere are believed to come from carbonyl sulfide, a gas emitted from marshes, soils, forests, and some industrial processes. Recent studies suggest, however, that there must be some other source of sulfates in the stratosphere, carbonyl sulfide concentrations are too small to account for observed sulfates. Could smaller, but more frequent volcanic eruptions, such as those at Anatahan and Manam, be contributing to this "excess" background sulfate aerosol? OMI offers much improved spatial resolution and sensitivity to SO2 compared to its predecessor, the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS), and Aura's MLS is a major technological advance over the older MLS flown on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) since 1991. The Aura mission will therefore allow scientists to investigate the source of sulfate aerosols in far greater detail. The OMI instrument is a Dutch-Finnish Instrument, provided to the EOS/Aura mission by The Netherlands and Finland. NIVR (the Dutch space agency) is the overall program manager, in coordination with FMI (the Finnish Meteorological Institute). The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) is the Principal Investigator institute. Images and caption courtesy Simon Carn, Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology [ http://www.jcet.umbc.edu/ ] (JCET), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC).
Eruption of Anatahan
Title Eruption of Anatahan
Description Explosive volcanic eruptions inject gases and ash into the Earth?s atmosphere, creating hazardous conditions for passing aircraft and the potential for climate effects. By the end of April 2005, two largest explosive eruptions had occurred at Manam (Papua New Guinea) on January 27-28, 2005, and at Anatahan (Mariana Islands) on April 5-6, 2005. These eruptions were of similar magnitude and both occurred on small islands causing major damage and evacuations on Manam island (which is inhabited) and concern over ashfall on islands south of Anatahan (which is uninhabited), respectively. The above image of Anatahan shows sulfur dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere on April 7, 2005, over 30 hours after the eruption. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from the eruption were measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA?s EOS/Aura satellite. OMI detects the total column amount of SO2 between the sensor and the Earth?s surface and maps this quantity as it orbits the planet. A new perspective on the vertical distribution of the SO2 is revealed by combining the OMI data with coincident measurements made by the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), also part of the Aura mission. The MLS data crisscross the OMI image and clearly show that some, but not all, of the SO2 measured by OMI east of the volcano was in the upper troposphere or above. At these altitudes, sulfur dioxide?and the sulfate aerosols that form from it?can stay in the atmosphere and affect the climate for a longer period of time. A weaker SO2 signal was also measured in the same region during the nighttime MLS overpass, which crosses the image from upper right to lower left. The daytime data, running from upper left to lower right, coincide with the OMI measurements. The MLS data west of Anatahan show no significant SO2 signal, indicating that the SO2 measured by OMI in this region was in the lower troposphere. MLS measures thermal emissions from the Earth?s limb, so unlike the OMI sensor it also collects data at night. It is designed to measure vertical profiles of atmospheric gases that are important for studying the Earth?s ozone layer, climate, and air quality, such as SO2. These images, derived from preliminary, unvalidated OMI and MLS data, show MLS SO2 columns (filled circles) measured every 165 km along the Aura orbit, plotted over the OMI SO2 map. The MLS SO2 columns shown here are derived from profile measurements made from the upper troposphere into the stratosphere (~215 ? 0 hPa or ~12 km altitude and above), and the circles do not represent the actual size of the MLS footprint, which is roughly 165 kilometers by 6 kilometers. The Manam image, from January 28, 2005, shows larger SO2 amounts measured by MLS and OMI, though these data were collected only approximately 14 hours after the eruption on January 27-28. For both eruptions, peak SO2 amounts were measured by MLS at or just above the likely tropopause altitude, at the lowermost boundary of the stratosphere. Sulfate particles (aerosols) that form from sulfur gases in the stratosphere have a cooling effect on the Earth?s surface. The principal source of sulfate particles is large explosive volcanic eruptions, and the remaining sulfates in the atmosphere are believed to come from carbonyl sulfide, a gas emitted from marshes, soils, forests, and some industrial processes. Recent studies suggest, however, that there must be some other source of sulfates in the stratosphere, carbonyl sulfide concentrations are too small to account for observed sulfates. Could smaller, but more frequent volcanic eruptions, such as those at Anatahan and Manam, be contributing to this "excess" background sulfate aerosol? OMI offers much improved spatial resolution and sensitivity to SO2 compared to its predecessor, the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS), and Aura's MLS is a major technological advance over the older MLS flown on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) since 1991. The Aura mission will therefore allow scientists to investigate the source of sulfate aerosols in far greater detail. The OMI instrument is a Dutch-Finnish Instrument, provided to the EOS/Aura mission by The Netherlands and Finland. NIVR (the Dutch space agency) is the overall program manager, in coordination with FMI (the Finnish Meteorological Institute). The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) is the Principal Investigator institute. Images and caption courtesy Simon Carn, Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology [ http://www.jcet.umbc.edu/ ] (JCET), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC).
Eruption of Anatahan
Title Eruption of Anatahan
Description Explosive volcanic eruptions inject gases and ash into the Earth?s atmosphere, creating hazardous conditions for passing aircraft and the potential for climate effects. By the end of April 2005, two largest explosive eruptions had occurred at Manam (Papua New Guinea) on January 27-28, 2005, and at Anatahan (Mariana Islands) on April 5-6, 2005. These eruptions were of similar magnitude and both occurred on small islands causing major damage and evacuations on Manam island (which is inhabited) and concern over ashfall on islands south of Anatahan (which is uninhabited), respectively. The above image of Anatahan shows sulfur dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere on April 7, 2005, over 30 hours after the eruption. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from the eruption were measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA?s EOS/Aura satellite. OMI detects the total column amount of SO2 between the sensor and the Earth?s surface and maps this quantity as it orbits the planet. A new perspective on the vertical distribution of the SO2 is revealed by combining the OMI data with coincident measurements made by the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), also part of the Aura mission. The MLS data crisscross the OMI image and clearly show that some, but not all, of the SO2 measured by OMI east of the volcano was in the upper troposphere or above. At these altitudes, sulfur dioxide?and the sulfate aerosols that form from it?can stay in the atmosphere and affect the climate for a longer period of time. A weaker SO2 signal was also measured in the same region during the nighttime MLS overpass, which crosses the image from upper right to lower left. The daytime data, running from upper left to lower right, coincide with the OMI measurements. The MLS data west of Anatahan show no significant SO2 signal, indicating that the SO2 measured by OMI in this region was in the lower troposphere. MLS measures thermal emissions from the Earth?s limb, so unlike the OMI sensor it also collects data at night. It is designed to measure vertical profiles of atmospheric gases that are important for studying the Earth?s ozone layer, climate, and air quality, such as SO2. These images, derived from preliminary, unvalidated OMI and MLS data, show MLS SO2 columns (filled circles) measured every 165 km along the Aura orbit, plotted over the OMI SO2 map. The MLS SO2 columns shown here are derived from profile measurements made from the upper troposphere into the stratosphere (~215 ? 0 hPa or ~12 km altitude and above), and the circles do not represent the actual size of the MLS footprint, which is roughly 165 kilometers by 6 kilometers. The Manam image, from January 28, 2005, shows larger SO2 amounts measured by MLS and OMI, though these data were collected only approximately 14 hours after the eruption on January 27-28. For both eruptions, peak SO2 amounts were measured by MLS at or just above the likely tropopause altitude, at the lowermost boundary of the stratosphere. Sulfate particles (aerosols) that form from sulfur gases in the stratosphere have a cooling effect on the Earth?s surface. The principal source of sulfate particles is large explosive volcanic eruptions, and the remaining sulfates in the atmosphere are believed to come from carbonyl sulfide, a gas emitted from marshes, soils, forests, and some industrial processes. Recent studies suggest, however, that there must be some other source of sulfates in the stratosphere, carbonyl sulfide concentrations are too small to account for observed sulfates. Could smaller, but more frequent volcanic eruptions, such as those at Anatahan and Manam, be contributing to this "excess" background sulfate aerosol? OMI offers much improved spatial resolution and sensitivity to SO2 compared to its predecessor, the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS), and Aura's MLS is a major technological advance over the older MLS flown on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) since 1991. The Aura mission will therefore allow scientists to investigate the source of sulfate aerosols in far greater detail. The OMI instrument is a Dutch-Finnish Instrument, provided to the EOS/Aura mission by The Netherlands and Finland. NIVR (the Dutch space agency) is the overall program manager, in coordination with FMI (the Finnish Meteorological Institute). The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) is the Principal Investigator institute. Images and caption courtesy Simon Carn, Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology [ http://www.jcet.umbc.edu/ ] (JCET), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC).
Eruption of Anatahan
Title Eruption of Anatahan
Description As reported by the Saipan Tribune Website, the Anatan Volcano spewed volcanic ash to an altitude of nearly 13,000 meters (42,000 feet) in early August, prompting officials to issue a volcanic ash advisory for Saipan and Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands. The volcano has emitted something besides ash: sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide is colorless, so its presence must be monitored with sensors specially designed to find it. The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura [ http://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html ] satellite collects data on atmospheric chemistry. OMI monitors sulfur dioxide emissions from Anatahan, and collected data shown in these images between July 25 and 31 (top), and August 2 and 8 (bottom). Highest concentrations appear in red, and lowest concentrations appear in pale pink. In each image, the arrow indicates the volcano's summit. OMI measures sulfur dioxide in terms of molecules per square centimeter of atmosphere, known as Dobson Units. A single Dobson Unit equals 0.0285 grams of sulfur dioxide per square meter of vertical column of atmosphere. The images show different dispersion patters for sulfur dioxide in late July and early August. Between July 25 and 31, predominantly easterly winds carried the noxious emissions away from the populated islands. Between August 2 and 8, however, changing winds allowed sulfur dioxide to accumulate over the Southern Mariana Islands and Guam. Although invisible to human eyes, sulfur dioxide can still make its presence known—by irritating them. Sulfur dioxide can inflame mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, and throat, and even skin. The upper respiratory tract is the most susceptible to sulfur dioxide irritation. Sulfur dioxide also leads to acid rain and volcanic smog (vog) that interferes with air transport. The OMI instrument is a Dutch-Finnish Instrument, provided to the EOS/Aura mission by The Netherlands and Finland. NIVR (the Dutch space agency) is the overall program manager, in coordination with FMI (the Finnish Meteorological Institute). The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) is the Principal Investigator institute. NASA image courtesy Simon Carn, Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology [ http://www.jcet.umbc.edu/ ] (JCET), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
Eruption of Santa Ana (Ilama …
Title Eruption of Santa Ana (Ilamatepec) Volcano
Description On October 1, 2005, El Salvador's Santa Ana, or Ilamatepec, Volcano erupted for the first time since 1904. Besides ash, lava, rocks as big as cars, and a boiling flood of muddy water, Santa Ana's eruption produced something else: sulfur dioxide. This invisible gas can inflame mucous membranes of the eyes, skin, and upper respiratory tract. It also leads to acid rain and volcanic smog (vog) that interferes with air transport. The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura [ http://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html ] satellite collects data on atmospheric chemistry, including sulfur dioxide emissions from volcanoes. This image combines OMI's observations of the Santa Ana Volcano taken on October 1 and 2, 2005. In this image of Central America, black triangles indicate volcanoes. Sulfur dioxide concentrations are color coded, with highest concentrations in red, and lowest concentrations in pale pink. Near the Santa Ana Volcano hovers a thick cloud of sulfur dioxide, this is the emission cloud as it appeared on October 1. To the left is a dispersed cloud, this is how the same cloud appeared on October 2 as the gas drifted westward over the Pacific, having lost half of its sulfur dioxide mass. The total cloud mass on October 1 was estimated at 10,000 tons, a relatively small eruption. Recent examples of much larger eruptions include Manam [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16820 ] on January 27-28, 2005, and Anatahan [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12854 ] on April 5-6, 2005. The OMI instrument is a Dutch-Finnish Instrument, provided to the EOS/Aura mission by The Netherlands and Finland. NIVR (the Dutch space agency) is the overall program manager, in coordination with FMI (the Finnish Meteorological Institute). The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) is the Principal Investigator institute. NASA image courtesy Simon Carn, Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology [ http://www.jcet.umbc.edu/ ] (JCET), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
New Measurements of Arctic O …
Title New Measurements of Arctic Ozone
Description The winter of 2004-2005 saw the second highest chemical ozone destruction ever observed over the Arctic. Polar ozone is destoyed when chlorine, cold temperatures, and sunlight mix in the atmosphere 8-50 kilometers above the Earth's surface. Since ozone shields the Earth from ultraviolet light, the high-energy light that causes sunburns and is associated with skin cancers, low ozone levels could threaten human health. Ultraviolet levels remained near normal through the winter, however, because unusual weather conditions brought ozone from the Earth's ozone-rich mid-latitudes to the pole to fill in the gaps left by the extreme ozone depletion. These images show the fluctuations in ozone during the Arctic winter of 2005. The top two images show the average total column ozone over the Arctic during the months of January and March, 2005, and the lower image shows total column ozone on a single day, March 11, 2005. The images are based on data collected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument [ http://www.knmi.nl/omi/publ-en/news/index.html ] (OMI) aboard NASA's Aura [ http://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. During this time period, the Microwave Limb Sounder, another instrument on the Aura satellite, measured 50 percent ozone loss, the second-highest level ever observed behind the 60 percent loss measured in 1999-2000. Despite this, the lowest total column ozone values in polar regions are slightly higher in March than in January, on average, as evidenced by the broad splashes of red that represent high ozone levels. Stratospheric winds carried the ozone north into the Arctic, compensating for the significant chemical loss, so that no blue or purple holes representing low ozone levels appear in the March image. Black circles over the North pole show where OMI did not collect data. On a single day, March 11, 2005, ozone was distributed far more unevenly, with dark red, almost black areas of high ozone over the Aleutian Islands, Asia, and Europe, and a pale blue thin spot over Iceland and Greenland. This reveals that even though ozone values appeared to be near normal on average throughout March, some regions experienced much lower ozone levels—and therefore, a greater exposure to UV light—on an individual day. For more information and images, see "NASA Spacecraft Measures Unusual 2005 Arctic Ozone Conditions" [ http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/aura-060205.html ] on the NASA portal. Image courtesy NASA/JPL/Agency for Aerospace Programs (Netherlands)/Finnish Meteorological Institute
Sierra Negra Erupts
Title Sierra Negra Erupts
Description On October 22, 2005, one of the six volcanic summits on Isla Isabela in the Galapagos Islands archipelago began erupting. The Sierra Negra Volcano continued to emit ash clouds and lava through the end of the month, before apparently quieting down around October 31. The volcanic emissions contain sulfur dioxide gas, which mixes with water vapor in the air and turns into very reflective sulfate aerosol particles. During large eruptions, volcanoes emit enough sulfur dioxide that the resulting haze of sulfate aerosols can cool the climate by reflecting incoming solar radiation back into space. The Sierra Negra eruption spread a volcanic haze [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13246 ] across the Pacific Ocean for several hundred kilometers. This image shows the average concentration of sulfur dioxide over the Sierra Negra Volcano from October 23-November 1 measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura satellite. In agreement with reports from on-the-ground monitors that the eruption subsided around October 30 or 31, OMI stopped seeing sulfur dioxide coming from the volcano on October 31. In this image, red pixels cover the areas of highest concentration, while the lowest concentrations are represented by pink pixels. The plume of emissions is concentrated to the west of the Galapagos Islands. The sulfur dioxide is measured in Dobson Units (DU), the number of molecules in a square centimeter of the atmosphere. If you were to compress all of the sulfur dioxide a column of the atmosphere into a flat layer at standard temperature and pressure (0 degrees Celsius and 1 atmosphere), one Dobson Unit would be 0.01 millimeters thick and would contain 0.0285 grams of sulfur dioxide per square meter. The OMI instrument is a Dutch-Finnish Instrument, provided to the EOS/Aura mission by The Netherlands and Finland. NIVR (the Dutch space agency) is the overall program manager, in coordination with FMI (the Finnish Meteorological Institute). The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) is the Principal Investigator institute. The Earth Observatory has additional images of the Sierra Negra eruption [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13251 ] in the Natural Hazards: Volcanoes [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?topic=volcano ] section of the Website.
Stormy Weather in the North …
Title Stormy Weather in the North Sea
Description Stormy weather over the North Sea is not uncommon, and so the powerful winds that swept over the European ocean basin on October 27, 2006, were not extraordinary. Winds gusting to hurricane force raged over the sea for several hours, and by the time that the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite flew over at 1:00 p.m. local time, the sea had turned a foamy, white-flecked green off the shore of Denmark. Westerly winds were driving waves into shore, creating a fringe of white where waves crashed onto the beach. In the image, glimmers of white glint in the murky waters offshore where waves break over the shallow continental shelf. The violent sea churned up clouds of sediment, giving the water the brown and green color seen here. Clearer, deep water farther north is nearly black, by contrast. According to the BBC, [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/6090094.stm ] a Scottish trawler with four men aboard was lost in the storm, but October 27 was just the beginning of bad weather on the North Sea. On November 1, a Swedish ship sank, killing one, and an oil platform carrying 75 people was set adrift when it broke free from the tug towing it in strong winds and heavy seas, said the BBC. [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6104870.stm ] The November 1 storm sent a surge of sea water into the Netherlands (west of Denmark), where it stranded a herd of about 100 horses in a wilderness area, reported CNN. [ http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/03/netherlands.horses.ap/index.html ] On land, the autumn storm knocked out power and stopped transport throughout Northern Europe. You can download a 250-meter-resolution KMZ file [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Nov2006/northsea_amo_2006300.kmz ] of Northern Europe for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html ] NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team.
Sulfur Dioxide Cloud from Ra …
Title Sulfur Dioxide Cloud from Rabaul Volcano
Description On October 7, 2006, Rabaul Volcano on the northeastern tip of New Britain produced a large-scale eruption. According to ReliefWeb, the eruption shook windows and rained heavy ash and small stones on the city of Rabaul as authorities declared a state of emergency. Besides volcanic ash and steam, the eruption produced sulfur dioxide. Densely concentrated over the island of New Britain the day of the eruption, the sulfur dioxide dispersed over the next two days. These images show the concentration of sulfur dioxide in the air column from October 7-9, 2006, as measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura satellite. On October 7, high concentrations of sulfur dioxide (red) linger just over the island. By October 8, the original plume had split into two clouds, one spreading northwest and one spreading southeast. On the third day, the amount of gas had decreased, but a core of very high values remained in the northern part of the plume. The sulfur dioxide concentrations are shown using a logarithmic color scale. On a logarithmic scale, the values increase exponentially, rather than linearly. The units measured are Dobson Units. [ http://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/facts/dobson.html ] If all sulfur dioxide in the air column the satellite observed were flattened into a thin layer at the surface of the Earth, one Dobson Unit would make a layer of pure sulfur dioxide 0.01 millimeters thick, assuming the temperature was 0 degrees Celsius. High concentrations of sulfur dioxide can lead to respiratory illnesses, especially in children and the elderly. It can also worsen heart and lung diseases. Sulfur dioxide also increases acid rain, damaging buildings, soils, and crops. Fortunately for the residents of New Britain, the sulfur dioxide cloud moved away from the island within a couple days. Large volcanic eruptions, such as the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991, can spew enough sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere to cool the climate for several years. Chemical reactions convert the gas into sulfate particles, which reflect sunlight. OMI was added to the Aura satellite as part of a collaboration between the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), the Netherlands' Agency for Aerospace Programs and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. KNMI is the Principal Investigator institute. The sensor tracks global ozone change and monitors aerosols in the atmosphere. NASA image courtesy Simon Carn, Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology [ http://www.jcet.umbc.edu/ ] (JCET), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
Sulfur Dioxide from Rabaul V …
Title Sulfur Dioxide from Rabaul Volcano
Description On October 7, 2006, Rabaul Volcano on the northeastern tip of New Britain produced a large-scale eruption. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13923 ] According to ReliefWeb, the eruption shook windows and rained heavy ash and small stones on the city of Rabaul as authorities declared a state of emergency. Besides volcanic ash and steam, the eruption produced sulfur dioxide. Densely concentrated over the island of New Britain the day of the eruption, the sulfur dioxide dispersed over the next two days. These images show the concentration of sulfur dioxide in the air column from October 7-9, 2006, as measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura satellite. On October 7, high concentrations of sulfur dioxide (red) linger just over the island. By October 8, the original plume had split into two clouds, one spreading northwest and one spreading southeast. On the third day, the amount of gas had decreased, but a core of very high values remained in the northern part of the plume. The sulfur dioxide concentrations are shown using a logarithmic color scale. On a logarithmic scale, the values increase exponentially, rather than linearly. The units measured are Dobson Units. [ http://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/facts/dobson.html ] If all sulfur dioxide in the air column the satellite observed were flattened into a thin layer at the surface of the Earth, one Dobson Unit would make a layer of pure sulfur dioxide 0.01 millimeters thick, assuming the temperature was 0 degrees Celsius. High concentrations of sulfur dioxide can lead to respiratory illnesses, especially in children and the elderly. It can also worsen heart and lung diseases. Sulfur dioxide also increases acid rain, damaging buildings, soils, and crops. Fortunately for the residents of New Britain, the sulfur dioxide cloud moved away from the island within a couple days. Large volcanic eruptions, such as the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991, can spew enough sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere to cool the climate for several years. Chemical reactions convert the gas into sulfate particles, which reflect sunlight. OMI was added to the Aura satellite as part of a collaboration between the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), the Netherlands' Agency for Aerospace Programs and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. KNMI is the Principal Investigator institute. The sensor tracks global ozone change and monitors aerosols in the atmosphere. NASA image courtesy Simon Carn, Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology [ http://www.jcet.umbc.edu/ ] (JCET), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
Sulfur Dioxide Leaks from th …
Title Sulfur Dioxide Leaks from the Ambrym Volcano
Description ) Scientists building computer models of the complicated interactions that make up Earth?s climate need to understand how much sulfur dioxide enters the atmosphere and where it travels. Since most volcanic sulfur dioxide emissions come from passive degassing, OMI will allow scientists to assess the volcanic contribution to atmospheric sulfur dioxide concentrations with unprecedented accuracy. The data should help refine climate models. NASA image and caption information courtesy Simon Carn, Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology [ http://www.jcet.umbc.edu/ ] (JCET), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). The OMI was added to the Aura satellite as part of a collaboration between the Netherlands? Agency for Aerospace Programs, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, and NASA., Sandwiched between Fiji and Australia in the South Pacific, the island nation of Vanuatu hosted the strongest point source of sulfur dioxide on the planet for the first months of 2005. Ambrym Volcano, on the island of the same name, has been steadily emitting sulfur dioxide for at least six months, and this image, produced using data collected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA?s Aura [ http://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] satellite during the first ten days of March 2005, shows high concentrations of sulfur dioxide drifting northwest from the volcano. Ambrym Volcano is not erupting in the traditional sense with thick ash plumes and explosive bursts of lava, rather it is leaking sulfur dioxide gas from active lava lakes in what scientists call ?passive? or ?non-eruptive? emissions. Despite these gentle names, the leaking volcano still poses a tremendous hazard to the local population. The gas has a strong smell and can irritate the eyes and nose and make breathing difficult. Higher in the atmosphere, sulfur dioxide combines with water to create rain laced with sulfuric acid. On Ambrym, acid rain has destroyed staple crops and contaminated the water supply, leaving the communities in need of food aid. Satellites have only been able to monitor sulfur dioxide emissions from large eruptions or the most powerful passive degassing in the past. All other sulfur dioxide emissions remain at low altitudes and have low concentrations, making them hard to see from space. On July 15, 2004, NASA launched its Aura satellite carrying the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). With greater spatial resolution (the ability to ?zoom-in? to see greater detail) and higher sensitivity to sulfur dioxide than any previous space-borne sensor, OMI is allowing scientists to study passive volcanic degassing on a daily basis for the first time. The above image is an example of the instrument?s preliminary, uncalibrated, and unvalidated data. This new view of passive volcanic emissions could lead to significant advances in understanding both volcanic eruptions and the impact of sulfur dioxide on climate. Passive emissions can be a precursor to explosive eruptions, and thus provide a warning signal that the volcano?s activity may be changing. Once in the atmosphere, sulfur dioxide creates a bright haze that reflects sunlight back into space. Since less sunlight reaches the Earth, the sulfur dioxide haze has a cooling effect on the climate. (See ?Every Cloud Has a Filthy Lining? [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ShipTracks/ship_tracks.html ]
Sulfur Dioxide Leaks from th …
Title Sulfur Dioxide Leaks from the Ambrym Volcano
Description ) Scientists building computer models of the complicated interactions that make up Earth?s climate need to understand how much sulfur dioxide enters the atmosphere and where it travels. Since most volcanic sulfur dioxide emissions come from passive degassing, OMI will allow scientists to assess the volcanic contribution to atmospheric sulfur dioxide concentrations with unprecedented accuracy. The data should help refine climate models. NASA image and caption information courtesy Simon Carn, Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology [ http://www.jcet.umbc.edu/ ] (JCET), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). The OMI was added to the Aura satellite as part of a collaboration between the Netherlands? Agency for Aerospace Programs, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, and NASA., Sandwiched between Fiji and Australia in the South Pacific, the island nation of Vanuatu hosted the strongest point source of sulfur dioxide on the planet for the first months of 2005. Ambrym Volcano, on the island of the same name, has been steadily emitting sulfur dioxide for at least six months, and this image, produced using data collected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA?s Aura [ http://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] satellite during the first ten days of March 2005, shows high concentrations of sulfur dioxide drifting northwest from the volcano. Ambrym Volcano is not erupting in the traditional sense with thick ash plumes and explosive bursts of lava, rather it is leaking sulfur dioxide gas from active lava lakes in what scientists call ?passive? or ?non-eruptive? emissions. Despite these gentle names, the leaking volcano still poses a tremendous hazard to the local population. The gas has a strong smell and can irritate the eyes and nose and make breathing difficult. Higher in the atmosphere, sulfur dioxide combines with water to create rain laced with sulfuric acid. On Ambrym, acid rain has destroyed staple crops and contaminated the water supply, leaving the communities in need of food aid. Satellites have only been able to monitor sulfur dioxide emissions from large eruptions or the most powerful passive degassing in the past. All other sulfur dioxide emissions remain at low altitudes and have low concentrations, making them hard to see from space. On July 15, 2004, NASA launched its Aura satellite carrying the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). With greater spatial resolution (the ability to ?zoom-in? to see greater detail) and higher sensitivity to sulfur dioxide than any previous space-borne sensor, OMI is allowing scientists to study passive volcanic degassing on a daily basis for the first time. The above image is an example of the instrument?s preliminary, uncalibrated, and unvalidated data. This new view of passive volcanic emissions could lead to significant advances in understanding both volcanic eruptions and the impact of sulfur dioxide on climate. Passive emissions can be a precursor to explosive eruptions, and thus provide a warning signal that the volcano?s activity may be changing. Once in the atmosphere, sulfur dioxide creates a bright haze that reflects sunlight back into space. Since less sunlight reaches the Earth, the sulfur dioxide haze has a cooling effect on the climate. (See ?Every Cloud Has a Filthy Lining? [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ShipTracks/ship_tracks.html ]
Thames River Plume in the No …
Title Thames River Plume in the North Sea
Description Though the River Thames pours into the North Sea in southeast England, the river does not end there. Its plume of fresh water, colored tan by the earth picked up on its journey across England, flows through the dark blue waters of the North Sea along the coast of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany before fading in a cloud of green near Denmark. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this photo-like image on March 26, 2007. Apart from a light veil of haze hanging over northern Germany and Denmark, skies over Northern Europe were remarkably cloud free. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC
The Sun Sets on Comet Hyakut …
Title The Sun Sets on Comet Hyakutake
Explanation Comet Hyakutake is seen here [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/comet/hyakutake/kuil.html ] just as the Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951117.html ] sets on April 22. As April draws to a close, Comet Hyakutake will be visible only just after sunset and will be hard to discern against the brightly lit sky. Unfortunately, Comet Hyakutake did not brighten as much as hoped during its journey to the inner Solar System [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950819.html ], and is now not supposed to get as bright as it did when it passed the Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951225.html ] in late March. Nevertheless, Comet Hyakutake is " still " a bright comet [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950826.html ] and spectacular sight. [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960423.html ]
Ant nebula
Title Ant nebula
Description A new Hubble Space Telescope image of a celestial object called the Ant Nebula may shed new light on the future demise of our Sun. The image is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pictures/wfpc . The nebula, imaged on July 20, 1997, and June 30, 1998, by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, was observed by Drs. Raghvendra Sahai and John Trauger of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., Bruce Balick of the University of Washington in Seattle, and Vincent Icke of Leiden University in the Netherlands. JPL designed and built the camera. The Ant Nebula, whose technical name is Mz3, resembles the head and thorax of an ant when observed with ground-based telescopes. The new Hubble image, with 10 times the resolution revealing 100 times more detail, shows the "ant's" body as a pair of fiery lobes protruding from a dying, Sun- like star. The Ant Nebula is located between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth in the southern constellation Norma. The image challenges old ideas about what happens to dying stars. This observation, along with other pictures of various remnants of dying stars called planetary nebulae, shows that our Sun's fate will probably be much more interesting, complex and dramatic than astronomers previously believed. Although the ejection of gas from the dying star in the Ant Nebula is violent, it does not show the chaos one might expect from an ordinary explosion, but instead shows symmetrical patterns. One possibility is that the central star has a closely orbiting companion whose gravitational tidal forces shape the outflowing gas. A second possibility is that as the dying star spins, its strong magnetic fields are wound up into complex shapes like spaghetti in an eggbeater. Electrically charged winds, much like those in our Sun's solar wind but millions of times denser and moving at speeds up to 1,000 kilometers per second (more than 600 miles per second) from the star, follow the twisted field lines on their way out into space. The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., manages space operations for the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA under contract with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Additional information about the Hubble Space Telescope is available at http://www.stsci.edu . More information about the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is available at http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov.
Date 12.10.1999
Thames River Plume in the No …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Though the River Thames pour …
ge_18169
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identifier ge_18169
Sulfur Dioxide Plume from Ma …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
When the Manam volcano erupt …
manam_omi_2005028
mediatype MISC
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date 2005-01-28
creator NASA -- NASA image courtesy Simon Carn, www.jcet.umbc.edu/ Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
identifier manam_omi_2005028
Sulfur Dioxide Plume from Ma …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
When the Manam volcano erupt …
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date 2005-01-28
creator NASA -- NASA image courtesy Simon Carn, www.jcet.umbc.edu/ Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
identifier manam_omi_2005028
New Activity on Kilauea: Nat …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
* eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/ima …
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date 2008-03-27
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Eruption of Anatahan: Natura …
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A long plume of sulfur dioxi …
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Eruption of Anatahan: Natura …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
A long plume of sulfur dioxi …
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mediatype MISC
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date 2005-01-31
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier anat_omi_20050131
Stormy weather in the North …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
Stormy weather over the Nort …
northsea_amo_2006300
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2006-10-27
creator NASA -- NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ MODIS Rapid Response team.
identifier northsea_amo_2006300
Chaiten Volcano Erupts: Natu …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
* Oman, L., Robock, A., Sten …
Chaiten_OMI_2008124
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2008-05-03
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier Chaiten_OMI_2008124
Sulfur Dioxide Plume from Ki …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
Kilauea is one of the world' …
Kilauea_OMI_2008061_067_lrg
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2008-03-20
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier Kilauea_OMI_2008061_067_lrg
Sulfur Dioxide Plume from Ki …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
Kilauea is one of the world' …
Kilauea_OMI_2008061_067_lrg
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2008-03-20
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier Kilauea_OMI_2008061_067_lrg
Sulfur Dioxide Plume from Ki …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
Kilauea is one of the world' …
Kilauea_OMI_2008061_067_lrg
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2008-03-20
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier Kilauea_OMI_2008061_067_lrg
Eruption of Anatahan: Natura …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
As reported by the Saipan Tr …
anatahan_omi_2005220
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2005-08-08
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier anatahan_omi_2005220
Eruption of Santa Ana (Ilama …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
On October 1, 2005, El Salva …
elsalvador_omi_2005274
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2005-10-02
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier elsalvador_omi_2005274
Earth observations taken dur …
johnsonspacecentermediaarchi …
Earth observations taken dur …
STS079-781-050
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 1996-10-04
creator NASA
identifier STS079-781-050
Sulfur Dioxide Plume from Ll …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
On January 1, 2008, Chile's …
llaima_omi_2008003
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2008-01-01
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier llaima_omi_2008003
Chilly Temperatures During t …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
Many things can change tempe …
maunder_minimum_temperature
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2006-08-10
creator NASA -- Map adapted from Shindell et al., 2001, copyright AAAS 2001. Terms and conditions of use for material copyright AAAS: Readers may view, browse, and/or download material for temporary copying purposes only, provided these uses are for noncommercial personal purposes. Except as provided by law, this material may not be further reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, adapted, performed, displayed, published, or sold in whole or in part, without prior written permission from the publisher.
identifier maunder_minimum_temperature
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