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Chernobyl, Ukraine B&W, L ba
…
This is an image of the Cher
…
10/3/94
| Date |
10/3/94 |
| Description |
This is an image of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and its surroundings, centered at 51.17 north latitude and 30.15 west longitude. The image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on its 16th orbit on October 1, 1994. The area is located on the northern border of the Ukraine Republic and was produced by using the L-band (horizontally transmitted and received) polarization. The differences in the intensity are due to differences in vegetation cover, with brighter areas being indicative of more vegetation. These data were acquired as part of a collaboration between NASA and the National Space Agency of Ukraine in Remote Sensing and Earth Sciences. NASA has included several sites provided by the Ukrainian space agency as targets of opportunity during the second flight of SIR-C/X-SAR. The Ukrainian space agency also plans to conduct airborne surveys of these sites during the mission. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is located toward the top of the image near the Pripyat River. The 12-kilometer (7.44-mile)-long cooling pond is easily distinguishable as an elongated dark shape in the center near the top of the image. The reactor complex is visible as the bright area to the extreme left of the cooling pond and the city of Chernobyl is the bright area just below the cooling pond next to the Pripyat River. The large dark area in the bottom right of the image is the Kiev Reservoir just north of Kiev. Also visible is the Dnieper River, which feeds into the Kiev Reservoir from the top of the image. The Soviet government evacuated 116,000 people within 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) of the Chernobyl reactor after the explosion and fire on April 26, 1986. ----- Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. The radars illuminate Earth with microwaves, allowing detailed observations at any time, regardless of weather or sunlight conditions. SIR-C/X-SAR uses three microwave wavelengths: L-band (24 cm), C-band (6 cm) and X-band (3 cm). The multi-frequency data will be used by the international scientific community to better understand the global environment and how it is changing. The SIR-C/X-SAR data, complemented by aircraft and ground studies, will give scientists clearer insights into those environmental changes which are caused by nature and those changes which are induced by human activity. SIR-C was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. X-SAR was developed by the Dornier and Alenia Spazio companies for the German space agency, Deutsche Agentur fuer Raumfahrtangelegenheiten (DARA), and the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), with the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fuer Luft und Raumfahrt e.v.(DLR), the major partner in science, operations and data processing of X-SAR. ##### |
|
STS-87 Mission Insignia
| Name of Image |
STS-87 Mission Insignia |
| Date of Image |
1997-08-01 |
| Full Description |
The STS-87 patch is shaped like a space helmet symbolizing the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) on the mission in support of testing of tools for the assembly of the International Space Station (ISS). Earth is shown reflected on the backside of the helmet. The Space Shuttle Columbia forms the interface between the Earth and the heavens, the back and front sides of the helmet in profile. The three red lines emerging from Columbia represent the astronaut symbol as well as the robot arm, which was used to deploy and retrieve the Spartan satellite. The letters 'ug' represent the payloads studying microgravity science in space on this United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-4) mission. Gold flames outlining the helmet visor represent the corona of the Sun, which will be studied by Spartan. The flag of Ukraine is next to the name of the payload specialist who is the first person from that nation to fly on the Space Shuttle. |
|
Chernobyl, Ukraine
| Title |
Chernobyl, Ukraine |
| Description |
Eighteen years ago, on April 26, 1986, the world's worst nuclear power accident occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the Ukrainian-Belarus border. Toxic radionuclides like Cs137 and Sr90 contaminated an area of 155,000 square kilometers in what is today Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, sickened from radiation-induced illnesses, or resettled to uncontaminated land. Today, the immediate area remains off limits to humans. The plant was permanently closed in 2000. The surrounding agricultural land has been abandoned, and the two nearby towns (Pripyat to the north and Chernobyl to the south) where plant workers lived are largely ghost towns. Instead of people, abundant wildlife—packs of wolves, deer, and birds—roam and live near Chernobyl. This image, taken seven years ago from the Russian Mir spacecraft, shows Chernobyl and the surrounding countryside. The power plant is situated on the northwest end of a cooling pond on the Pripyat River, which flows into the Dnepr River just 80 miles north of Kiev. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16519 ] The main features visible in the image are the massive concrete dams and levees that were constructed to contain elements of the power plant and prevent contaminated runoff from entering the local streams. The cooling water canals leading to the pond, and the levees in the middle of the pond that channeled the water circulation can also be seen. The darker green regions are forests and the light green areas are cleared land used for agriculture. Image NM23-745-116 [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=NM23&roll=745&frame=116 ] was taken April 27, 1997, from the Russian Mir Space Station with a Hasselblad medium format camera equipped with a 250-mm lens and is provided by the Earth Observations Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The NASA-Mir program was the first phase of the International Space Station Program, [ http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/ ] which now supports the Earth Observations Laboratory. The program trains astronauts to take pictures of Earth that are of 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/ ] |
|
Drought in Moldova
| Title |
Drought in Moldova |
| Description |
"Moldova's 2007 drought has been the most severe in living memory,' said the United Nations World Food Program in a special report [ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/YSAR-77DR9F?OpenDocument&rc=4&cc=mda ] issued on September 25, 2007. The 2007 drought was the worst in a series of nine dry periods to settle over the country since 1990, and the World Food Program compared its severity to the drought of 1946 during which many Moldovans starved. The impact of the drought on plants in Moldova and parts of Ukraine and Romania is illustrated by this pair of images. The images are vegetation anomaly images, which indicate how quickly plants were taking in light and growing. Areas that are green are regions where plants were larger and leafier (leading to more photosynthesis) than they were on average from 2000 through 2006. Brown areas show where plants were smaller or less leafy than average, in this case as a result of drought. Gray areas indicate where clouds blocked the ground from view throughout the observation period, and blue is water. The images were made with data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. The top image is a compilation of daily data collected between July 28 and August 12, 2007, when the impact of the drought was at its greatest. Summer crops, such as corn and sunflowers, were in a critical stage of development, during which water was essential. The deep brown tone that covers all of Moldova reveals that the hot, dry weather devastated plants. Conditions observed in this image match reports from the ground. Cereal grain production was down 70 percent compared to average yields over the past five years, and other crops, like corn, sunflowers, grapes, and pasture for livestock also suffered, said the World Food Program. Food production from home gardens, the mainstay food supply of about 70 percent of Moldova's population, dropped, and food prices went up. The lower image, from August 29 through September 13, reveals just how much conditions can change in a single month. Some of what had been brown is brushed with green where plants responded to rainfall. Helpful though the rain evidently was to those plants that were still growing, it arrived too late to improve crop conditions, said the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by Inbal Reshef, Global Agricultural Monitoring Project [ http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/glam.cfm ]. Additional caption information courtesy Mark Lindeman, USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. |
|
Stressed Crops in Ukraine an
…
| Title |
Stressed Crops in Ukraine and Russia |
| Description |
Flat, fertile plains stretch northward from the Black Sea in Ukraine and southern Russia. With a climate similar to that of Kansas, roughly two-thirds of the Ukraine is agricultural land. The main crops in the region are wheat, barley, and corn. Most wheat (about 95 percent) is planted in the late fall and harvested in July and August of the following year. Across the border in southern Russia, winter wheat is similarly important. As the wheat grows, farmers rely on rain to nourish the developing plants. In 2005, however, farmers faced a problem. As of September 29, little or no rain had fallen over the region since mid-August. Without rain, farmers could not plant on time. Those who did plant faced the prospect of a poor crop unless rain began to fall. The effects of dry conditions on plants across Ukraine and southern Russia are shown in this vegetation image, made from data acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) between October 2 and October 10, 2005. Dry areas are shown in brown, while normal conditions are tan, and better-than-normal conditions are green. The drought seems to be particularly bad on Crimea, the island-like peninsula in the Black Sea, and in Russia to its east, where deep red points to very stressed vegetation. The vegetation index is a measure of the amount of light absorbed by plants over a large area during photosynthesis. When crops are healthy, they produce more leaves and, as a result, absorb more light in photosynthesis. When they are stressed by drought, crops produce fewer leaves and absorb less light. In this image, the vegetation index was compared to the average of measurements made during the same period in 2001-2004. The resulting image shows that plants are significantly more stressed in 2005 than they were during this period in the previous four years. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by Inbal Reshef and information provided by Assaf Anyamba as part of the Global Agricultural Monitoring Project between NASA, USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), and the University of Maryland. More data and information about this joint project is available at Satellite Information for Agricultural Monitoring. [ http://tripwire.geog.umd.edu/usda/ ] |
|
Stressed Crops in Ukraine an
…
| Title |
Stressed Crops in Ukraine and Russia |
| Description |
Flat, fertile plains stretch northward from the Black Sea in Ukraine and southern Russia. With a climate similar to that of Kansas, roughly two-thirds of the Ukraine is agricultural land. The main crops in the region are wheat, barley, and corn. Most wheat (about 95 percent) is planted in the late fall and harvested in July and August of the following year. Across the border in southern Russia, winter wheat is similarly important. As the wheat grows, farmers rely on rain to nourish the developing plants. In 2005, however, farmers faced a problem. As of September 29, little or no rain had fallen over the region since mid-August. Without rain, farmers could not plant on time. Those who did plant faced the prospect of a poor crop unless rain began to fall. The effects of dry conditions on plants across Ukraine and southern Russia are shown in this vegetation image, made from data acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) between October 2 and October 10, 2005. Dry areas are shown in brown, while normal conditions are tan, and better-than-normal conditions are green. The drought seems to be particularly bad on Crimea, the island-like peninsula in the Black Sea, and in Russia to its east, where deep red points to very stressed vegetation. The vegetation index is a measure of the amount of light absorbed by plants over a large area during photosynthesis. When crops are healthy, they produce more leaves and, as a result, absorb more light in photosynthesis. When they are stressed by drought, crops produce fewer leaves and absorb less light. In this image, the vegetation index was compared to the average of measurements made during the same period in 2001-2004. The resulting image shows that plants are significantly more stressed in 2005 than they were during this period in the previous four years. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by Inbal Reshef and information provided by Assaf Anyamba as part of the Global Agricultural Monitoring Project between NASA, USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), and the University of Maryland. More data and information about this joint project is available at Satellite Information for Agricultural Monitoring. [ http://tripwire.geog.umd.edu/usda/ ] |
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Stressed Crops in Ukraine an
…
| Title |
Stressed Crops in Ukraine and Russia |
| Description |
Under the one-two punch of a dry fall and a frigid winter, winter crops in Ukraine were in poor condition in April and May 2006. This vegetation anomaly (difference from normal) image was created from data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. Widespread brown indicates that plants throughout the region had grown less compared to the average growth for 2000-2005. The Foreign Agricultural Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, estimated that only 10 metric tons of winter wheat, the primary crop growing here, would be harvested in July and August. That figure was down about 46 percent from the 18.7 metric tons harvested in 2005. Why were winter crops in such rough shape? The biggest reason is drought. From August to October or November, depending on the location, little rain fell over the Ukrainian fields where winter grains were being planted, said the Foreign Agricultural Service. In Ukraine, roughly 42 million hectares of the total 60 million hectares is devoted to agriculture, and winter wheat and barley are among the most important crops. Planted in the fall, winter grains typically develop strong roots before going into dormancy with the onset of winter. During the winter, the crop is protected from the killing cold by an insulating layer of snow, and when the snow melts, the grain continues to grow until it is harvested in July and August. In 2005, the drought delayed planting, so the plants did not have time to develop strong root systems. And then the cold hit. An unusual deep freeze [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17173 ] gripped Eastern Europe in mid-January. Though little of the wheat crop was damaged, winter barely and rape seed were. The widespread impact of drought and cold is clear from the negative vegetation anomaly shown above. All crop information cited in this caption is from the Foreign Agricultural Service. Links to the most recent crop report and general information about Ukrainian agriculture are provided below. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by Inbal Reshef as part of the Global Agricultural Monitoring Project [ http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/glam.cfm ] between NASA, USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), and the University of Maryland. |
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Analemma over Ukraine
| Title |
Analemma over Ukraine |
| Explanation |
If you took a picture of the Sun at the same time each day, would it remain in the same position? The answer is no, and the shape traced out by the Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000621.html ] over the course of a year is called an analemma [ http://www.uwm.edu/~kahl/Images/Weather/Other/analemma.html ]. The Sun's apparent shift is caused by the Earth's motion [ http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~soper/Orbits/earthorbit.html ] around the Sun when combined with the tilt of the Earth's [ http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_universe/uts/earth2.html ] rotation axis. The Sun will appear at its highest point of the analemma [ http://solar-center.stanford.edu/FAQ/Qsunaspattern.html ] during summer [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001223.html ] and at its lowest during winter. Analemmas [ http://www.jgiesen.de/analemma/ ] created from different Earth latitudes [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latitude ] would appear at least slightly different, as well as analemmas [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analemma ] created at a different time each day. The analemma [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search?analemma ] pictured to the left [ http://vrum.chat.ru/Photo/Astro/analema.htm ] was built up by Sun photographs [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980526.html ] taken from 1998 August through 1999 August from Ukraine [ http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/up.html ]. The foreground picture [ http://www.digg.com/space/Pic_The_Path_Taken_By_The_Sun_Spread_Out_Over_A_Year ] from the same location was taken during the early evening in 1999 July. |
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Analemma
| Title |
Analemma |
| Explanation |
If you took a picture of the Sun at the same time each day, would it remain in the same position? The answer is no, and the shape traced out by the Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000621.html ] over the course of a year is called an analemma [ http://www.uwm.edu/~kahl/Images/Weather/Other/analemma.html ]. The Sun's apparent shift is caused by the Earth's motion [ http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~soper/Orbits/earthorbit.html ] around the Sun when combined with the tilt of the Earth's [ http://www.crh.noaa.gov/fsd/astro/season.htm ] rotation axis. The Sun will appear at its highest point of the analemma [ http://solar-center.stanford.edu/FAQ/Qsunaspattern.html ] during summer [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001223.html ] and at its lowest during winter. Analemmas [ http://www.jgiesen.de/analemma/ ] created from different Earth latitudes [ http://www.cogtech.com/EXPLORER/lat-long.htm ] would appear at least slightly different, as well as analemmas [ http://www.wshs.fcps.k12.va.us/vault/svanbroc/analemma.htm ] created at a different time each day. The analemma [ http://www.finseth.com/~fin/Java/Analemma0.html ] pictured to the left [ http://vrum.chat.ru/Photo/Astro/analema.htm ] was built up by Sun photographs [ http://www.shadow.net/~bobt/office/office.htm ] taken from 1998 August through 1999 August from Ukraine [ http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/up.html ]. The foreground picture from the same location was taken during the early evening in 1999 July. |
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Stressed Crops in Ukraine an
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Flat, fertile plains stretch
…
ukraine_ndvia_0210oct05
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2005-10-10 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
ukraine_ndvia_0210oct05 |
|
Stressed Crops in Ukraine an
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Flat, fertile plains stretch
…
ukraine_ndvia_0210oct05
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2005-10-10 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
ukraine_ndvia_0210oct05 |
|
Drought in Moldova: Natural
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
* eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/ima
…
moldovandvia_tmo_2007241
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2007-09-13 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
moldovandvia_tmo_2007241 |
|
Stressed Crops in Ukraine an
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Under the one-two punch of a
…
ge_15726
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2006-04-23 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
ge_15726 |
|
Stressed Crops in Ukraine an
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Under the one-two punch of a
…
ge_15726
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2006-04-23 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
ge_15726 |
|
Stressed Crops in Ukraine an
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Under the one-two punch of a
…
ge_15726
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2006-04-23 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
ge_15726 |
|
Space Radar Image of Dnieper
…
PIA01850
Sol (our sun)
| Title |
Space Radar Image of Dnieper River, Ukraine |
|
| General Description |
STS-87 Shuttle Mission Imagery |
|
| General Description |
STS-106 Shuttle Mission Imagery |
|
| General Description |
STS-106 Shuttle Mission Imagery |
|
| General Description |
STS-106 Shuttle Mission Imagery |
|
| General Description |
STS-106 Shuttle Mission Imagery |
|
| General Description |
STS-106 Shuttle Mission Imagery |
|
| General Description |
STS-106 Shuttle Mission Imagery |
|
| General Description |
STS-106 Shuttle Mission Imagery |
|
| General Description |
STS-106 Shuttle Mission Imagery |
|
| General Description |
STS-106 Shuttle Mission Imagery |
|
| General Description |
STS-106 Shuttle Mission Imagery |
|
Dneper River, Kakhovskoye Re
…
| Title |
Dneper River, Kakhovskoye Reservoir, Ukraine, CIS |
| Description |
This cloudy view of the southern Ukraine offers a view of the Dneper River and Kakhovskoye Reservoir, Ukraine, CIS (48.0N, 36.0E). Extensive and intensive agriculture can be seen throughout this region, long regarded as the breadbasket of the CIS, the Ukraine is one of the most agriculturely productive regions in the world. Intensive agriculture requires extensive water resources so reservoirs have been built along the region's many rivers. |
| Date Taken |
1990-03-04 |
|
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