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Images of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and United States of America from 2006 and 2005
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Drought in the Southern Unit
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Drought in the Southern United States |
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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). |
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Hurricane Paul
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Hurricane Paul |
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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. |
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Hurricane Paul
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Hurricane Paul |
| Description |
As October drew to a close, Hurricane Paul was approaching the southern tip of Mexico's Baja Peninsula. The sixteenth named Pacific storm of the 2006 season, Paul was whipping up sustained winds of 165 kilometers per hour (105 miles per hour) at the time of the National Hurricane Center's 11:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time briefing on October 23. The storm track and intensity forecasts for Paul were still uncertain at that time, but landfall along the southern tip of Baja Peninsula as a strong storm was still a possibility. In this image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra satellite on October 22, 2006, the eye of Hurricane Paul was several hundreds kilometers southwest of Baja. A bright disk of clouds spirals counter-clockwise into a cloudy eye at the heart of the storm. In places, this smooth-seeming cloud deck is rippled by puffy cloud topsa sign of thunderstorms lofting heat and moisture high into the atmosphere. The southern tip of Baja Peninsula appears along the top edge of the image. 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 provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team. |
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Fires in Southern United Sta
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Fires in Southern United States |
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Drought, high temperatures, and strong winds combined with holiday fireworks, trash fires, and careless cigarettes to create a disaster in parts of Texas and Oklahoma in late December 2005. According to the Associated Press, more than 70 fires blazed throughout north and central Texas and Oklahoma, many of them set by people ignoring local fire bans. By December 29, nearly 20,000 acres had burned in the region, more than 100 homes had been lost, and several people had died from fire-related injuries. This image shows parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana, as imaged by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] flying onboard the Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. The sensor took this image on December 28, 2005, the same day that the fires caused the most damage. Cloud cover obscures part of the region, but hot spots, indicated in red, appear throughout the area, many of them sending up their own plumes of smoke. North and central Texas, where most of the fires occurred, saw its fifth driest year on record in 2005. In the Dallas-Forth Worth area, annual rainfall was about 41 centimeters (16 inches) below normal. In Oklahoma, the annual rainfall was about 30 centimeters (12 inches) below normal. Shortly before the grass fires spread throughout the region, local temperatures topped 27 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit) and worsened the already-dry conditions. The wind and heat abated somewhat after the fires started, but the National Weather Service predicted a return of heat and wind right before New Year's Day of 2006. Authorities expressed concern that a fresh round of holiday fireworks could touch off a fresh round of fires. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team. |
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Flooding on the Red River
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Flooding on the Red River |
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Major flooding swamped the Red River on April 13, 2006, and the National Weather Service issued flood warnings for most communities that lined either side of the river. As the floods swept north into Canada, Winnipeg was bracing for the inundation, expected to peak around April 20. Along the border between the United States and Canada, the Pembina River was also swollen. Flooding at the confluence of the two rivers was nearing its peak when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite took the top image. The Red River spanned several kilometers in North Dakota and Minnesota in contrast to the thin blue line it formed during the same period in 2005 (lower image). The floods were caused by snow melt and rain. For official flood forecasts and warnings, please visit the National Weather Service [ http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=fgf ]. The large images provided above have a resolution of 500 meters per pixel. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/fas/?USA2/2006103 ] are available from the MODIS Rapid Response Team in a variety of resolutions, including MODIS' maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Flooding on the Red River
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Flooding on the Red River |
| Description |
Major flooding swamped the Red River on April 13, 2006, and the National Weather Service issued flood warnings for most communities that lined either side of the river. As the floods swept north into Canada, Winnipeg was bracing for the inundation, expected to peak around April 20. Along the border between the United States and Canada, the Pembina River was also swollen. Flooding at the confluence of the two rivers was nearing its peak when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite took the top image. The Red River spanned several kilometers in North Dakota and Minnesota in contrast to the thin blue line it formed during the same period in 2005 (lower image). The floods were caused by snow melt and rain. For official flood forecasts and warnings, please visit the National Weather Service [ http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=fgf ]. The large images provided above have a resolution of 500 meters per pixel. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/fas/?USA2/2006103 ] are available from the MODIS Rapid Response Team in a variety of resolutions, including MODIS' maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Flooding on the Red River
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Flooding on the Red River |
| Description |
By April 16, 2006, the leading bulge of the Red River flood had made its way into Manitoba, Canada, from the river's lower reaches in North Dakota and Minnesota. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported the river to be 15 kilometers wide in sections of southern Manitoba when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite took the top image on the afternoon of April 16. Heavy rain was in the forecast, the Manitoba Water Stewardship warned in a release also issued on April 16, and that means that the floods were forecast to grow on April 18. This pair of MODIS images compares the river on April 16, 2006, to April 16, 2005. The images are shown in false color so that water is dark blue or black, clouds are pale blue and white, and bare earth ranges from red to tan. Springtime snowmelt in 2006 has driven the Red River and some of its tributaries well over their banks. Compared to the last clear view of the floods on April 13 [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13497 ], the river leading into Winnipeg (the cement-colored region, top center) has broadened. The flood was expected to peak in the city around April 20. The Pembina River along the border between Canada and the United States is also swollen. The region near the confluence of the Pembina and Red Rivers is covered in a wide pool of water that has grown since April 13. This flood closed the border crossing between Canada and the United States when the highway was submerged, the CBC reported. Approximately 40,000 hectares of farmland were also underwater in both countries. For more information about the floods in Canada, please visit the Manitoba Water Stewardship [ http://www.gov.mb.ca/flood.html? ] Website. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA2 ] of the floods are available from the MODIS Rapid Response Team. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Flooding on the Red River
| Title |
Flooding on the Red River |
| Description |
By April 16, 2006, the leading bulge of the Red River flood had made its way into Manitoba, Canada, from the river's lower reaches in North Dakota and Minnesota. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported the river to be 15 kilometers wide in sections of southern Manitoba when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite took the top image on the afternoon of April 16. Heavy rain was in the forecast, the Manitoba Water Stewardship warned in a release also issued on April 16, and that means that the floods were forecast to grow on April 18. This pair of MODIS images compares the river on April 16, 2006, to April 16, 2005. The images are shown in false color so that water is dark blue or black, clouds are pale blue and white, and bare earth ranges from red to tan. Springtime snowmelt in 2006 has driven the Red River and some of its tributaries well over their banks. Compared to the last clear view of the floods on April 13 [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13497 ], the river leading into Winnipeg (the cement-colored region, top center) has broadened. The flood was expected to peak in the city around April 20. The Pembina River along the border between Canada and the United States is also swollen. The region near the confluence of the Pembina and Red Rivers is covered in a wide pool of water that has grown since April 13. This flood closed the border crossing between Canada and the United States when the highway was submerged, the CBC reported. Approximately 40,000 hectares of farmland were also underwater in both countries. For more information about the floods in Canada, please visit the Manitoba Water Stewardship [ http://www.gov.mb.ca/flood.html? ] Website. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA2 ] of the floods are available from the MODIS Rapid Response Team. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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