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Multi-Angle Views of the App …
Description Multi-Angle Views of the Appalachian Mountains The true-color image at left is a downward-looking (nadir) view of the eastern United States, stretching from Lake Ontario to northern Georgia, and spanning the Appalachian Mountains. The three images to the right are also in true-color, taken by the forward 45.6-degree, 60.0-degree, and 70.5-degree cameras, respectively, of the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite. As the slant angle increases, the line- of-sight through the atmosphere grows longer, and a pall of haze over the Appalachians becomes progressively more apparent. You can see a similar effect by scanning from near-nadir to the horizon when standing on a mountain top or looking out an airplane window. MISR uses this multi-angle technique to monitor particulate pollution and to distinguish different types of haze. These observations reveal how airborne particles are interacting with sunlight, a measure of their impact on Earth's climate system. The images are about 400 km (250 miles) wide, and the spatial resolution is 1.1 kilometers (1,200 yards). North is toward the top. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. #####
Titan Sea and Lake Superior
Description Titan Sea and Lake Superior
Full Description This side-by-side image shows a Cassini radar image (on the left) of what is the largest body of liquid ever found on Titan's north pole, compared to Lake Superior (on the right). This close-up is part of a larger image (see Titan (T25) Viewed by Cassini's Radar - Feb. 22, 2007) and offers strong evidence for seas on Titan. These seas are most likely liquid methane and ethane. This feature on Titan is at least 100,000 square kilometers (39,000 square miles), which is greater in extent than Lake Superior (82,000 square kilometers or 32,000 square miles), which is one of Earth's largest lakes. The feature covers a greater fraction of Titan than the largest terrestrial inland sea, the Black Sea. The Black Sea covers 0.085 percent of the surface of the Earth, this newly observed body on Titan covers at least 0.12 percent of the surface of Titan. Because of its size, scientists are calling it a sea. The image on the right is from the SeaWiFS project, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. *Credit:* NASA/JPL/GSFC
Date March 13, 2007
National Map Showing Habitat …
Title National Map Showing Habitat Suitability for Tamarisk Invasion
Abstract The spread of invasive species is one of the most daunting environmental, economic, and human-health problems facing the United States and the World today. It is one of several grand challenge environmental problems being addressed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate through a national application partnership with the US Geological Survey. NASA and USGS are working together to develop a National Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) for the management and control of invasive species on Department of Interior and adjacent lands. The system provides a framework for using USGS's early detection and monitoring protocols and predictive models to process MODIS, ETM+, ASTER and commercial remote sensing data, to create on-demand, regional-scale assessments of invasive species likely habitats. Recent work on the Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) project has shown the importance of remotely-sensed time-series data in geostatistical models for mapping the distribution of Tamarisk and other invasive plant species. This video shows the habitat suitability for a Tamarisk invasion in the continental United States. Red indicates areas that are highly suitable and yellow indicates areas which are less suitable. Texas, New Mexico, and Nevada are the most highly suitable states. Utah and Arizona have the next greatest risk. California, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, Oregon, Ohio, Wyoming, and Florida also have a significant risk.
Completed 2005-10-18
National Map Showing Habitat …
Title National Map Showing Habitat Suitability for Tamarisk Invasion
Abstract The spread of invasive species is one of the most daunting environmental, economic, and human-health problems facing the United States and the World today. It is one of several grand challenge environmental problems being addressed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate through a national application partnership with the US Geological Survey. NASA and USGS are working together to develop a National Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) for the management and control of invasive species on Department of Interior and adjacent lands. The system provides a framework for using USGS's early detection and monitoring protocols and predictive models to process MODIS, ETM+, ASTER and commercial remote sensing data, to create on-demand, regional-scale assessments of invasive species likely habitats. Recent work on the Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) project has shown the importance of remotely-sensed time-series data in geostatistical models for mapping the distribution of Tamarisk and other invasive plant species. This video shows the habitat suitability for a Tamarisk invasion in the continental United States. Red indicates areas that are highly suitable and yellow indicates areas which are less suitable. Texas, New Mexico, and Nevada are the most highly suitable states. Utah and Arizona have the next greatest risk. California, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, Oregon, Ohio, Wyoming, and Florida also have a significant risk.
Completed 2005-10-18
National Map Showing Habitat …
Title National Map Showing Habitat Suitability for Tamarisk Invasion
Abstract The spread of invasive species is one of the most daunting environmental, economic, and human-health problems facing the United States and the World today. It is one of several grand challenge environmental problems being addressed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate through a national application partnership with the US Geological Survey. NASA and USGS are working together to develop a National Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) for the management and control of invasive species on Department of Interior and adjacent lands. The system provides a framework for using USGS's early detection and monitoring protocols and predictive models to process MODIS, ETM+, ASTER and commercial remote sensing data, to create on-demand, regional-scale assessments of invasive species likely habitats. Recent work on the Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) project has shown the importance of remotely-sensed time-series data in geostatistical models for mapping the distribution of Tamarisk and other invasive plant species. This video shows the habitat suitability for a Tamarisk invasion in the continental United States. Red indicates areas that are highly suitable and yellow indicates areas which are less suitable. Texas, New Mexico, and Nevada are the most highly suitable states. Utah and Arizona have the next greatest risk. California, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, Oregon, Ohio, Wyoming, and Florida also have a significant risk.
Completed 2005-10-18
National Map Showing Habitat …
Title National Map Showing Habitat Suitability for Tamarisk Invasion
Abstract The spread of invasive species is one of the most daunting environmental, economic, and human-health problems facing the United States and the World today. It is one of several grand challenge environmental problems being addressed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate through a national application partnership with the US Geological Survey. NASA and USGS are working together to develop a National Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) for the management and control of invasive species on Department of Interior and adjacent lands. The system provides a framework for using USGS's early detection and monitoring protocols and predictive models to process MODIS, ETM+, ASTER and commercial remote sensing data, to create on-demand, regional-scale assessments of invasive species likely habitats. Recent work on the Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) project has shown the importance of remotely-sensed time-series data in geostatistical models for mapping the distribution of Tamarisk and other invasive plant species. This video shows the habitat suitability for a Tamarisk invasion in the continental United States. Red indicates areas that are highly suitable and yellow indicates areas which are less suitable. Texas, New Mexico, and Nevada are the most highly suitable states. Utah and Arizona have the next greatest risk. California, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, Oregon, Ohio, Wyoming, and Florida also have a significant risk.
Completed 2005-10-18
National Map Showing Habitat …
Title National Map Showing Habitat Suitability for Tamarisk Invasion
Abstract The spread of invasive species is one of the most daunting environmental, economic, and human-health problems facing the United States and the World today. It is one of several grand challenge environmental problems being addressed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate through a national application partnership with the US Geological Survey. NASA and USGS are working together to develop a National Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) for the management and control of invasive species on Department of Interior and adjacent lands. The system provides a framework for using USGS's early detection and monitoring protocols and predictive models to process MODIS, ETM+, ASTER and commercial remote sensing data, to create on-demand, regional-scale assessments of invasive species likely habitats. Recent work on the Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) project has shown the importance of remotely-sensed time-series data in geostatistical models for mapping the distribution of Tamarisk and other invasive plant species. This video shows the habitat suitability for a Tamarisk invasion in the continental United States. Red indicates areas that are highly suitable and yellow indicates areas which are less suitable. Texas, New Mexico, and Nevada are the most highly suitable states. Utah and Arizona have the next greatest risk. California, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, Oregon, Ohio, Wyoming, and Florida also have a significant risk.
Completed 2005-10-18
Aerosols from 2003 Southern …
Title Aerosols from 2003 Southern California Fires (WMS)
Abstract A devastating series of fires occurred in Southern California during October 2003. The effects of these fires were detectable from space. The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument measures aerosol particles (microscopic airborne dust and smoke). TOMS was able to detect aerosols from these fires moving West over the Pacific Ocean and East over the continental United States.
Completed 2005-03-11
Aerosols from 2003 Southern …
Title Aerosols from 2003 Southern California Fires (WMS)
Abstract A devastating series of fires occurred in Southern California during October 2003. The effects of these fires were detectable from space. The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument measures aerosol particles (microscopic airborne dust and smoke). TOMS was able to detect aerosols from these fires moving West over the Pacific Ocean and East over the continental United States.
Completed 2005-03-11
Lake Mead Shrinks!
Title Lake Mead Shrinks!
Abstract Lake Mead reservoir is nestled between Arizona and Nevada and runs up to the Hoover Dam. The reservoir stores Colorado River water and supplies it to farms, homes and business in Southern Nevada, Arizona, southern California and northern Mexico. Scientists at NASA are releasing dramatic pictures of the dwindling water supplies in the drought-stricken western United States. According to the Bureau of Reclamation, the Colorado Basin is in its fourth year of drought and computer models project water levels will go down another 15 to 20 feet (4.6 to 6.1 m) by next year. Despite low water levels, The National Park Service says there is still plenty of water for recreation. The Landsat 7 satellite captured images of Lake Mead May 2000, and May 2003. The 2003 image clearly shows a shrinking lake.
Completed 2003-07-03
Lake Mead Shrinks!
Title Lake Mead Shrinks!
Abstract Lake Mead reservoir is nestled between Arizona and Nevada and runs up to the Hoover Dam. The reservoir stores Colorado River water and supplies it to farms, homes and business in Southern Nevada, Arizona, southern California and northern Mexico. Scientists at NASA are releasing dramatic pictures of the dwindling water supplies in the drought-stricken western United States. According to the Bureau of Reclamation, the Colorado Basin is in its fourth year of drought and computer models project water levels will go down another 15 to 20 feet (4.6 to 6.1 m) by next year. Despite low water levels, The National Park Service says there is still plenty of water for recreation. The Landsat 7 satellite captured images of Lake Mead May 2000, and May 2003. The 2003 image clearly shows a shrinking lake.
Completed 2003-07-03
Lake Mead Shrinks!
Title Lake Mead Shrinks!
Abstract Lake Mead reservoir is nestled between Arizona and Nevada and runs up to the Hoover Dam. The reservoir stores Colorado River water and supplies it to farms, homes and business in Southern Nevada, Arizona, southern California and northern Mexico. Scientists at NASA are releasing dramatic pictures of the dwindling water supplies in the drought-stricken western United States. According to the Bureau of Reclamation, the Colorado Basin is in its fourth year of drought and computer models project water levels will go down another 15 to 20 feet (4.6 to 6.1 m) by next year. Despite low water levels, The National Park Service says there is still plenty of water for recreation. The Landsat 7 satellite captured images of Lake Mead May 2000, and May 2003. The 2003 image clearly shows a shrinking lake.
Completed 2003-07-03
Heavy Rainfall Leads to Sout …
Title Heavy Rainfall Leads to Southern California Mudslides (WMS)
Abstract In January 2005, heavy rains in southern California caused flooding and mudslides. A flow of moisture known as a 'Pineapple Express' because it originates in the Pacific subtropics near Hawaii can cause severe winter storms in California when conditions are right. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) observered heavy rainfall near San Diego during a five-day period in January 2005. This visualization shows accumulation of rainfall--each frame shows the total amount of rain since the start of the measurement period.
Completed 2005-04-22
Heavy Rainfall Leads to Sout …
Title Heavy Rainfall Leads to Southern California Mudslides (WMS)
Abstract In January 2005, heavy rains in southern California caused flooding and mudslides. A flow of moisture known as a 'Pineapple Express' because it originates in the Pacific subtropics near Hawaii can cause severe winter storms in California when conditions are right. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) observered heavy rainfall near San Diego during a five-day period in January 2005. This visualization shows accumulation of rainfall--each frame shows the total amount of rain since the start of the measurement period.
Completed 2005-04-22
Blizzards in the Western Uni …
Title Blizzards in the Western United States
Description A series of heavy winter storms pummeled parts of the western United States between December 24, 2003, and January 3, 2004, blanketing the region with deep snow. Salt Lake City, Utah, reported more than six feet of snow, according to news reports. The blizzards that rolled through California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado closed roads, knocked out power, and claimed at least two lives in subsequent avalanches. These Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) images, taken on January 5, 2004, by the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite, show the extent of the snowfall from California in the west to the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Colorado in the east. The Great Salt Lake is the two-toned body of water in the center of the images. In the top image, shown in true color, only a sliver of green land west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains can be see on the left side of the image?clouds and snow obscure the rest of the landscape. The bottom image shows the same scene in false color. Here, snow and ice are dark red and orange, while clouds are white and peach. Water is black. The false color image helps differentiate between cloud cover and snow and ice on the ground. The high resolution images provided above are at 500 meters per pixel. Image courtesy Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC
Blizzards in the Western Uni …
Title Blizzards in the Western United States
Description A series of heavy winter storms pummeled parts of the western United States between December 24, 2003, and January 3, 2004, blanketing the region with deep snow. Salt Lake City, Utah, reported more than six feet of snow, according to news reports. The blizzards that rolled through California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado closed roads, knocked out power, and claimed at least two lives in subsequent avalanches. These Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) images, taken on January 5, 2004, by the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite, show the extent of the snowfall from California in the west to the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Colorado in the east. The Great Salt Lake is the two-toned body of water in the center of the images. In the top image, shown in true color, only a sliver of green land west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains can be see on the left side of the image?clouds and snow obscure the rest of the landscape. The bottom image shows the same scene in false color. Here, snow and ice are dark red and orange, while clouds are white and peach. Water is black. The false color image helps differentiate between cloud cover and snow and ice on the ground. The high resolution images provided above are at 500 meters per pixel. Image courtesy Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC
Blizzards in the Western Uni …
Title Blizzards in the Western United States
Description A series of heavy winter storms pummeled parts of the western United States between December 24, 2003, and January 3, 2004, blanketing the region with deep snow. Salt Lake City, Utah, reported more than six feet of snow, according to news reports. The blizzards that rolled through California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado closed roads, knocked out power, and claimed at least two lives in subsequent avalanches. These Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) images, taken on January 5, 2004, by the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite, show the extent of the snowfall from California in the west to the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Colorado in the east. The Great Salt Lake is the two-toned body of water in the center of the images. In the top image, shown in true color, only a sliver of green land west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains can be see on the left side of the image?clouds and snow obscure the rest of the landscape. The bottom image shows the same scene in false color. Here, snow and ice are dark red and orange, while clouds are white and peach. Water is black. The false color image helps differentiate between cloud cover and snow and ice on the ground. The high resolution images provided above are at 500 meters per pixel. Image courtesy Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC
Day Fire in Southern Califor …
Title Day Fire in Southern California
Description A shift in the winds affecting the Day Fire [ http://www.inciweb.org/incident/475/ ] northwest of Los Angeles swept smoke to the northeast on September 19, 2006. On the previous day, winds had pushed a thick plume of smoke westward over the Pacific Ocean. This pair of images of the fire on September 19 was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite. The natural-color image at top is similar to a digital photo, and uses only visible light. The image at bottom has been enhanced with MODIS' observations of shortwave- and near-infrared light to make the burned areas (deep red) stand out from unburned vegetation (green). In both images the actively burning parts of the fire are outlined in red. In the false-color image, bright pink glows within the fire perimeters are probably areas of open flame. According to the September 20 report from the National Interagency Fire Center, [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] the Day Fire was 93,339 acres and 20 percent contained. Parts of the Angeles and Los Padres National Forests were closed, and evacuations and road closures in the area continued. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides daily images of the entire western United States at additional resolutions. [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA5 ] NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Haze over Utah
Title Haze over Utah
Description Haze clouded the skies over the southwestern United States, especially Utah, on September 8, 2007. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite took this picture the same day. In this image, the pale colors dominating western Utah result partly from the light hues of the underlying ground surface, but a substantial gray-beige mass hangs in the atmosphere. The haze is thick enough to almost completely obscure the view of the Great Salt Lake. Although the exact origin of Utah's early September haze was not clear, it probably resulted from smoke released by fires to the north and west in Idaho and California. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Heat Wave in North America
Title Heat Wave in North America
Description Scorching summer sun, burning pavement, stinging sweat—normal for July. But in July 2006, temperatures climbed above average levels for the previous six years and stayed warm for several days. During mid-July, a heat wave settled over most of the United States, with air temperatures soaring past 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius). Land surface temperatures climbed as well, as this image shows. Most of the United States and portions of Canada and Mexico were much warmer than they had been during the same period from 2000 to 2005. Deep red across the Midwest indicates that land surface temperatures were as much as 10 degrees Celsius warmer than the six-year average, and with the exception of the Pacific Northwest and a few other isolated region, the rest of the country was also warmer than average. The heat wave continued past the period shown here, through the end of July. In California alone, the heat killed at least 126 people, reported Reuters on July 29. This 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 between July 12 and July 19, 2006. 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.
Heatwave in the Western Unit …
Title Heatwave in the Western United States
Description Extreme heat lingered over much of the western United States in early July 2007. Temperatures soared to triple digits, meeting or breaking records from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Great Falls, Montana, said news reports. The oppressive heat contributed to creating prime fire conditions, so that, when dry thunderstorms (lightning storms accompanied by little or no rain) rolled through on July 7, lightning sparked dozens of fast-moving wildfires. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14358 ] This image, 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 from June 26 though July 3, 2007, shows land surface temperatures compared to average temperatures observed during the same period in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Deep red across the Southwest and the Intermountain West indicate that temperatures were much higher than they were in 2000-2002. The Southeast also experienced warmer temperatures. Northern California, Oregon, and Washington appear to be cooler than in previous years, as indicated by the blue tones. The heat wave started mid-way through the week-long period shown in this image. While temperatures may have soared at the end of the period, cooler temperatures earlier in the week dominate the signal. Land surface temperatures from July 4-11 [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14393 ] show that these areas warmed significantly the following week. The Southern Plains are dark blue where temperatures were much cooler than they had been in previous years. During this period, torrential rains drenched the region, causing wide-spread flooding in Texas and Oklahoma [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14363 ] and in Kansas and Missouri. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14383 ] The gray region over Kansas and Oklahoma is an area in which MODIS could not record the land's temperature because of perpetual cloud cover during the week-long period. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Land Processes [ http://modis-land.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team.
Drought in Southwestern Unit …
Title Drought in Southwestern United States
Description The southwestern United States pined for water in late March and early April 2007. This image is based on data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite from March 22 through April 6, 2007, and it shows the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, or NDVI, for the period. In this NDVI color scale, green indicates areas of healthier-than-usual vegetation, and only small patches of green appear in this image, near the California-Nevada border and in Utah. Larger areas of below-normal vegetation are more common, especially throughout California. Pale yellow indicates areas with generally average vegetation. Gray areas appear where no data were available, likely due to persistent clouds or snow cover. According to the April 10, 2007, update from the U.S. Drought Monitor, [ http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html ] most of the southwestern United Sates, including Utah, Nevada, California, and Arizona, experienced moderate to extreme drought. The hardest hit areas were southeastern California and southwestern Arizona. Writing for the Drought Monitor, David Miskus of the Joint Agricultural Weather Facility reported that March 2007 had been unusually dry for the southwestern United States. While California's and Utah's reservoir storage was only slightly below normal, reservoir storage was well below normal for New Mexico and Arizona. In early April, an international research team published an online paper in Science noting that droughts could become more common for the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, as these areas were already showing signs of drying. Relying on the same computer models used in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in early 2007, the researchers who published in Science concluded that global warming could make droughts more common, not just in the American Southwest, but also in semiarid regions of southern Europe, Mediterranean northern Africa, and the Middle East. 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 ].
Drought in Southwestern Unit …
Title Drought in Southwestern United States
Description Like the rest of southern California, the southern San Joaquin Valley was in drought in August 2007, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. [ http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html ] Irrigated crops in the intensely farmed valley contrast sharply with the surrounding natural vegetation in this vegetation anomaly image. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite collected the data used to make this image between August 13 and August 28, 2007. Vegetation conditions were then compared to average conditions observed during the same period from 2000 to 2006. Areas that were more lush or densely vegetated than average are green, while less-densely vegetated areas are brown. Lakes and reservoirs are masked out with blue. The pattern that emerges in this image reveals as much about land use at it does about drought. Grids of green and dark brown define the southern San Joaquin Valley's agricultural areas. Green reveals where irrigated crops were growing. Brown squares are more difficult to interpret. They could be fields that are fallow or that have already been harvested. A different, less leafy or later-developing crop could be growing where a leafy crop may have been in previous years. Or, the brown squares could be non-irrigated fields where crops are growing poorly because of drought. More than likely, a combination of all of these factors contributed to the dense concentration of brown in the valley. Outside the valley, the landscape is covered with natural vegetation, which is less healthy than normal in the dry conditions, as indicated by its general brown color. 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 ].
Drought in the Southern Unit …
Title Drought in the Southern United States
Description Rainfall across the United States in the winter of 2005-06 has shown the classic pattern of a La Niña event. La Niña is a climate anomaly (departure from average conditions) that consists of cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) across the central and eastern Pacific and warmer-than-average SSTs over the western Pacific. Changes in the atmospheric circulation occur during La Niña events, as well. These combined ocean-atmosphere changes are likely responsible for the drought in the Southwest, the South, the central Plains, and Florida that has led to several devastating wildfires this season. This image shows where daily rainfall was above and below average in the United States between October 2005 and January 2006 compared to the eight-year average for that time frame. Places where rainfall was above average are in blue and green, while places rainfall was below average are in orange and red. The data are from the Tropical-Rainfall-Measuring-Mission-based, near-real-time, Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The Pacific Northwest (green and blue areas), especially along the coast and over the coastal ranges of Northern California, Oregon, and Washington (blue areas) received more precipitation than usual. Almost the entire rest of the country, barring New England, had below-normal rainfall. The most intense rainfall deficits (orange and red areas) include the area stretching from Texas up through the central Plains and Upper Midwest, as well as the Gulf Coast, most of Florida, and along the southern Atlantic coast. In the Southwest, the rainfall deficit added to the stress of several years of below-average rainfall. Most of Arizona, New Mexico, West Texas, and central Oklahoma have received less than 25 percent of their normal rainfall for the period. The current La Niña is expected to persist for the next several months. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite was launched in November 1997. It measures rainfall over the global tropics using both passive and active sensors, including the first precipitation radar in space. TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency, JAXA. Image produced by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and caption by Steve Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC).
Drought in the United States
Title Drought in the United States
Description This vegetation index image shows patterns of plant growth across the United States for the last ten days of May 2007 compared to average conditions during the same period from 2000 through 2006. A splash of green up the nation's interior points to abundant, fast-growing vegetation, while brown on both coasts indicates more sparse vegetation than average. Early May treated the Midwestern United States from Texas to North Dakota to heavy, even excessive, rain. The rain brought floods [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14265 ], but it also spurred plant growth, as this image shows. Conditions on both the East and West Coasts of the United States are less rosy. Here, drought has limited plant growth, particular in the south. Dark red-brown dominates in southern California in the west and Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina in the east. The dry conditions indicated in this image gave rise to extensive wildfires in California, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14258 ] Georgia, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14282 ] and Florida. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14283 ] The image was made from data collected by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and processed by the Global Inventory Modeling & Mapping Studies (GIMMS [ http://gimms.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]) Group at Goddard Space Flight Center. Grey areas indicate that the satellite was unable to collect valid data, probably because of cloud cover throughout the period. For current information about drought conditions in the United States, please see the U.S. Drought Monitor [ http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html ] produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center. NASA images created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of USDA FAS and processed by Jennifer Small and Assaf Anyamba, NASA GIMMS Group.
Drought in the United States
Title Drought in the United States
Description This vegetation index image shows patterns of plant growth across the United States for the last ten days of May 2007 compared to average conditions during the same period from 2000 through 2006. A splash of green up the nation's interior points to abundant, fast-growing vegetation, while brown on both coasts indicates more sparse vegetation than average. Early May treated the Midwestern United States from Texas to North Dakota to heavy, even excessive, rain. The rain brought floods [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14265 ], but it also spurred plant growth, as this image shows. Conditions on both the East and West Coasts of the United States are less rosy. Here, drought has limited plant growth, particular in the south. Dark red-brown dominates in southern California in the west and Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina in the east. The dry conditions indicated in this image gave rise to extensive wildfires in California, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14258 ] Georgia, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14282 ] and Florida. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14283 ] The image was made from data collected by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and processed by the Global Inventory Modeling & Mapping Studies (GIMMS [ http://gimms.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]) Group at Goddard Space Flight Center. Grey areas indicate that the satellite was unable to collect valid data, probably because of cloud cover throughout the period. For current information about drought conditions in the United States, please see the U.S. Drought Monitor [ http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html ] produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center. NASA images created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of USDA FAS and processed by Jennifer Small and Assaf Anyamba, NASA GIMMS Group.
Hurricane Henriette
Title Hurricane Henriette
Description Only the third hurricane of the relatively quiet 2007 eastern Pacific hurricane season, Hurricane Henriette was also the first hurricane of the season to make landfall. Henriette skimmed up the Mexican coastline as it developed between August 30 and September 4, 2007. The National Hurricane Center [ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ ] predicted that the storm would come ashore over Baja California on September 4 as a strengthening Category 1 hurricane before traveling north through Mexico and into the United States. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image of Henriette at 2:10 p.m. local time (21:10 UTC) on September 3. At that time Henriette was still a tropical storm with sustained winds of 110 kilometers per hour (70 miles per hour). Though not as powerful as Hurricane Felix, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14483 ] which was pounding Central America from the Caribbean, Henriette had caused at least six deaths in Mexico before coming ashore. The outer bands of the storm inundated Acapulco with heavy rain that caused deadly flooding and landslides, reported the Associated Press on September 4. You can download a 250-meter-resolution KMZ file of Hurricane Henriette [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Sep2007/henriette_amo_2007246.kmz ] suitable for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/ ] NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team.
Hurricane Henriette
Title Hurricane Henriette
Description Although not a very powerful storm, Hurricane Henriette was responsible for seven fatalities along Mexico's Pacific coast as of September 6, 2007, said news reports. Henriette struck hardest in the resort town of Acapulco. Though the storm never passed closer than 70 miles to the town, heavy rains along the coast saturated the ground, leading to mudslides. These slides were the leading cause of fatalities. This image shows Hurricane Henriette as a Category 1 [ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshs.shtml ] hurricane, as seen by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) [ http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] satellite at 8:50 a.m. local time (14:50 UTC) on September 5. At that time, the storm was moving north-northwest over the Gulf of California after it had made its initial landfall on the Baja Peninsula. The image shows the horizontal pattern of rain intensity within the storm, with the heaviest rain in red and the lightest rain in blue. A break in the circular rainfall field in the southwest corner of the storm reveals a large, ragged eye. A large eye only partially surrounded by rain is a hallmark of a system that is decaying or has been weakened. In this case, Henriette was likely breaking up after its interaction with land. Most of the rain is north and east of the center, with bands of heavy rain located just offshore of mainland Mexico (dark red areas). Henriette was expected to dump several inches of rain over mainland Mexico, and possibly bring some rain to the southwestern regions of the United States. The TRMM satellite was placed into service in November 1997. From its low-earth orbit, TRMM provides valuable images and information on storm systems around the tropics using a combination of passive microwave and active radar sensors, including the first precipitation radar in space. In this image, the rain rates in the center of the swath are from the TRMM Precipitation Radar, and those in the outer swath come from the TRMM Microwave Imager. The rain rates are overlaid on infrared data from the TRMM Visible Infrared Scanner. TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency, JAXA. Image produced by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and caption by Steve Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC).
Hurricane Katrina
Title Hurricane Katrina
Description Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. Images and movie courtesy of NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team. Caption details provided by Clare Averill (Raytheon ITSS/Jet Propulsion Laboratory), David J. Diner, Mike Garay and Ralph Kahn (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and Greg McFarquhar (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)., MISR stereo-height estimates (not shown here) indicate that the highest clouds reach 18-19 kilometers above the surface of the Earth. The stereo anaglyph shows relative height variations and enhances the appearance of thin clouds, such as those that mark the series of gravity waves north-east of the eyewall. Atmospheric gravity waves are caused by air displacements in an otherwise stable air layer. In this case, the gravity waves are above the hurricane arms in the upper troposphere, and were probably generated as the towering storm updraft tried to push into the stable air between the troposphere and the stratosphere (known as the tropopause). Some of Katrina's cloud tops were about 2 kilometers above the tropopause. Such high "overshooting tops" are also characteristic of strong and rapidly growing storms. The animation progresses from MISR's most forward-pointing camera, which views the scene first, to the most backward-pointing camera, which views the scene last. It was created by aligning the views from all 9 cameras using the high clouds within the eyewall as a reference point. North is at the top. The convective cloud towers, especially those along the eastern sides of the inner and outer eyewalls, attain the highest altitudes and indicate that the storm is strengthening. Those areas that do not exhibit cloud-top convection are clouds experiencing vertical wind shear, and tend to be lower than the towering cloud structures. The vertical and horizontal development of the convective clouds and the formation of an outer ring of growing clouds (referred to as an "eyewall replacement cycle") also indicate rapid strengthening. During this stage of hurricane development, an outer band of clouds may gradually move inward to replace the existing hurricane eyewall, causing the central pressure to increase and weaken the storm in the short term. However, eyewall replacement may sometimes be a forerunner for rapid strengthening in the longer term. This was the case with Hurricane Katrina, whose central pressure increased slightly on Saturday, but then dropped again significantly on Sunday when Katrina became a Category 5 storm. Observing the development of a concentric eyewall at this spatial and temporal resolution is a unique feature of these MISR observations. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously, viewing the entire globe between 82 degrees North and 82 degrees South latitude every nine days. The still images each cover an area of about 827 kilometers by 380 kilometers, and the animation covers an area of about 202 kilometers by 214 kilometers. The data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 30280 and utilize data from blocks 69 to 74 within World Reference System-2 path 17. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's, This image and animation from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) show the strong convective development of Hurricane Katrina on Saturday, August 27, as it moved west through the Gulf of Mexico. Over 7 minutes during which all 9 MISR cameras viewed Katrina, the animation captures the cloud-top sides, the counterclockwise rotation of the eyewall, and the bubbling growth of the towering cloud structures. At this time, Katrina was undergoing rapid development— it had just been upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane, and within 24 hours it would reach Category 5. On Monday morning when the eyewall made landfall over the United States, it was a Category 4 storm. Hurricane Katrina was one of the most powerful and destructive storms on record for the Atlantic Basin. The image above is a false-color view (near-infrared, red, and blue wavelengths of reflected light displayed as red, green and blue) from MISR's nadir (pointing straight down) camera. In the image above, north is up. The high resolution image linked above shows a wider view of this false-color image, with north to the left. The vegetated Alabama coast in the upper left-hand corner in this high-resolution image appears in red hues. The bottom panel in the high-resolution image is a 3-D stereo anaglyph created with red band data from MISR's 70-degree-forward-viewing and 60-degree-forward-viewing cameras, displayed as red and green/blue, respectively. To observe the height variations in 3-D, you will need to use red/blue glasses. [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/Help/VendorList.html#Glasses ]
Hurricane Katrina
Title Hurricane Katrina
Description Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. Images and movie courtesy of NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team. Caption details provided by Clare Averill (Raytheon ITSS/Jet Propulsion Laboratory), David J. Diner, Mike Garay and Ralph Kahn (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and Greg McFarquhar (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)., MISR stereo-height estimates (not shown here) indicate that the highest clouds reach 18-19 kilometers above the surface of the Earth. The stereo anaglyph shows relative height variations and enhances the appearance of thin clouds, such as those that mark the series of gravity waves north-east of the eyewall. Atmospheric gravity waves are caused by air displacements in an otherwise stable air layer. In this case, the gravity waves are above the hurricane arms in the upper troposphere, and were probably generated as the towering storm updraft tried to push into the stable air between the troposphere and the stratosphere (known as the tropopause). Some of Katrina's cloud tops were about 2 kilometers above the tropopause. Such high "overshooting tops" are also characteristic of strong and rapidly growing storms. The animation progresses from MISR's most forward-pointing camera, which views the scene first, to the most backward-pointing camera, which views the scene last. It was created by aligning the views from all 9 cameras using the high clouds within the eyewall as a reference point. North is at the top. The convective cloud towers, especially those along the eastern sides of the inner and outer eyewalls, attain the highest altitudes and indicate that the storm is strengthening. Those areas that do not exhibit cloud-top convection are clouds experiencing vertical wind shear, and tend to be lower than the towering cloud structures. The vertical and horizontal development of the convective clouds and the formation of an outer ring of growing clouds (referred to as an "eyewall replacement cycle") also indicate rapid strengthening. During this stage of hurricane development, an outer band of clouds may gradually move inward to replace the existing hurricane eyewall, causing the central pressure to increase and weaken the storm in the short term. However, eyewall replacement may sometimes be a forerunner for rapid strengthening in the longer term. This was the case with Hurricane Katrina, whose central pressure increased slightly on Saturday, but then dropped again significantly on Sunday when Katrina became a Category 5 storm. Observing the development of a concentric eyewall at this spatial and temporal resolution is a unique feature of these MISR observations. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously, viewing the entire globe between 82 degrees North and 82 degrees South latitude every nine days. The still images each cover an area of about 827 kilometers by 380 kilometers, and the animation covers an area of about 202 kilometers by 214 kilometers. The data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 30280 and utilize data from blocks 69 to 74 within World Reference System-2 path 17. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's, This image and animation from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) show the strong convective development of Hurricane Katrina on Saturday, August 27, as it moved west through the Gulf of Mexico. Over 7 minutes during which all 9 MISR cameras viewed Katrina, the animation captures the cloud-top sides, the counterclockwise rotation of the eyewall, and the bubbling growth of the towering cloud structures. At this time, Katrina was undergoing rapid development— it had just been upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane, and within 24 hours it would reach Category 5. On Monday morning when the eyewall made landfall over the United States, it was a Category 4 storm. Hurricane Katrina was one of the most powerful and destructive storms on record for the Atlantic Basin. The image above is a false-color view (near-infrared, red, and blue wavelengths of reflected light displayed as red, green and blue) from MISR's nadir (pointing straight down) camera. In the image above, north is up. The high resolution image linked above shows a wider view of this false-color image, with north to the left. The vegetated Alabama coast in the upper left-hand corner in this high-resolution image appears in red hues. The bottom panel in the high-resolution image is a 3-D stereo anaglyph created with red band data from MISR's 70-degree-forward-viewing and 60-degree-forward-viewing cameras, displayed as red and green/blue, respectively. To observe the height variations in 3-D, you will need to use red/blue glasses. [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/Help/VendorList.html#Glasses ]
Hurricane Katrina
Title Hurricane Katrina
Description Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. Images and movie courtesy of NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team. Caption details provided by Clare Averill (Raytheon ITSS/Jet Propulsion Laboratory), David J. Diner, Mike Garay and Ralph Kahn (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and Greg McFarquhar (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)., MISR stereo-height estimates (not shown here) indicate that the highest clouds reach 18-19 kilometers above the surface of the Earth. The stereo anaglyph shows relative height variations and enhances the appearance of thin clouds, such as those that mark the series of gravity waves north-east of the eyewall. Atmospheric gravity waves are caused by air displacements in an otherwise stable air layer. In this case, the gravity waves are above the hurricane arms in the upper troposphere, and were probably generated as the towering storm updraft tried to push into the stable air between the troposphere and the stratosphere (known as the tropopause). Some of Katrina's cloud tops were about 2 kilometers above the tropopause. Such high "overshooting tops" are also characteristic of strong and rapidly growing storms. The animation progresses from MISR's most forward-pointing camera, which views the scene first, to the most backward-pointing camera, which views the scene last. It was created by aligning the views from all 9 cameras using the high clouds within the eyewall as a reference point. North is at the top. The convective cloud towers, especially those along the eastern sides of the inner and outer eyewalls, attain the highest altitudes and indicate that the storm is strengthening. Those areas that do not exhibit cloud-top convection are clouds experiencing vertical wind shear, and tend to be lower than the towering cloud structures. The vertical and horizontal development of the convective clouds and the formation of an outer ring of growing clouds (referred to as an "eyewall replacement cycle") also indicate rapid strengthening. During this stage of hurricane development, an outer band of clouds may gradually move inward to replace the existing hurricane eyewall, causing the central pressure to increase and weaken the storm in the short term. However, eyewall replacement may sometimes be a forerunner for rapid strengthening in the longer term. This was the case with Hurricane Katrina, whose central pressure increased slightly on Saturday, but then dropped again significantly on Sunday when Katrina became a Category 5 storm. Observing the development of a concentric eyewall at this spatial and temporal resolution is a unique feature of these MISR observations. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously, viewing the entire globe between 82 degrees North and 82 degrees South latitude every nine days. The still images each cover an area of about 827 kilometers by 380 kilometers, and the animation covers an area of about 202 kilometers by 214 kilometers. The data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 30280 and utilize data from blocks 69 to 74 within World Reference System-2 path 17. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's, This image and animation from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) show the strong convective development of Hurricane Katrina on Saturday, August 27, as it moved west through the Gulf of Mexico. Over 7 minutes during which all 9 MISR cameras viewed Katrina, the animation captures the cloud-top sides, the counterclockwise rotation of the eyewall, and the bubbling growth of the towering cloud structures. At this time, Katrina was undergoing rapid development— it had just been upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane, and within 24 hours it would reach Category 5. On Monday morning when the eyewall made landfall over the United States, it was a Category 4 storm. Hurricane Katrina was one of the most powerful and destructive storms on record for the Atlantic Basin. The image above is a false-color view (near-infrared, red, and blue wavelengths of reflected light displayed as red, green and blue) from MISR's nadir (pointing straight down) camera. In the image above, north is up. The high resolution image linked above shows a wider view of this false-color image, with north to the left. The vegetated Alabama coast in the upper left-hand corner in this high-resolution image appears in red hues. The bottom panel in the high-resolution image is a 3-D stereo anaglyph created with red band data from MISR's 70-degree-forward-viewing and 60-degree-forward-viewing cameras, displayed as red and green/blue, respectively. To observe the height variations in 3-D, you will need to use red/blue glasses. [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/Help/VendorList.html#Glasses ]
Hurricane Paul
Title Hurricane Paul
Description Hurricane Paul formed on October 21, 2006, in the eastern Pacific near the coast of Mexico. It grew quickly to hurricane strength as it spun off the coast near Baja California for the next several days. The sixteenth named storm of the Pacific storm season, Paul remained offshore as of October 24, though residents of southern Baja California were eyeing it warily for signs it might shift and come ashore there. This photo-like image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] on the Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on October 23, 2006, at 12:30 p.m. local time (20:30 UTC). Paul at the time of this image was a small, well-defined swirl. However, cloud patterns over a wide area appear to be under the storm's influence, with clouds reaching as far as southern Baja. Winds around the center of Hurricane Paul were whipping around at 160 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour), according to the University of Hawaii's Tropical Storm Information Center. [ http://www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/Tropical/ ] In 2005, the record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season was the focus of attention, with the number of named storms exhausting the letters of the alphabet. But as of late October 2006, the hurricane activity in the eastern Pacific Ocean was outpacing the Atlantic: 16 named storms (9 of them hurricanes) versus 9 named storms (5 of them hurricanes). On average, the eastern Pacific Ocean experiences more tropical storms and hurricanes than the Atlantic Basin, 16.4 compared to 10.1. Powerful hurricanes in the eastern Pacific rarely make landfall in the western United States. Persistent easterly winds not only tend to steer storms away from the coast, but they also "shove" the ocean's surface water westward, away from the coast, allowing cool water to well up to replace it. The cool water weakens any storms that do approach the coast. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team.
El Nino Rainfall Patterns ov …
Title El Nino Rainfall Patterns over the United States
Description An anomalous warming of the central and eastern Pacific along the equator is part of a well-known climate event called El Niño. An El Niño began in the spring of 2006 and reached its peak in November and December. El Niño has far reaching effects. The anomalous warming of sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific affects general atmospheric circulation patterns, which impacts both temperature and precipitation patterns well into middle latitudes. Deviations in the rainfall patterns across the United States due to El Niño are well-established based on past events. The northern Gulf Coast experiences above-average rainfall, as do California and the Southwest due to a stronger-than-average subtropical jet stream. The Ohio Valley and the Northwest tend to see below-normal rainfall. These deviations from the normal rainfall pattern are illustrated in this image, made from the near-real-time, Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA), which is produced at NASA&#8217s Goddard Space Flight Center, based in part on data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM [ http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]) satellite. MPA rainfall anomalies across the United States are shown here for December 25, 2006, through January 25, 2007. The anomalies are obtained by subtracting the average rainfall from the recent values. The average rainfall measurements are based on data collected since TRMM's launch in November 1997. Several of the notable features associated with El Niño are evident. The northern Gulf Coast west of Florida is wetter than average as is southern California. The Four Corners region in the Southwest is also very moist, which is typical for El Niño. Drier-than-normal conditions are evident over the Ohio Valley. There are some exceptions to the expected El Niño rainfall patterns, however. Montana, for example, is usually drier than average during El Niño but appears relatively moist, and Florida is usually wetter than average but shows below-normal rainfall for the period. Also, the dry anomaly in the Northwest is concentrated over northern California instead of spreading over Washington and Oregon as might be expected. TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency, JAXA. Image produced by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and caption by Steve Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC).
Fires Across the United Stat …
Title Fires Across the United States
Description This expansive image of the United States was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) on NASA?s Terra and Aqua satellites. The left hand portion of the image comes from Aqua MODIS observations captured on the afternoon of October 22, 2003, while the right hand part of the image is from Terra MODIS observations captured a few hours earlier. Several geographic regions are experiencing fires, which were detected by the sensors and are marked with red dots. At upper left, fires are still burning across the Northern Rockies, the highest concentration is in Idaho, with additional fires in Montana to its east, and southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon, to the west. In the Southwest, fires are burning in southern California near Los Angeles (gray patch right at edge of image to the north of the Baja Peninsula), as well as in the arc of mountains running through Arizona. At top center, fires are scattered across the northern Great Plains, from North Dakota and across the United States? border into Canada. Far to the south, dozens more fires are burning in the Mississippi River Valley in Mississippi (against right edge), Louisiana (to the west) and Arkansas (north of Louisiana). The high-resolution image provided above is 2 kilometers per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS? maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters. Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Fires Across the United Stat …
Title Fires Across the United States
Description This expansive image of the United States was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) on NASA?s Terra and Aqua satellites. The left hand portion of the image comes from Aqua MODIS observations captured on the afternoon of October 22, 2003, while the right hand part of the image is from Terra MODIS observations captured a few hours earlier. Several geographic regions are experiencing fires, which were detected by the sensors and are marked with red dots. At upper left, fires are still burning across the Northern Rockies, the highest concentration is in Idaho, with additional fires in Montana to its east, and southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon, to the west. In the Southwest, fires are burning in southern California near Los Angeles (gray patch right at edge of image to the north of the Baja Peninsula), as well as in the arc of mountains running through Arizona. At top center, fires are scattered across the northern Great Plains, from North Dakota and across the United States? border into Canada. Far to the south, dozens more fires are burning in the Mississippi River Valley in Mississippi (against right edge), Louisiana (to the west) and Arkansas (north of Louisiana). The high-resolution image provided above is 2 kilometers per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS? maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters. Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Fires Across the Western Uni …
Title Fires Across the Western United States
Description Days of record heat made the western United States tinder dry in early July 2007. Numerous wildfires raced across the dry terrain during the weekend of July 7. From Washington to Arizona, firefighters were battling fast-moving wildfires that threatened residences, businesses, gas wells, coal mines, communications equipment, and municipal watersheds. This image of the West was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite on Sunday, July 8. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are marked in red. Some of the largest blazes are labeled. Utah's Milford Flat was the largest, according to the July 9 morning report from the National Interagency Fire Center, [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] the blaze was more than 280,000 acres, having grown more than 124,000 acres in the previous 24 hours. The fires have destroyed homes, forced evacuations, shut down trains and highways, and killed several people. Weather conditions were not expected to improve significantly across much of the area for several days, with hot temperatures and dry thunderstorms (lightning and winds, but little rain) likely in many places. Nearly the entire western United States was experiencing some level of drought as of July 3, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. [ http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html ] The drought had reached the "extreme" category in southern California and western Arizona, and ranged from moderate to severe across most of the rest of the Southwest and Great Basin. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA1/ ] images of the region in additional resolutions and formats, including an infrared-enhanced version that makes burned terrain appear brick red. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Fires Across Western United …
Title Fires Across Western United States
Description Days of record heat made the western United States tinder dry in early July 2007. Numerous wildfires raced across the dry terrain during the weekend of July 7. From Washington to Arizona, firefighters were battling fast-moving wildfires that threatened residences, businesses, gas wells, coal mines, communications equipment, and municipal watersheds. This image of the West was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite on Sunday, July 8. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are marked in red. Some of the largest blazes are labeled. Utah's Milford Flat was the largest, according to the July 9 morning report from the National Interagency Fire Center, [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] the blaze was more than 280,000 acres, having grown more than 124,000 acres in the previous 24 hours. The fires have destroyed homes, forced evacuations, shut down trains and highways, and killed several people. Weather conditions were not expected to improve significantly across much of the area for several days, with hot temperatures and dry thunderstorms (lightning and winds, but little rain) likely in many places. Nearly the entire western United States was experiencing some level of drought as of July 3, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. [ http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html ] The drought had reached the "extreme" category in southern California and western Arizona, and ranged from moderate to severe across most of the rest of the Southwest and Great Basin. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA1/ ] images of the region in additional resolutions and formats, including an infrared-enhanced version that makes burned terrain appear brick red. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Phytoplankton Bloom in the G …
Title Phytoplankton Bloom in the Gulf of Mexico
Description . NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with ORBIMAGE [ http://www.orbimage.com/ ]., A dark green plume of phytoplankton extends away from the crow?s foot of the Mississippi River Delta in this image, acquired on December 13, 2004, by the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view (SeaWiFS) Sensor flying on the OrbView-2 satellite. Phytoplankton blooms usually occur where cold water rushes up from the bottom of the ocean carrying nutrients to sunlit waters. In this case, the bloom may be related to recent flooding along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Heavy rains early in December triggered floods [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12619 ] across the southeastern United States. The draining flood water carried agricultural run-off into the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, and that may have provided the nutrients the microscopic ocean plants needed to thrive. In the above images, the Red River twists across southeastern Louisiana from the upper left corner and pours into the Mississippi River beneath the cloud bank. Also concealed by clouds, the Mississipppi drains into the Gulf of Mexico, but just beyond the river?s mouths, the Gulf of Mexico is green with phytoplankton. The lower image shows high chlorophyll concentrations, yellow, corresponding to the green bloom. Scientists have suspected that phytoplankton blooms such as this one may be connected to agricultural run-off, and a recent study seems to confirm this. Using images from NASA?s SeaWiFS sensor, scientists from Stanford University?s School of Earth Sciences compared the timing of irrigation along the west coast of Mexico and phytoplankton blooms in Mexico?s Sea of Cortez (Golfo de California) and found a close correlation. (See press release [ http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/2004/agugulf-0112.html ] for more information.) Phytoplankton blooms occurred in the Sea of Cortez shortly after irrigation along the coast carried fertilizers and other agricultural run-off into the sea. The bloom detected in the Gulf of Mexico on December 13 may be similarly linked to agricultural run-off. Phytoplankton are an important source of food for many marine animals, so waters that are rich in phytoplankton usually support a thriving ecosystem. But in some cases, phytoplankton blooms can be deadly to the very ecosystem they typically support. Some blooms, such as red tide, are toxic and result in wide-spread fish deaths. Large blooms can also create dead zones in the ocean?oxygen-poor regions where fish cannot survive? when the plants die. The bacteria that break down the decaying plants consume all of the oxygen, leaving a dead spot. The Gulf of Mexico is annually plagued with one such dead zone every summer near the location of the current bloom. NASA image courtesy the SeaWiFS Project [ http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html ], NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE [ http://www.orbimage.com/ ]
Phytoplankton Bloom in the G …
Title Phytoplankton Bloom in the Gulf of Mexico
Description . NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with ORBIMAGE [ http://www.orbimage.com/ ]., A dark green plume of phytoplankton extends away from the crow?s foot of the Mississippi River Delta in this image, acquired on December 13, 2004, by the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view (SeaWiFS) Sensor flying on the OrbView-2 satellite. Phytoplankton blooms usually occur where cold water rushes up from the bottom of the ocean carrying nutrients to sunlit waters. In this case, the bloom may be related to recent flooding along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Heavy rains early in December triggered floods [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12619 ] across the southeastern United States. The draining flood water carried agricultural run-off into the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, and that may have provided the nutrients the microscopic ocean plants needed to thrive. In the above images, the Red River twists across southeastern Louisiana from the upper left corner and pours into the Mississippi River beneath the cloud bank. Also concealed by clouds, the Mississipppi drains into the Gulf of Mexico, but just beyond the river?s mouths, the Gulf of Mexico is green with phytoplankton. The lower image shows high chlorophyll concentrations, yellow, corresponding to the green bloom. Scientists have suspected that phytoplankton blooms such as this one may be connected to agricultural run-off, and a recent study seems to confirm this. Using images from NASA?s SeaWiFS sensor, scientists from Stanford University?s School of Earth Sciences compared the timing of irrigation along the west coast of Mexico and phytoplankton blooms in Mexico?s Sea of Cortez (Golfo de California) and found a close correlation. (See press release [ http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/2004/agugulf-0112.html ] for more information.) Phytoplankton blooms occurred in the Sea of Cortez shortly after irrigation along the coast carried fertilizers and other agricultural run-off into the sea. The bloom detected in the Gulf of Mexico on December 13 may be similarly linked to agricultural run-off. Phytoplankton are an important source of food for many marine animals, so waters that are rich in phytoplankton usually support a thriving ecosystem. But in some cases, phytoplankton blooms can be deadly to the very ecosystem they typically support. Some blooms, such as red tide, are toxic and result in wide-spread fish deaths. Large blooms can also create dead zones in the ocean?oxygen-poor regions where fish cannot survive? when the plants die. The bacteria that break down the decaying plants consume all of the oxygen, leaving a dead spot. The Gulf of Mexico is annually plagued with one such dead zone every summer near the location of the current bloom. NASA image courtesy the SeaWiFS Project [ http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html ], NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE [ http://www.orbimage.com/ ]
Phytoplankton Bloom in the G …
Title Phytoplankton Bloom in the Gulf of Mexico
Description . NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with ORBIMAGE [ http://www.orbimage.com/ ]., A dark green plume of phytoplankton extends away from the crow?s foot of the Mississippi River Delta in this image, acquired on December 13, 2004, by the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view (SeaWiFS) Sensor flying on the OrbView-2 satellite. Phytoplankton blooms usually occur where cold water rushes up from the bottom of the ocean carrying nutrients to sunlit waters. In this case, the bloom may be related to recent flooding along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Heavy rains early in December triggered floods [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12619 ] across the southeastern United States. The draining flood water carried agricultural run-off into the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, and that may have provided the nutrients the microscopic ocean plants needed to thrive. In the above images, the Red River twists across southeastern Louisiana from the upper left corner and pours into the Mississippi River beneath the cloud bank. Also concealed by clouds, the Mississipppi drains into the Gulf of Mexico, but just beyond the river?s mouths, the Gulf of Mexico is green with phytoplankton. The lower image shows high chlorophyll concentrations, yellow, corresponding to the green bloom. Scientists have suspected that phytoplankton blooms such as this one may be connected to agricultural run-off, and a recent study seems to confirm this. Using images from NASA?s SeaWiFS sensor, scientists from Stanford University?s School of Earth Sciences compared the timing of irrigation along the west coast of Mexico and phytoplankton blooms in Mexico?s Sea of Cortez (Golfo de California) and found a close correlation. (See press release [ http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/2004/agugulf-0112.html ] for more information.) Phytoplankton blooms occurred in the Sea of Cortez shortly after irrigation along the coast carried fertilizers and other agricultural run-off into the sea. The bloom detected in the Gulf of Mexico on December 13 may be similarly linked to agricultural run-off. Phytoplankton are an important source of food for many marine animals, so waters that are rich in phytoplankton usually support a thriving ecosystem. But in some cases, phytoplankton blooms can be deadly to the very ecosystem they typically support. Some blooms, such as red tide, are toxic and result in wide-spread fish deaths. Large blooms can also create dead zones in the ocean?oxygen-poor regions where fish cannot survive? when the plants die. The bacteria that break down the decaying plants consume all of the oxygen, leaving a dead spot. The Gulf of Mexico is annually plagued with one such dead zone every summer near the location of the current bloom. NASA image courtesy the SeaWiFS Project [ http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html ], NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE [ http://www.orbimage.com/ ]
Fires in Northern California
Title Fires in Northern California
Description Several large wildfires were burning in Northern California on August 1, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite passed overhead and captured this image. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fire are outlined in red. Smoke hangs over the forested mountains. Firefighters in the area had their hands full with numerous blazes that were threatening residences, communications infrastructure, old growth forest, wildlife habitat, and cultural resources. According to reports form the National Interagency Fire Center on August 2, 2006, the 3,450-acre Orleans Complex Fire was threatening a municipal water supply. Challenges at the 6,450-acre Uncles Fire included steep terrain, limited access roads, and poor visibility from smoke that was lingering near the ground. The 4,805-acre Hunter Fire was threatening spotted owl habitat and fisheries. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides daily images of this area at additional resolutions. [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA1 ] Additional information on fires in the United States is available from the National Interagency Fire Center. [ http://nifc.gov/information.html ] NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Fires in Northern California
Title Fires in Northern California
Description In the Klamath Mountains of northern California, two fire complexes were billowing thick smoke on August 15, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite passed overhead and captured this image. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fire are outlined in red, and gray-white smoke spreads eastward. Both the Orleans and Bar Fires are complexes made of several individual blazes. According to the National Interagency Fire Center [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] report from August 16, the total estimated area for the Orleans Complex Fire was 11,000 acres. The estimated area for the Bar Complex was 15,160 acres. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides twice-daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA1/ ] of the entire western United States at additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Fires in Northern California
Title Fires in Northern California
Description In the mountains of northern California, several fires that began in July 2006 continued to burn at the end of August. This image of the region around the junction of the Klamath and Trinity Rivers shows the Uncles Complex Fire and the Bar Complex Fire on August 30, 2006. The image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite. Places where the sensor detected actively burning fire are outlined in red. Plumes of gray smoke drift southward. According to the daily report from the National Interagency Fire Center [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] on August 31, the Bar Complex continued to threaten residences and historic mining sites, it was about 26,000 acres and 62 percent contained. The Uncles Complex was burning in old growth timber and threatening cabins, the blaze was about 17,000 acres and 35 percent contained. This image has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The large image shows a wider area at the same resolution. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides images of the entire western United States at additional resolutions. [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA1 ] NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Fires in Northern California
Title Fires in Northern California
Description Strong winds fueled the Bar Complex Fire in Northern California on September 13, 2006. The fire started as two separate fires on July 24, 2006, when lightning struck the ground in Shasta Trinity National Forest. By September 13, the fires (known jointly as the Bar Complex) had burned 50,826 acres and were 49 percent contained at a cost of 32.3 million dollars, said the National Interagency Fire Center's Incident Report. [ http://www.inciweb.org/incident/357/ ] 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 of the fires at 2:25 p.m., local time, on September 13. Dense smoke is blowing east of the fires (outlined in red) on strong winds. The Bar Complex Fire forms a long wall through the dark green, forest-covered Klamath Mountains. To its north burns the smaller Uncles Complex Fire, which was threatening historical structures and cultural resources, said the National Interagency Fire Center. [ http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html ] East of both fires is the snow-capped Mt. Shasta, one of the largest volcanoes in the Cascade Range. Fire activity was high throughout the western United States on September 13. Numerous large fires can be seen in the large image, which is provided at MODIS' maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA1 ] of the region are provided by the MODIS Rapid Response Team. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC.
Fires in Northern Mexico
Title Fires in Northern Mexico
Description Thick plumes of smoke wafted west over the Pacific Ocean on powerful winds on November 19, 2005. The smoke was pouring from wildfires, marked with red boxes, burning just south of Tijuana, Mexico. Fire is a natural part of the ecosystem in the shrub lands of northern Baja California, particularly in the fall, when hot, dry Santa Ana winds blow from the east. The winds sweep dry air from the Sonora Desert of northern Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico out over the Pacific Ocean. The winds dry out plants, making them more prone to wildfire. Once a fire starts, the fast-blowing winds can easily fan the flames into an uncontrollable wildfire. In Baja California, such fires are often allowed to burn themselves out. To the north, in the United States, state and federal land management agencies control fires near populated areas more aggressively, stamping out the fires as quickly as possible. However, such tight control may eventually result in larger fires because dead wood, weeds, other fuels accumulate between infrequent burnings. The Santa Ana winds were blowing strongly on November 19, 2005, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite acquired this image. The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for Southern California, warning of warm, windy weather that would allow small fires to explode out of control quickly. On November 18, Santa Ana winds gusting past 50 miles per hour drove a rapid-growing fire [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13260 ] in the mountains around Ventura, California. It is likely that similar conditions fueled the fires just south of the border as well. The large image provided above is at MODIS' maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The image is available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response Team. The team also provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA5 ] of the region. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC
Smoke Transport Across the U …
Title Smoke Transport Across the U.S.
Description The pale gray haze hanging over the Bay of Fundy, sandwiched between Maine and Nova Scotia, may actually be smoke from intense wildfires burning in Southern California. An atmospheric transport model developed at the Naval Research Laboratory predicted that strong winds would carry the smoke northeastward across the United States over Maine. This true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) image was captured by the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on October 31, 2003. The high-resolution image provided above is at MODIS? maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The image is available in additional resolutions [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?2003304-1031/Maine.A2003304.1535 ]. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC
Smoke Transport Across the U …
Title Smoke Transport Across the U.S.
Description The pale gray haze hanging over the Bay of Fundy, sandwiched between Maine and Nova Scotia, may actually be smoke from intense wildfires burning in Southern California. An atmospheric transport model developed at the Naval Research Laboratory predicted that strong winds would carry the smoke northeastward across the United States over Maine. This true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) image was captured by the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on October 31, 2003. The high-resolution image provided above is at MODIS? maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The image is available in additional resolutions [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?2003304-1031/Maine.A2003304.1535 ]. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC
Snow Across the Western Unit …
Title Snow Across the Western United States
Description The Sunday after Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the busiest travel days of the year in the United States as people return home from the four-day weekend. Sunday, November 28, 2004, was no exception, but this year, Mother Nature snarled traffic across a large swath of the west with an intense snow storm. The storm dumped up to 24 inches (0.6 meters) of snow on the mountains of southern Utah, and blanketed the surrounding states. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image the following day, on November 29, after the clouds moved out. The storm's path is clearly visible in this image: a track of white extends from southeastern Oregon and the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California to Colorado and New Mexico in the east. The National Weather Service reports that the storm moved east across the Plains States of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, and Iowa on November 29 and November 30. The snow highlights some interesting features of the Western United States that might not otherwise be obvious in satellite imagery. Sandwiched between the straight diagonal line of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the west (the straight edge of the snow) and the Rocky Mountains in Central Utah in the east is the Great Basin Desert. This high desert basin covers a heart-shaped region of southern Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and southern Idaho and is clearly outlined in snow. Hemmed between two large mountain ranges that trap moisture from the east and the west, it is the United States' largest desert. It receives on average 7-12 inches of precipitation every year. The water that does fall in the region drains to interior, closed basins instead of the ocean, giving the region its name. The Great Basin Desert is made up of a series of mostly north-south running mountain ranges and valleys that give the land a wrinkled, wash-board appearance, particularly in Nevada. The snow highlights elevation change elsewhere in the image. The imposing Rocky Mountains appear slightly darker than the valleys around them, and the peaks and high plateaus in the south are covered in snow while the pink desert lowlands remain bare. On the right edge of the image, the flat plains of eastern Wyoming and Colorado are an even, uninterrupted white. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Land Processes DAAC
Fires in the Western United …
Title Fires in the Western United States
Description Strong winds and dry conditions were challenging firefighters combating the Winters Fire in northern Nevada in late July 2006. As of July 31, the blaze was estimated to have burned 187,065 acres of sagebrush and grassland. Two small towns, ranches, mining operations, and telecommunications infrastructure were threatened by the fire, which was showing extreme behavior. This image of the fire was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite on July 30. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fire are outlined in red. The fire was active in many places on its perimeter. The burned land is dark brown. Areas of sparse vegetation or arid land are tan, while pockets of denser vegetation appear in shades of green. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 500 meters per pixel and shows much of the western United States, including a cluster of smoky fires in northern California. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA1/ ] of this area in additional resolutions and formats. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Fires in the Western United …
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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