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Dust and Smog in Northeast C
…
| Title |
Dust and Smog in Northeast China |
| Description |
Much of the land surface is obscured in this oblique image of the North China Plain and parts of Inner Mongolia. In this image, a mass of gray smog—mainly industrial pollution and smoke from domestic burning—obscures Beijing and surrounding cities. Numerous plumes with their source points appear within the mass. Beijing suffers some of the worst air pollution in the world from these chronic sources, and the characteristic colors and textures of the smog can be easily seen through the windows of the International Space Station. The pale brown material in Bo Hai Bay, about 300 kilometers east of Beijing, is sediment from the Yellow River and other rivers. Separated from the smog mass by a band of puffy, white cumulus clouds is a light brown plume of dust. The line of white clouds has developed along the steep slope that separates the heavily populated North China Plain—the location of the largest population concentration on Earth—and the sparsely populated semi-desert plains of Inner Mongolia. Most Northern Hemisphere deserts saw dust storms in the spring of 2006, and the Gobi and Taklimakan Deserts of western China were no exception. Dust plumes originating in these deserts typically extend hundreds of kilometers eastward, regularly depositing dust on Beijing, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan. Some plumes even extend over the Pacific Ocean. In extreme cases, visible masses of Gobi-derived dust have reached North America. An astronaut handheld-camera image taken in 1996 shows a broad corridor of smog moving off the mainland out into the Pacific Ocean from China's more southerly population center near Taiwan. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=15295 ] Astronaut photograph ISS013-E-21250 [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS012&roll=E&frame=21250 ] was acquired March 2, 2006, with a Kodak 760C digital camera using a 50 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, 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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Particle Pollution in Easter
…
| Title |
Particle Pollution in Eastern China |
| Description |
This Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from October 22, 2004, shows trans-boundary pollution from eastern China spreading out over the east China Sea south of the Korean Peninsula (top right) and out of the scene at image right, where the westernmost edge of the Japanese island of Kyushu is visible. Urban and industrial pollution is a major environmental concern for China and the countries downwind. This image was captured by the MODIS on NASA's Terra satellite. Other geographic reference points include the island of Taiwan, at bottom center, and the mouth of the Yangtze River, roughly in image center. Just south of South Korea, the island of Cheju is creating a swirling wake in the clouds to its south. Cheju is home to the Halla volcano, a shield volcano that last erupted in 1007. It appears that a plume of dust or smoke from the island is joining the larger flow from mainland China. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the MODIS Rapid Response team. |
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Super Typhoon Haitang
| Title |
Super Typhoon Haitang |
| Description |
Super Typhoon Haitang is shown here on the morning of July 20, 2005. This image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite at 05:15 UTC (3:15 p.m. local time), well after it come ashore onto mainland China and lost much of its power and been downgraded to a tropical storm. Four deaths in Taiwan are attributed to the storm as it passed over the island, and as many as 1 million people have been evacuated in mainland China. All flights out of the cities of Fuzhou and Quanzhou were cancelled in view of the danger of the storm. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the MODIS Rapid Response team. |
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Super Typhoon Haitang
| Title |
Super Typhoon Haitang |
| Description |
Super Typhoon Haitang is shown here bearing down on Taiwan on the afternoon of July 17, 2005. This image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite at 04:40 UTC (12:40 p.m. Taipei time). At this time, the typhoon had built into a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, sufficient for it to be dubbed a super typhoon. Sustained winds were around 230 kilometers per hour (125 knots) with peak gusts as high as 280 km/hr (150 knots). The super typhoon by this time was projected to change course and come ashore in Taiwan. As it crosses the island, the storm will lose some of its strength, but may then rebuild as it crosses the Taiwan Straits and comes ashore again in eastern China. Projections call for it to land in Taiwan early on July 18, and then make landfall in mainland China on July 19. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the MODIS Rapid Response team. |
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Super Typhoon Wipha
| Title |
Super Typhoon Wipha |
| Description |
Super Typhoon Wipha was approaching the coast of China on the afternoon of September 18, 2007, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this photo-like image. At the time (12:40 p.m. local time, 4:40 UTC), Wipha had winds between 250 kilometers per hour (155 miles per hour or 135 knots) and 240 km/hr (150 mph or 130 knots), making it a strong Category 4 [ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshs.shtml ] storm and a Super Typhoon (a typhoon with winds of at least 130 knots). The storm weakened shortly after this image was taken and was forecast to weaken further before making landfall over the densely populated East China coast late on September 18 or early on September 19. Though the storm was weakening, it was anticipated to be the strongest storm to hit China in a decade, reported Xinhua, China's news agency. In preparation for the storm, the government evacuated about two million people in three provinces, said Xinhua. The storm had already started to soak Taiwan with heavy rains by the time this image was taken. The spiraling bands of rain clouds cover the island in this image, though the dark, well-defined eye remains offshore to the north. The image also reveals just how large Wipha was. Including its outer bands, which stretch from the Philippines (visible in the large image) in the south to the East China coast in the north, Wipha sprawls over several hundred kilometers. The high-resolution image provided above is at MODIS' full spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions. You can also download a 250-meter-resolution KMZ file of Super Typhoon Wipia [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Sep2007/Wipha.A2007261.0440.250m.kmz ] suitable for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/ ] NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center. |
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Typhoon Nock-Ten strikes Tai
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| Title |
Typhoon Nock-Ten strikes Taiwan |
| Description |
Typhoon Nock-Ten hammered Taiwan with heavy rains and strong winds on October 25, 2004, killing at least four, according to media reports. Heavy rains drenched northeastern Taiwan, triggering extensive flooding. Though winds had dropped to about 170 kilometers per hour (100 mph) when the storm blew ashore, at its height, Nock-Ten?s maximum sustained winds reached 204 kilometers per hour (127 mph) with stronger gusts. This image of the storm was acquired on October 24, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA?s Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite a few hours after the storm began to weaken. Nock-Ten, ?bird? in Laotian, is the sixth typhoon to strike Taiwan and the 24th to develop in the western Pacific this year. After moving across northern Taiwan, the storm curved east over the East China Sea and weakened into an extra-tropical depression as it approached Japan?s southern islands on October 26. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the MODIS Rapid Response team. |
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Typhoon Shanshan
| Title |
Typhoon Shanshan |
| Description |
Typhoon Shanshan formed on September 10, 2006, in the western Pacific well off the coast of the Philippine Islands. Over the course of the next 36 hours, it grew from a tropical depression (area of low pressure) to a typhoon. As of September 14, it was projected to travel northwest towards China, but to veer off to the northeast well before reaching Taiwan. It was not predicted to come ashore or strike any major urban centers, though it might bring high winds and rain to Vladivostok in Russia on September 19 if predictions held true. This photo-like image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] on the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on September 14, 2006, at 10:25 a.m. local time (02:25 UTC). Shanshan at the time of this image was a well-defined, spiraling swirl of clouds, with a distinct but cloud-filled ("closed") eye. Shanshan had sustained winds of around 140 kilometers per hour (85 miles per hour) at the time this satellite image was acquired, according to the University of Hawaii's Tropical Storm Information Center. [ http://www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/Tropical/tropical.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. |
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Typhoon Talim
| Title |
Typhoon Talim |
| Description |
Typhoon Talim was a powerful super typhoon in the western Pacific when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image on August 31, 2005 at 11:20 a.m. Tokyo time. It had sustained winds of around 200 kilometers an hour (120 miles per hour) and was heading towards Taiwan at around 15 miles per hour. This is somewhat weaker than it was just a day before. The outer edge of the storm is starting to rain onto Taiwan in this image, and the full storm should make landfall in the next day. The typhoon will continue to weaken as it travels over the island, then continue across the Taiwan Strait to make landfall again on mainland China. It is the 13th named storm of the Pacific typhoon season, which has seen a record number of storms, and in particular, super typhoons. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the MODIS Rapid Response team. |
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Typhoon Fung-wong: Natural H
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nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Typhoon Fung-Wong was lashin
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fungwong_amo_2008210
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2008-07-28 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
fungwong_amo_2008210 |
|
Typhoon Kalmaegi: Natural Ha
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Typhoon Kalmaegi crossed the
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kalmaegi_tmo_2008200
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2008-07-19 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
kalmaegi_tmo_2008200 |
|
Dust and Smog in Northeast C
…
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle
…
Much of the land surface is
…
ISS012-E-21250
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2006-03-02 |
| creator |
NASA -- Astronaut photograph eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS012&roll=E&frame=21250 ISS013-E-21250 was acquired March 2, 2006, with a Kodak 760C digital camera using a 50 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, Johnson Space Center. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The spaceflight.nasa.gov/home/index.html International Space Station Program 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 eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. |
| identifier |
ISS012-E-21250 |
|
Lake Formation in the Afterm
…
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle
…
Within days of the magnitude
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beichuan_for_2008135_lrg
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2008-05-19 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
beichuan_for_2008135_lrg |
|
Typhoon Nock-Ten strikes Tai
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Typhoon Nock-Ten hammered Ta
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terra_nockten_24oct04
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2004-10-24 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
terra_nockten_24oct04 |
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How Does Anthropogenic Haze
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nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle
…
Greenhouse gases act broadly
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STS075-773-66_lrg
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
1996-03-04 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA photograph eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=STS075&roll=773&frame=66 STS075-773-66, was taken March 4, 1996, 01:29:47 GMT, center point 28 degrees N 123 degrees E, craft nadir 28 degrees N 128.1 degrees W, from an altitude of 278 km, with a Hasselblad film camera and 40 mm lens. The image was 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 eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. |
| identifier |
STS075-773-66_lrg |
|
Typhoon Shanshan: Natural Ha
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Typhoon Shanshan formed on S
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shanshan_tmo_2006257
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2006-09-14 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
shanshan_tmo_2006257 |
|
Super Typhoon Haitang: Natur
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
The super typhoon by this ti
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Haitang.A2005198.0440
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
July 17, 2005 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
Haitang.A2005198.0440 |
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Typhoon Talim: Natural Hazar
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
The outer edge of the storm
…
talim_tmo_31aug05
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2005-08-31 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
talim_tmo_31aug05 |
|
Super Typhoon Wipha: Natural
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Super Typhoon Wipha was appr
…
wipha_amo_2007261
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2007-09-18 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
wipha_amo_2007261 |
|
Particle Pollution in Easter
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
This Moderate Resolution Ima
…
terra_echinasea_22oct04
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2004-10-22 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
terra_echinasea_22oct04 |
|
Super Typhoon Haitang
PIA07968
Sol (our sun)
SeaWinds Scatterometer
| Title |
Super Typhoon Haitang |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Typhoon Haitang is shown here churning steadily towards Taiwan and China. This image shows the storm's swirling wind patterns as observed by NASA's QuikScat satellite on July 14, 2005, at 19:19 UTC (14:19 Eastern Daylight Time). At this time, the typhoon was located hundreds of kilometers from the nearest major land masses. 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 Typhoon Haitang show sustained winds of around 85 knots and gusts up to 105 knots at the time of the QuickScat observations. The images, however, reveal lower wind speeds. 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), however, 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 kilometers per hour or 58 miles per hour). 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. "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/PIA07968 http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov ]. 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. |
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Typhoon Sinlaku
PIA03724
Sol (our sun)
Multi-angle Imaging SpectroR
…
| Title |
Typhoon Sinlaku |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
One of the more destructive cyclones to emerge from the northern hemisphere 2002 summer storm season was Typhoon Sinlaku. Several attributes of this storm event are portrayed in these data products from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer. The images were acquired on September 5, when the western portion of the storm was situated over the Okinawan island chain. Over the next few days it moved west-northwest, sweeping over Taiwan before making landfall along China's Zhejian province on the 7th. The typhoon forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, caused major power outages, and at least 26 people were reported dead or missing before the storm weakened as it moved inland. While the nature and formation of individual storm events is relatively well understood, the influence of clouds on climate is difficult to assess due to the variable nature of cloud cover at various altitudes. MISR's data products are designed to help understand these influences. Typhoon Sinlaku is shown at left as a natural-color view observed by MISR's vertical-viewing (nadir)camera. The center panel shows the cloud-top height field derived using automated stereoscopic processing of data from multiple MISR cameras. Relative height variations, such as the clearing within the storm's eye, are well represented. Areas where heights could not be retrieved are shown in dark gray. Clouds have a significant influence on the global radiation balance of the Earth's atmosphere, and the improvement of climate models requires more accurate information on how different types of clouds influence Earth's energy budget. One measure of this influence is albedo, which is the amount of sunlight reflected back to space divided by amount of incident sunlight. Bright objects have high albedo. Retrieved local albedo values for Typhoon Sinlaku are shown at right. Generation of this product is dependent on observed cloud radiances as a function of viewing angle and the cloud height field. Over the short distances (2.2 kilometers) that MISR's local albedo product is generated, values can be greater than 1.0 due to the contributions from the sides of the clouds. Areas where albedo could not be retrieved are shown in dark gray. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously from pole to pole, and views almost the entire globe every 9 days. This image is a portion of the data acquired during Terra orbit 14442, and covers an area of about 380 kilometers x 1408 kilometers. It utilizes data from blocks 65 to 74 within World Reference System-2 path 113. |
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