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POLAR STRATOSPHERIC CLOUDS
Polar stratospheric clouds o
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4/5/00
| Date |
4/5/00 |
| Description |
Polar stratospheric clouds over Kiruna, Sweden, on Jan. 27, 2000. The colorful appearance of these clouds is due to the small size of their droplets and their high altitude, approximately 21,300 meters (70,000 ft). The small droplets in the clouds result in separation of light of different colors due to refraction of sunlight. Their high altitude allows for full solar illumination for up to 20 minutes following sunset at the ground. These clouds, which have long been called "Mother of Pearl" by Scandinavians, participate in a chain of events that leads to ozone depletion by human-produced chlorine. Between November 1999 and March 2000, the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) provided scientists with measurements of ozone using a variety of satellite-, airplane-, balloon- and ground-based instruments. Scientists also obtained a comprehensive inventory of numerous other atmospheric gases and information on the physical and chemical properties of polar stratospheric clouds. The SOLVE mission was co-sponsored by the Upper Atmosphere Research Program, Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Project, Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling and Analysis Program, and Earth Observing System of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise as part of the validation program for the SAGE III instrument. Based primarily in Kiruna, Sweden, the campaign included scientists from the United States, Europe, Canada, Russia and Japan. A key aspect to the success of this mission was the permission to fly both NASA research aircraft over Russia. SOLVE was managed by the Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, with extensive participation by science teams from Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, as well as a number of other government laboratories and universities. The ER-2 and DC-8 aircraft are based at Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, and the U.S. balloon operations in Sweden were conducted by a team from the National Scientific Balloon Facility, Palestine, TX. |
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HIGH ALTITUDE BALLOON/ARCTIC
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A NASA high-altitude researc
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4/5/00
| Date |
4/5/00 |
| Description |
A NASA high-altitude research balloon climbing to study the composition of the Arctic stratosphere from the Esrange Balloon Launch Facility near Kiruna, Sweden. With its helium bubble expanding to the size of a large building while in the stratosphere, the balloon carried a payload of about 450 Kg. (1000 lbs) to an altitude of about 30,500 meters (100,000 ft.). Following flight, the instrument payload lands by parachute and is recovered for subsequent flights. Between November 1999 and March 2000, the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) provided scientists with measurements of ozone using a variety of satellite-, airplane-, balloon- and ground-based instruments. Scientists also obtained a comprehensive inventory of numerous other atmospheric gases and information on the physical and chemical properties of polar stratospheric clouds. The SOLVE mission was co-sponsored by the Upper Atmosphere Research Program, Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Project, Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling and Analysis Program, and Earth Observing System of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise as part of the validation program for the SAGE III instrument. Based primarily in Kiruna, Sweden, the campaign included scientists from the United States, Europe, Canada, Russia and Japan. A key aspect to the success of this mission was the permission to fly both NASA research aircraft over Russia. SOLVE was managed by the Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, with extensive participation by science teams from Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, as well as a number of other government laboratories and universities. The ER-2 and DC-8 aircraft are based at Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, and the U.S. balloon operations in Sweden were conducted by a team from the National Scientific Balloon Facility, Palestine, TX. |
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OZONE INSTRUMENTS LOADED ON
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Scientists preparing their i
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4/5/00
| Date |
4/5/00 |
| Description |
Scientists preparing their instruments for flight on the NASA ER-2 research aircraft inside the Arena Arctica hangar, Kiruna, Sweden. The plane carries dozens of instruments in two pods attached to the wings, in the Q-bay area below the cockpit and in the nose. These pieces of the plane can be detached allowing access to the instruments prior to take-off. Between November 1999 and March 2000, the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) provided scientists with measurements of ozone using a variety of satellite-, airplane-, balloon- and ground-based instruments. Scientists also obtained a comprehensive inventory of numerous other atmospheric gases and information on the physical and chemical properties of polar stratospheric clouds. The SOLVE mission was co-sponsored by the Upper Atmosphere Research Program, Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Project, Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling and Analysis Program, and Earth Observing System of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise as part of the validation program for the SAGE III instrument. Based primarily in Kiruna, Sweden, the campaign included scientists from the United States, Europe, Canada, Russia and Japan. A key aspect to the success of this mission was the permission to fly both NASA research aircraft over Russia. SOLVE was managed by the Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, with extensive participation by science teams from Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, as well as a number of other government laboratories and universities. The ER-2 and DC-8 aircraft are based at Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, and the U.S. balloon operations in Sweden were conducted by a team from the National Scientific Balloon Facility, Palestine, TX. |
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ER-2 USED IN ARCTIC OZONE RE
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The NASA ER-2 high-altitude
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4/5/00
| Date |
4/5/00 |
| Description |
The NASA ER-2 high-altitude research plane on the runway of Kiruna, Sweden. The airplane -- a civilian variant of the U-2 reconnaissance plane capable of reaching altitudes as high as 21,330 meters (70,000 feet) -- carried into the stratosphere dozens of scientific instruments that measure the composition of Earth's ozone layer. The only person on board is the pilot, who must wear a pressurized spacesuit to guard against the dangers of high-altitude flight. Between November 1999 and March 2000, the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) provided scientists with measurements of ozone using a variety of satellite-, airplane-, balloon- and ground-based instruments. Scientists also obtained a comprehensive inventory of numerous other atmospheric gases and information on the physical and chemical properties of polar stratospheric clouds. The SOLVE mission was co-sponsored by the Upper Atmosphere Research Program, Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Project, Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling and Analysis Program, and Earth Observing System of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise as part of the validation program for the SAGE III instrument. Based primarily in Kiruna, Sweden, the campaign included scientists from the United States, Europe, Canada, Russia and Japan. A key aspect to the success of this mission was the permission to fly both NASA research aircraft over Russia. SOLVE was managed by the Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, with extensive participation by science teams from Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, as well as a number of other government laboratories and universities. The ER-2 and DC-8 aircraft are based at Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, and the U.S. balloon operations in Sweden were conducted by a team from the National Scientific Balloon Facility, Palestine, TX. |
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Dam Break in Syria
| Title |
Dam Break in Syria |
| Description |
On Tuesday the Zeyzoun dam in northern Syria ruptured and collapsed, killing 20 people and leaving thousands more homeless. This false-color image (right) taken on June 5, 2002, by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA?s Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite shows the extent of the flooding. Normally, there would be no water present in the center of the image (left, acquired on June 3, 2002). After the dam burst, 71 million cubic meters flowed onto the surrounding landscape and washed over an area of 20,000 acres. Hundreds of homes were destroyed in and around the villages of Zeyzoun, Qastoun, and Ziara, roughly 220 miles (350 kilometers) north of Damascus. Most of the residents fled to higher ground with the help of two helicopters. The Syrians originally constructed the dam to contain the Orontes River and provide a steady flow of water to the surrounding farms, many of which were lost. Rescue workers worry that more bodies may be found as the waters of the dam recede. The Japanese government issued over $40,000 in aid for the victims, and the Syrian government is petitioning international aid agencies for further assistance. In this false-color image, the ground is sage green and rusty orange, and water is black. Clouds appear pink. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] at NASA GSFC |
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Dam Break in Syria
| Title |
Dam Break in Syria |
| Description |
On Tuesday the Zeyzoun dam in northern Syria ruptured and collapsed, killing 20 people and leaving thousands more homeless. This false-color image (right) taken on June 5, 2002, by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA?s Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite shows the extent of the flooding. Normally, there would be no water present in the center of the image (left, acquired on June 3, 2002). After the dam burst, 71 million cubic meters flowed onto the surrounding landscape and washed over an area of 20,000 acres. Hundreds of homes were destroyed in and around the villages of Zeyzoun, Qastoun, and Ziara, roughly 220 miles (350 kilometers) north of Damascus. Most of the residents fled to higher ground with the help of two helicopters. The Syrians originally constructed the dam to contain the Orontes River and provide a steady flow of water to the surrounding farms, many of which were lost. Rescue workers worry that more bodies may be found as the waters of the dam recede. The Japanese government issued over $40,000 in aid for the victims, and the Syrian government is petitioning international aid agencies for further assistance. In this false-color image, the ground is sage green and rusty orange, and water is black. Clouds appear pink. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] at NASA GSFC |
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Fires in the Western United
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| Title |
Fires in the Western United States |
| Description |
The western United States was wilting under widespread hot temperatures in late July 2006. In blazing heat, firefighters were working to contain numerous wildfires in several Western states, including Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Idaho. This image of the area was captured on July 27 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are marked in red. Four of the largest blazes (as of July 28) have been labeled: the 12,000-acre Tripod Fire in Washington, the 28,958-acre Foster Gulch Complex near the Oregon-Idaho state line, the 4,550-acre Sage Fire in California, and the 30,000-acre Winters Fire in northern Nevada. For more information on fires in the United States, visit the National Interagency Fire Center [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] Website. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions, including MODIS' maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in the Western United
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| Title |
Fires in the Western United States |
| Description |
Thick, white smoke seeps through the valleys of the Rocky Mountains ranges that run through Idaho, Washington, and Oregon in this photo-like image taken on September 12, 2006. At the time, firefighters were monitoring 29 wild fires in the three states, said the National Interagency Fire Center. [ http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html ] Many of the fires were started by lightning, as suggested by the clusters of fires (red dots) seen in this image. The image was taken in the early afternoon by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. Most of the fires are burning in the deep-green, pine-covered mountains. Sage, scrub, and grass-covered desert is tan, while agricultural land creates a pattern of tiny, bright green and gold dots. Between January 1 and September 12, 2006, a total of 8,653,883 acres of land had burned in the United States, exceeding the totals for the same period of any other year since 2000. Many of the fires that burned in remote areas were simply monitored as part of a long-term land-management strategy, but those that threatened structures were actively combated. Some of the large fires shown here include the Columbia Complex, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13804 ] which had burned 103,100 acres and was 80 percent contained on September 12, the Elkhorn Complex, which had burned 870 acres and was 15 percent contained, the Payette Complex, which had burned 10,729 acres, the South Fork Complex, 41,600 acres and 20 percent contained, the Boundary Complex, 22,785 acres and 5 percent contained, the Red Mountain Fire, 32,825 acres and 30 percent contained, and the Rattlesnake Complex, 37,421 acres and 30 percent contained. Several other large fires burned in the western United States on September 12. The Derby Fire [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13832 ] in western Montana (just beyond the right edge of the image) had threatened homes and forced hundred of evacuations in early September. By September 12, it had burned 207,644 acres and was 70 percent contained, said the National Interagency Fire Center. The Day Fire [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13848 ] was burning in Los Padres National Forest about 40 miles north of Los Angeles, California. Its thick smoke temporarily closed Interstate 5 on September 12. 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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Flooding in Central Siberia
| Title |
Flooding in Central Siberia |
| Description |
A mixture of snowmelt and ice jams in late May and June of this year caused the Taz River (left) and the Yenisey River (right) in central Siberia to overflow their banks. The flooding can be seen in this image taken on June 11, 2002, by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument aboard the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. Normally, the rivers would resemble thin black lines in MODIS imagery. In the false-color images sage green and rusty orange is land, and water is black. Clouds are white and pink. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] at NASA GSFC |
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Flooding in Northern Minneso
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| Title |
Flooding in Northern Minnesota |
| Description |
During the first half of June, heavy rains inundated northern Minnesota and southern Canada, giving rise to floods that drove hundreds of people from their homes and drenched more than 300,000 acres of prime farmland. This false-color image of the flood (right) was acquired on June 15, 2002, by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), flying aboard NASA?s Terra spacecraft. The worst of the flooding occurred on the border of Canada and Minnesota along the Roseau River, which now resembles a lake in the center of the image. The town of Roseau, Minnesota, which sits in the eastern end of the newly formed lake, was hit the hardest. Nearly all the buildings in the town took heavy water damage and many residents were forced to leave. Widespread flooding across an eight county region in Minnesota has drenched nearly 300,000 to 500,000 acres of farmland altogether. Many of the farmers hit lost 100 percent of their crops and will be unable to plant again for the season. Last week, President Bush declared northern Minnesota a disaster area. Normally, the Roseau River cannot even be seen on a MODIS image (left, acquired May 21, 2002), and the surrounding area is dry. In the false-color images, sage green, rusty orange, and blue is land, and water is black. Clouds are white and pink. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] at NASA GSFC |
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The Large Magellanic Cloud i
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| Title |
The Large Magellanic Cloud in Infrared |
| Explanation |
Where does dust collect in galaxies? To help find out, a team of researchers [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2005AAS...207.6345M ] took the most detailed image ever of gas clouds and dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030706.html ] in the neighboring Large Magellanic Cloud [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060510.html ] (LMC) galaxy. The composite image, shown above [ http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2006-17/ssc2006-17b.shtml ], was taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope [ http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/about/index.shtml ] in infrared light [ http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/infrared.html ], which highlights the natural glow of the warm materials returned to the interstellar medium [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020210.html ] by stars. The above mosaic [ http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2006-17/ssc2006-17b.shtml ] combines 300,000 individual pointings to create a composite 1,000-times sharper than any previous LMC image. Visible are vast [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050306.html ] clouds of gas and dust [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_dust ], showing in graphic detail that dust prefers regions near young stars (red-tinted bright clouds), scattered unevenly between the stars (green-tinted clouds), and in shells around old stars (small red dots). Also visible are huge cavern [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060226.html ]s cleared away by the energetic outflows of massive former stars. The faint blue (false-color) glow across the bottom is the combined light from the old stars in the central bar [ http://www-int.stsci.edu/~marel/lmc.html ] of the LMC. The LMC [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Magellanic_Cloud ] is a satellite galaxy [ http://www.astro.uu.se/~ns/mwsat.html ] to our own Milky Way Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000518.html ], spans about 70,000 light years [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html ], and lies about 160,000 light years away toward the southern constellation of the Swordfish [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swordfish ] (Dorado [ http://www.astronomical.org/portal/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=33 ]). |
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Fires in the Western United
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nasa, nasanaturalhazards
The western United States wa
…
West_fires.AMO2006208
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2006-07-27 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
West_fires.AMO2006208 |
|
Flooding in Central Siberia:
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
A mixture of snowmelt and ic
…
yeniseytaz.TMO2002162
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2002-06-11 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
yeniseytaz.TMO2002162 |
|
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