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Images of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and United States of America from 2007
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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 |
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Black Pine 2 Fire, Idaho
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Black Pine 2 Fire, Idaho |
| Description |
East of the Raft River in southern Idaho, the Black Pine 2 Fire had scorched more than 50,000 acres of grassland, brush, and juniper as of July 11, 2007, according to the morning report from the National Interagency Fire Center. 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 10. The area in which MODIS detected actively burning fire is outlined in red. Smoke spreads east and mingles with clouds. The burned area appears a deep brown against the tan color of the grasslands and the dull green of forests on mountain slopes. Green circles that line the Raft River and tributaries are fields watered with a center-pivot irrigation system. At the top of the image is Lake Walcott, which is on the Snake River. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA1 ] images of the western United States in additional resolutions and formats, including an infrared-enhanced version that makes burned areas appear brick red. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Floods in Texas and Oklahoma
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Floods in Texas and Oklahoma |
| Description |
Heavy rains pounded the Southern Plains of the United States during mid-June when moisture from the Gulf of Mexico streamed northward into a slow-moving frontal system. The result was extensive flooding over parts of Texas and Oklahoma. On Monday, June 18, 2007, six flood-related deaths were reported in northern Texas as storms dumped up to 8 inches (abut 200 millimeters) of rain in the area. On Tuesday, additional storms dumped heavy rains over parts of northwestern Oklahoma, forcing several road closures, said news reports. This image shows rainfall totals for June 14 through June 20, 2007. The rainfall totals are from the near-real-time, Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA), which is based on measurements taken by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM [ http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]) satellite. The MPA analysis indicates that during this time more than 200 millimeters (about 8 inches, red area) of rain fell in northern Texas just south of the Oklahoma border, where flooding was reported. A much broader area of at least 150 to 200 millimeters (about 6 to 8 inches) of rain covers most of northwest Oklahoma. Based on these totals, the TRMM team predicted that flooding was likely or occurring. The group produces a global map [ http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/publications_dir/potential_flood.html ] indicating where there is a high potential for flooding based on rainfall totals. TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency, JAXA. Image produced by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and caption by Hal Pierce and Steve Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC). |
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Floods in Texas and Oklahoma
| Title |
Floods in Texas and Oklahoma |
| Description |
June 2007 was exceptionally wet for the Southern Plains of the United States because a stagnant weather pattern focused moisture and storms over Texas and Oklahoma. The latest round of heavy storms dumped up to 460 millimeters (18 inches) of rain in parts of central Texas on the night of Tuesday, June 26, said news reports. For Austin, the state's capital, more than 30 inches of rain has fallen since January, making 2007 the wettest year on record so far according to local news reports. This image shows rainfall totals from the near-real-time, Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA), which is based on rainfall data collected by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission TRMM [ http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]) satellite. The totals shown here indicate how much rain fell between June 20 and June 28, 2007. Splotches of red over central Texas and southern Oklahoma indicate where the MPA tallied up to 200 millimeters (8 inches) of rain. A broad area of at least 50 mm (about 2 inches) of rainfall covers almost all of Texas and Oklahoma. These totals fall short of totals reported on the ground because the satellites used in the MPA can't see areas of localized heavy rain. These satellites "zoom in" to approximately 30 kilometers (20 miles), and so miss smaller areas of intense rain. TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency, JAXA. Image produced by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and caption by and Steve Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC). |
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Floods in the Midwestern Uni
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| Title |
Floods in the Midwestern United States |
| Description |
The rivers of northwestern Missouri were still swollen in the wake of intense spring storms when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image on May 10, 2007. The image is made from a combination of infrared and visible light to make the floods more visible than they would be in a photo-like image. In this type of image, water is dark blue or black, clouds are light blue and white, plant-covered land is bright green, and bare earth is pink-tinted tan. Fires are outlined with red boxes. The Missouri River runs along the left edge of the image, then curves east along the bottom of the image. Though the most flooded regions were covered in clouds, a few breaks reveal that the Missouri was swollen far beyond its banks. Nestled in a bend in the river near the Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri border is the town of Big Lake. The image shows that the river's curve has turned into a broad lake. The town was completely submerged in the flood when levees along the river broke, reported the Associated Press. [ http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/05/11/missouri.flooding.ap/index.html ] Beyond Big Lake, many communities along the Grand and the Platte Rivers and their tributaries have also been flooded or threatened by floods. All of these rivers are clearly running high in the image. MODIS captured the lower image on April 29, 2007, not quite a week before the rains began. By providing a clear view of normal water levels, the image illustrates just how extensively the rivers were flooded on May 10. Photo-like versions of both the April 29 [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007119/USA3.2007119.aqua ] and May 10 [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007130/USA3.2007130.terra ] images are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in the Midwestern Uni
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| Title |
Floods in the Midwestern United States |
| Description |
The rivers of northwestern Missouri were still swollen in the wake of intense spring storms when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image on May 10, 2007. The image is made from a combination of infrared and visible light to make the floods more visible than they would be in a photo-like image. In this type of image, water is dark blue or black, clouds are light blue and white, plant-covered land is bright green, and bare earth is pink-tinted tan. Fires are outlined with red boxes. The Missouri River runs along the left edge of the image, then curves east along the bottom of the image. Though the most flooded regions were covered in clouds, a few breaks reveal that the Missouri was swollen far beyond its banks. Nestled in a bend in the river near the Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri border is the town of Big Lake. The image shows that the river's curve has turned into a broad lake. The town was completely submerged in the flood when levees along the river broke, reported the Associated Press. [ http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/05/11/missouri.flooding.ap/index.html ] Beyond Big Lake, many communities along the Grand and the Platte Rivers and their tributaries have also been flooded or threatened by floods. All of these rivers are clearly running high in the image. MODIS captured the lower image on April 29, 2007, not quite a week before the rains began. By providing a clear view of normal water levels, the image illustrates just how extensively the rivers were flooded on May 10. Photo-like versions of both the April 29 [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007119/USA3.2007119.aqua ] and May 10 [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007130/USA3.2007130.terra ] images are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in the Midwestern Uni
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| Title |
Floods in the Midwestern United States |
| Description |
Early May 2007 brought torrential spring rains to the Midwestern United States, and by May 9, the National Weather Service [ http://www.nws.noaa.gov/oh/hic/ ] had recorded flooding at 111 locations from North Dakota to Texas. At 15 locations, many of which were in Missouri, gauges measured major flooding. Thousands of people fled as the Missouri burst through levees in Missouri and Kansas, reported the Associated Press [ http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/05/09/missouri.flooding.ap/index.html ] on May 9. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image of floods along the Missouri River and its tributaries on May 8. Though clouds still covered much of the Midwest on May 8, a few breaks revealed the flood-swollen Missouri, Grand, and Thompson Rivers. The large image shows additional flooding in Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas. Both this and the lower image, taken on April 29 before the rains began to fall, were made with a combination of visible and infrared light to highlight the presence of water on the ground. In this type of image, clouds are pale blue and white, water is dark blue or black, plant-covered land is green, and bare earth is tan pink. The tan and green speckled appearance of the landscape seen in the lower image is typical of agricultural land. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3 ] of the Midwest are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in the Midwestern Uni
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| Title |
Floods in the Midwestern United States |
| Description |
Early May 2007 brought torrential spring rains to the Midwestern United States, and by May 9, the National Weather Service [ http://www.nws.noaa.gov/oh/hic/ ] had recorded flooding at 111 locations from North Dakota to Texas. At 15 locations, many of which were in Missouri, gauges measured major flooding. Thousands of people fled as the Missouri burst through levees in Missouri and Kansas, reported the Associated Press [ http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/05/09/missouri.flooding.ap/index.html ] on May 9. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image of floods along the Missouri River and its tributaries on May 8. Though clouds still covered much of the Midwest on May 8, a few breaks revealed the flood-swollen Missouri, Grand, and Thompson Rivers. The large image shows additional flooding in Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas. Both this and the lower image, taken on April 29 before the rains began to fall, were made with a combination of visible and infrared light to highlight the presence of water on the ground. In this type of image, clouds are pale blue and white, water is dark blue or black, plant-covered land is green, and bare earth is tan pink. The tan and green speckled appearance of the landscape seen in the lower image is typical of agricultural land. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3 ] of the Midwest are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in the Midwestern Uni
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| Title |
Floods in the Midwestern United States |
| Description |
After two weeks of clouds and rain, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite captured its first clear view of floods in the Missouri River system on May 12, 2007. Though the floods had started to subside by this time, the Missouri and Grand Rivers still stretch kilometers over their banks. Subsequent images, taken on May 13 [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007133 ] and May 14, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007134 ] reveal that the rivers are slowly returning to normal as water drains downstream. The lower image, taken on April 29, shows the rivers under normal conditions. Both images use a combination of visible and infrared light to increase the contrast between mud-laden water and earth. In this type of image, water is dark blue or black. Tiny squares of plant-covered farmland are bright green, and sections of bare earth, such as the Missouri River's wide flood plain, are tan-pink. A red box outlines a fire in the lower image. The rains that triggered the floods also spurred plant growth. By May 12, an intense green replaced many of the tan squares that were visible on April 29. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in the Midwestern Uni
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| Title |
Floods in the Midwestern United States |
| Description |
After two weeks of clouds and rain, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite captured its first clear view of floods in the Missouri River system on May 12, 2007. Though the floods had started to subside by this time, the Missouri and Grand Rivers still stretch kilometers over their banks. Subsequent images, taken on May 13 [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007133 ] and May 14, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007134 ] reveal that the rivers are slowly returning to normal as water drains downstream. The lower image, taken on April 29, shows the rivers under normal conditions. Both images use a combination of visible and infrared light to increase the contrast between mud-laden water and earth. In this type of image, water is dark blue or black. Tiny squares of plant-covered farmland are bright green, and sections of bare earth, such as the Missouri River's wide flood plain, are tan-pink. A red box outlines a fire in the lower image. The rains that triggered the floods also spurred plant growth. By May 12, an intense green replaced many of the tan squares that were visible on April 29. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in the Midwestern Uni
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| Title |
Floods in the Midwestern United States |
| Description |
After a week of clouds and rain, the skies cleared over the midwestern United States on August 25, 2007, giving the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) flying on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite this view of the region's swollen rivers. A string of severe thunderstorms [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14462 ] pounded the U.S. Midwest during the third week of August, leaving devastating floods in their wake. Though the floods had started to recede by the time MODIS captured the top image, the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers and their tributaries were still running high. The lower image shows the river system in southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and western Wisconsin on August 10, before the storms came through. Both images were made with a combination of infrared and visible light, which makes water appear black, while the surrounding plant-covered land is bright green. A comparison between the two images reveals that the Mississippi River was overflowing, dark pools of water surround its banks in the top image. The Wisconsin River looks only slightly swollen, but its tributaries, too small to be visible in early August, have widened enough to show up clearly. At least 18 deaths have been blamed on the storms and floods, reported the Associated Press on August 26. These images are displayed at MODIS' maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007237 ] of the United States are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System in a variety of resolutions. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in the Midwestern Uni
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| Title |
Floods in the Midwestern United States |
| Description |
After a week of clouds and rain, the skies cleared over the midwestern United States on August 25, 2007, giving the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) flying on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite this view of the region's swollen rivers. A string of severe thunderstorms [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14462 ] pounded the U.S. Midwest during the third week of August, leaving devastating floods in their wake. Though the floods had started to recede by the time MODIS captured the top image, the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers and their tributaries were still running high. The lower image shows the river system in southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and western Wisconsin on August 10, before the storms came through. Both images were made with a combination of infrared and visible light, which makes water appear black, while the surrounding plant-covered land is bright green. A comparison between the two images reveals that the Mississippi River was overflowing, dark pools of water surround its banks in the top image. The Wisconsin River looks only slightly swollen, but its tributaries, too small to be visible in early August, have widened enough to show up clearly. At least 18 deaths have been blamed on the storms and floods, reported the Associated Press on August 26. These images are displayed at MODIS' maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007237 ] of the United States are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System in a variety of resolutions. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in the Midwestern Uni
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| Title |
Floods in the Midwestern United States |
| Description |
Water levels on the Blanchard River in northwestern Ohio reached near-record levels a short time after the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, on August 22, 2007. At 1:00 p.m., National Weather Service gauges [ http://newweb.erh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=cle&gage=fdyo1&view=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1&toggles=10,7,8,2,9,15,6 ] in Findlay, Ohio, recorded water levels of 18.46 feet, just under six and a half inches short of the record crest of 18.5 feet set on March 13, 1913. In both cases, the river rose more than seven feet above its flood stage of 11 feet. The August 22 flood swamped the city of Findlay, forcing hundreds from their homes and putting the city in a state of emergency, reported the Associated Press on August 23. The disastrous floods along the Blanchard River can be seen in the top image. The image was made with a combination of visible and infrared light to increase the contrast between water and land. Water is dark blue or black, while plant-covered land is bright green. Tiny squares of plant-free land, most like fallow fields in this case, are tan. Cities are gray, looking like a dark smudge against the bright green landscape. Lingering clouds are light blue and white. The severity of the flood can be gauged by comparing the top image with the lower image, which was taken on August 13, 2007. In the lower image, the Blanchard River is too small to be visible. By August 22, the river and many of its tributaries are clearly visible. The river expands over Findlay, and then bends south. Ohio was not the only state that experienced floods in mid-August. A string of severe thunderstorms [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14462 ] dumped heavy rain on several Midwest states, including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. At the same time, the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14454 ] triggered deadly flooding in Oklahoma and Texas. These images are shown at MODIS' maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007234 ] of the U.S. Midwest are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System in a variety of resolutions. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in the Midwestern Uni
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| Title |
Floods in the Midwestern United States |
| Description |
Water levels on the Blanchard River in northwestern Ohio reached near-record levels a short time after the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, on August 22, 2007. At 1:00 p.m., National Weather Service gauges [ http://newweb.erh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=cle&gage=fdyo1&view=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1&toggles=10,7,8,2,9,15,6 ] in Findlay, Ohio, recorded water levels of 18.46 feet, just under six and a half inches short of the record crest of 18.5 feet set on March 13, 1913. In both cases, the river rose more than seven feet above its flood stage of 11 feet. The August 22 flood swamped the city of Findlay, forcing hundreds from their homes and putting the city in a state of emergency, reported the Associated Press on August 23. The disastrous floods along the Blanchard River can be seen in the top image. The image was made with a combination of visible and infrared light to increase the contrast between water and land. Water is dark blue or black, while plant-covered land is bright green. Tiny squares of plant-free land, most like fallow fields in this case, are tan. Cities are gray, looking like a dark smudge against the bright green landscape. Lingering clouds are light blue and white. The severity of the flood can be gauged by comparing the top image with the lower image, which was taken on August 13, 2007. In the lower image, the Blanchard River is too small to be visible. By August 22, the river and many of its tributaries are clearly visible. The river expands over Findlay, and then bends south. Ohio was not the only state that experienced floods in mid-August. A string of severe thunderstorms [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14462 ] dumped heavy rain on several Midwest states, including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. At the same time, the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14454 ] triggered deadly flooding in Oklahoma and Texas. These images are shown at MODIS' maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007234 ] of the U.S. Midwest are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System in a variety of resolutions. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in the Midwestern Uni
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| Title |
Floods in the Midwestern United States |
| Description |
August 2007 was the wettest month ever recorded for many places in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, with rainfall totals ranging from 23.86 inches in Hokah, Minnesota, to 12.79 inches in Winona Dam, Minnesota, said the National Weather Service. [ http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=arx&storyid=9990&source=0 ] While the entire month was rainy, much of the rain fell on August 18-20, when several thunderstorms rolled across the region. The thunderstorms triggered disastrous flooding in several Midwest communities, including La Crosse, Wisconsin. A little over 10 inches of rain fell in La Crosse in the 24-hour period that spanned August 18 and August 19, and flash floods resulted. Combined with rains from the rest of August, this rainfall let La Crosse set a new monthly precipitation record of 17 inches. By August 27, when the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ]) captured the top image, the floods had largely retreated, though visible signs of flooding remained. Compared to the lower image, acquired on September 7, 2006, the landscape to the west of the Mississippi River is pocked with pools of water. The city of La Crosse, the bright white and gray grid on the east side of the river, appears to have dried out. The city appears much as it did nearly a year earlier with no visible sign of flooding. You can download a 15-meter-resolution KMZ file of the 2007 image of La Crosse [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Sep2007/lacrosse_ast_2007239.kmz ] suitable for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/ ] NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] |
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Floods in the Midwestern Uni
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| Title |
Floods in the Midwestern United States |
| Description |
August 2007 was the wettest month ever recorded for many places in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, with rainfall totals ranging from 23.86 inches in Hokah, Minnesota, to 12.79 inches in Winona Dam, Minnesota, said the National Weather Service. [ http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=arx&storyid=9990&source=0 ] While the entire month was rainy, much of the rain fell on August 18-20, when several thunderstorms rolled across the region. The thunderstorms triggered disastrous flooding in several Midwest communities, including La Crosse, Wisconsin. A little over 10 inches of rain fell in La Crosse in the 24-hour period that spanned August 18 and August 19, and flash floods resulted. Combined with rains from the rest of August, this rainfall let La Crosse set a new monthly precipitation record of 17 inches. By August 27, when the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ]) captured the top image, the floods had largely retreated, though visible signs of flooding remained. Compared to the lower image, acquired on September 7, 2006, the landscape to the west of the Mississippi River is pocked with pools of water. The city of La Crosse, the bright white and gray grid on the east side of the river, appears to have dried out. The city appears much as it did nearly a year earlier with no visible sign of flooding. You can download a 15-meter-resolution KMZ file of the 2007 image of La Crosse [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Sep2007/lacrosse_ast_2007239.kmz ] suitable for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/ ] NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] |
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Floods in the Southern and M
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| Title |
Floods in the Southern and Midwestern United States |
| Description |
River systems throughout northern Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana were swollen with winter rain when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image on January 21, 2007. The National Weather Service had issued warnings of mild flooding on many of the rivers shown in this image, but by January 22, the high water had begun to subside. The floods followed a powerful winter storm [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17530 ] that dumped heavy rain on the South, and ice and snow on the Midwest. The lower image shows Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana on January 10, before the storm struck. Like the top image, the lower image was made with both infrared and visible light to increase the contrast between water and land. In this type of image, water is black or dark blue, while plant-covered land is bright green and bare or lightly vegetated ground is tan. The city of Shreveport, Louisiana, is the grey area on the banks of the Red River. Clouds are pale blue and white. True-color, photo-like images are also available from the MODIS Rapid Response Team. [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA7 ] NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in the Southern and M
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| Title |
Floods in the Southern and Midwestern United States |
| Description |
River systems throughout northern Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana were swollen with winter rain when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image on January 21, 2007. The National Weather Service had issued warnings of mild flooding on many of the rivers shown in this image, but by January 22, the high water had begun to subside. The floods followed a powerful winter storm [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17530 ] that dumped heavy rain on the South, and ice and snow on the Midwest. The lower image shows Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana on January 10, before the storm struck. Like the top image, the lower image was made with both infrared and visible light to increase the contrast between water and land. In this type of image, water is black or dark blue, while plant-covered land is bright green and bare or lightly vegetated ground is tan. The city of Shreveport, Louisiana, is the grey area on the banks of the Red River. Clouds are pale blue and white. True-color, photo-like images are also available from the MODIS Rapid Response Team. [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA7 ] NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in the Southern and M
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| Title |
Floods in the Southern and Midwestern United States |
| Description |
The rivers of northeast Arkansas were running high on January 24, 2007, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image. The National Weather Service warned residents of minor flooding along the White River on January 24, and the river was expected to remain high for several days. The floods followed a strong winter storm, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17530 ] which coated the Midwest United States with rain, ice, and snow on January 15 and January 16. The lower image shows normal conditions on the river as seen by Terra MODIS on January 10. Both images were made with a combination of visible and infrared light. Water is dark blue or black, vegetation is green, and clouds are pale blue and white. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA7/2007024 ] of the United States are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in the Southern and M
…
| Title |
Floods in the Southern and Midwestern United States |
| Description |
The rivers of northeast Arkansas were running high on January 24, 2007, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image. The National Weather Service warned residents of minor flooding along the White River on January 24, and the river was expected to remain high for several days. The floods followed a strong winter storm, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17530 ] which coated the Midwest United States with rain, ice, and snow on January 15 and January 16. The lower image shows normal conditions on the river as seen by Terra MODIS on January 10. Both images were made with a combination of visible and infrared light. Water is dark blue or black, vegetation is green, and clouds are pale blue and white. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA7/2007024 ] of the United States are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in the Southern and M
…
| Title |
Floods in the Southern and Midwestern United States |
| Description |
At the point where Illinois, Kentucky, and Indiana meet, the Wabash River flows into the Ohio River, which in turn will eventually feed the Mississippi River. The two rivers are susceptible to flooding in the winter and spring, and by the end of January 2007, the confluence of the Wabash and the Ohio bulged with water. The floods came after a series of winter storms pummeled the Midwest United States in mid-January. The effect of the storms on the rivers is clear from this pair of false-color images, taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. The images are made with a combination and infrared and visible light, which makes water much more visible than it would be in a photo-like image. In this combination of wavelengths, water is dark blue or black, plant-covered land is green, sparsely vegetated or bare ground is tan-pink, and burned ground is red-brown. Icy clouds are light blue, while water clouds are white. The top image was take on January 23, 2007, shortly after the storm clouds cleared. Compared to the lower image, which was taken on January 2, the Wabash, Ohio, and Little Wabash Rivers are all swollen. By January 25, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007025 ] the floods appeared to be receding. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007025 ] of the Midwest are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in the Southern and M
…
| Title |
Floods in the Southern and Midwestern United States |
| Description |
At the point where Illinois, Kentucky, and Indiana meet, the Wabash River flows into the Ohio River, which in turn will eventually feed the Mississippi River. The two rivers are susceptible to flooding in the winter and spring, and by the end of January 2007, the confluence of the Wabash and the Ohio bulged with water. The floods came after a series of winter storms pummeled the Midwest United States in mid-January. The effect of the storms on the rivers is clear from this pair of false-color images, taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. The images are made with a combination and infrared and visible light, which makes water much more visible than it would be in a photo-like image. In this combination of wavelengths, water is dark blue or black, plant-covered land is green, sparsely vegetated or bare ground is tan-pink, and burned ground is red-brown. Icy clouds are light blue, while water clouds are white. The top image was take on January 23, 2007, shortly after the storm clouds cleared. Compared to the lower image, which was taken on January 2, the Wabash, Ohio, and Little Wabash Rivers are all swollen. By January 25, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007025 ] the floods appeared to be receding. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/2007025 ] of the Midwest are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Haze off the U.S. East Coast
| Title |
Haze off the U.S. East Coast |
| Description |
Plumes of dingy gray haze collected off the east coast of the United States on July 19, 2007. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite captured this image the same day. In this picture, the haze contrasts with nearby clouds, thanks to its darker color. While the clouds appear bright white, the haze is medium gray. The source of the haze is not apparent in this image. The U.S. Air Quality [ http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/ ] blog at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County described smoke from Canadian fires entering the United States the day before. Smog from nearby U.S. cities, however, could also be the culprit. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. The Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA4/ ] of this region. |
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Haze off the United States E
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| Title |
Haze off the United States East Coast |
| Description |
Plumes of haze blew off the east coast of the United States and over the Atlantic Ocean in late June 2007. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite took these pictures on June 23, 2007 (top), and June 24, 2007 (bottom). In these images, the haze appears as a blue-gray blur sweeping out over the ocean. While the plume of haze extends well to the south in the June 23 image, it follows a narrower path in the June 24 image. The haze plumes coincided with some air quality advisories for the Carolinas. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's AirNOW [ http://airnow.gov/ ] Website, both North and South Carolina experienced ozone levels in the moderate range on June 23 and 24. Under that category, "unusually sensitive people should consider limiting prolonged outdoor exertion." Besides plumes of haze, these satellite images show intermittent cloud cover in the region, as well as sunglint. Sunglint results from sunlight bouncing off the water's surface and into the satellite sensor. In the June 23 image, the sunglint is especially bright near the bottom right corner. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. The Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA8 ] of this region. |
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Haze off the United States E
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| Title |
Haze off the United States East Coast |
| Description |
Plumes of haze blew off the east coast of the United States and over the Atlantic Ocean in late June 2007. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite took these pictures on June 23, 2007 (top), and June 24, 2007 (bottom). In these images, the haze appears as a blue-gray blur sweeping out over the ocean. While the plume of haze extends well to the south in the June 23 image, it follows a narrower path in the June 24 image. The haze plumes coincided with some air quality advisories for the Carolinas. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's AirNOW [ http://airnow.gov/ ] Website, both North and South Carolina experienced ozone levels in the moderate range on June 23 and 24. Under that category, "unusually sensitive people should consider limiting prolonged outdoor exertion." Besides plumes of haze, these satellite images show intermittent cloud cover in the region, as well as sunglint. Sunglint results from sunlight bouncing off the water's surface and into the satellite sensor. In the June 23 image, the sunglint is especially bright near the bottom right corner. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. The Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA8 ] of this region. |
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Haze off the United States E
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| Title |
Haze off the United States East Coast |
| Description |
Haze collected off the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida on August 6, 2007. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] flying on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image the same day. In this image, the haze appears as a blue-gray blur extending toward the Atlantic Ocean. Over land, the haze appears especially thick over Georgia. Although this image shows some wildfires, marked by red dots, the haze likely results from fires farther away, in the U.S. Northwest. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14433 ] An August 6, 2007, posting on the U.S. Air Quality [ http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/ ] (Smog Blog) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, described poor air quality along the U.S. East Coast, and provided a map of aerosol optical depth measured by Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES). Aerosol optical depth indicates how much sunlight is intercepted by tiny suspended particles of solid or liquid in the air column. In the same area where this haze appears, GOES showed high readings, confirming the presence of aerosols. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Haze over India
| Title |
Haze over India |
| Description |
Haze collected over northern India, near the border with Nepal, on October 15, 2007. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite took this picture the same day. In this image, a dingy gray haze obscures the view of the land below. The haze hugs the border with Nepal in the northeast as well as taking a more southerly route in the west. The red dots are hotspotstemperature anomalies detected by the sensorlikely caused by fires. At the time MODIS acquired this picture, India's first biodiesel plant was beginning production, according to a report from The Times of India. The resulting "green" fuel, however, was planned for export to the United States and Europe. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. The Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?AERONET_Kanpur ] of this region. |
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Haze over the Great Lakes
| Title |
Haze over the Great Lakes |
| Description |
Haze collected over the Great Lakes region at the end of July 2007. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] flying on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image on July 31. In this image, the haze appears as a blue-gray film, thickest over northern Michigan and Lake Superior. Haze also obscures the view of Lake Huron and Lake Erie. Although the exact source of the haze was uncertain, it could have resulted from fires in Canada [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14405 ] or the United States. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14398 ] An August 1, 2007, posting on the U.S. Air Quality [ http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/ ] (Smog Blog) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, traced a trajectory of smoke from fires in Oregon, Idaho, and Montana passing over the Great Lakes region and continuing southeast toward Baltimore. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. The Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/ ] of this region. |
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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 |
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Heatwave in the Western Unit
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| Title |
Heatwave in the Western United States |
| Description |
The oppressive heat that crept over parts of the western United States during the first few days of July 2007 [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14380 ] took hold of the entire West during the week of July 4 through July 11. Deep red tones blanket every western state in this land surface temperature image, an indication that temperatures were warmer than in previous years. The image was made with data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite and shows temperatures recorded between July 4 and July 11, 2007, compared to the average of temperatures observed during the same period in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Areas that are warmer than during that three-year period are red, while cooler areas are blue. Triple-digit temperatures broke or matched records from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Great Falls, Montana, during this period. In this image, a cluster of red-black over eastern Washington, northern Idaho, and eastern Montana indicates that these regions experienced much warmer temperatures than in previous years. Western South Dakota (the Black Hills region) was also exceptionally warm. On the other end of the scale, Texas was much cooler than it had been in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Heavy rains pounded Texas on and off throughout this period, contributing to wide-spread flooding. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14363 ] You can download a global KMZ file of Land Surface Temperature anomaly [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/kansas_ast_2007187.kmz ] suitable for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/ ] NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Land Processes [ http://modis-land.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team. |
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Heatwave in the Western Unit
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| 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. |
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Drought in Southern Africa
| Title |
Drought in Southern Africa |
| Description |
Hot, dry weather from January through March 2007 wilted crops in southern Africa. The severe drought produced near-record temperatures that, combined with a lack of rainfall, caused extensive crop damage, particularly in western crop areas, reported the United States Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service. [ http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/wap_arch.cfm ] In South Africa, the anticipated yield from the corn crop dropped from ten million tons in December to six million tons in April because farmers couldn't plant in the dry conditions and many of the crops that were planted wilted in the dry heat. The last South African drought of this magnitude occurred in 1992. The impact of the drought on vegetation throughout southern Africa is illustrated in this image. The image shows vegetation conditions in March 2007 compared to conditions during the average March between 1999 and 2006 as measured by the SPOT satellite. Brown areas show where plants were less thick or where fewer plants grew than average. Green areas, by contrast, indicate that vegetation was thicker and more lush than average. The prevalence of brown indicates that plants were growing poorly throughout the region because of the drought. Green dominates in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique along the top edge of the image, where heavy rains triggered floods [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14125 ] during January and February. Some of the most severe flooding occurred along the Zambezi River, which is outlined in dark green in the upper-right corner of the image. Clearly, January and February's excess rain fed dense vegetation in March. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided by the United State Department of Agriculture Foreign Agriculture Service and processed by Jennifer Small, NASA GIMMS Group at Goddard Space Flight Center. |
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Drought in Southwestern Unit
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| 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 ]. |
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Drought in Southwestern Unit
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| 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 ]. |
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Drought in the Pacific North
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| Title |
Drought in the Pacific Northwest |
| Description |
As summer headed toward fall in 2007, much of the United States was experiencing drought. [ http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html ] This image shows relative vegetation greenness from August 13-28, 2007, compared to the average greenness for 20002006. Greenness is a general indicator of the area covered by vegetation, as well as its density and health. The image was made with observations collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite. In many parts of the Northwest, vegetation conditions were near average (yellow areas) compared to conditions for the previous 6 years. But aside from areas that were near average, this vegetation anomaly image reveals more brown (below-average conditions) than green (above-average conditions). The most dramatic brown spots, such as those concentrated in central Idaho, mark areas recently scorched by fires. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14515 ] Only in a few locations in the Northwest does a tinge of green emerge from the landscape, irrigated croplands (green specks) along the Snake and Columbia Rivers mix with what are probably fallow fields (brown specks). NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of Inbal Reshef, Global Agriculture Monitoring Project [ http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/glam.cfm ] |
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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. |
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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. |
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Drought in the United States
| Title |
Drought in the United States |
| Description |
May 2007 was a record-setting month in Georgia. Typically a dry month in this southern state, May 2007 was exceptionally so, with many locations setting record-low rainfall records and some receiving no rain at all, said state climatologist David Emory Stooksbury on GeorgiaDrought.org. [ http://www.apps.caes.uga.edu/news/storypage.cfm?storyid=3141 ] The lack of rain slowed plant growth, as shown in this vegetation index 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 May 9 and May 24, 2007. The image shows vegetation conditions compared to average conditions observed from 2000 through 2006. Areas in which plants are more sparse or are growing more slowly than average are brown, while better-than-average growth is green. Georgia and its neighbors (South Carolina, Alabama, and Florida) are all brown, an indication that the lack of rainfall is suppressing plant growth. The gray area in southern Georgia and northern Florida shows where MODIS could not collect valid vegetation measurements, either because of clouds or smoke. In this case, the area corresponds with land that burned [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14282 ] during this period and was probably masked by smoke. 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 ]. |
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Drought in the United States
| Title |
Drought in the United States |
| Description |
Record high temperatures combined with dry weather to plunge the Southeast United States deeper into drought in August 2007. Some states, including Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, were in exceptional drought, the highest rating on a five-point scale designated by the U.S. Drought Monitor. [ http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html ] In early August, a record-breaking heat wave settled over the southeastern United States, where land was already parched from a lack of rain. The temperatures baked the dry soil, leaving it even drier, and stream flows dropped. The impact of the drought on vegetation is illustrated in this vegetation anomaly image, which was made with data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite between August 13 and August 28, 2007. Areas where plants were less lush than they had been on average since 2000 are brown, while better-than-average conditions are green. Normal conditions are yellow, and areas that were covered in clouds are gray. The prevalence of brown in this image shows the wide-spread nature of the drought. The strongest drought signal is in southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 87 percent of the topsoil in Tennessee and Kentucky was rated dry or very dry between August 14 and August 21. In Tennessee, 84 percent of pastures were in poor to very poor condition during the same period, a figure that matches the conditions illustrated here. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of Inbal Reshef, Global Agriculture Monitoring Project [ http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/glam.cfm ] |
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Hurricane Henriette
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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. |
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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). |
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Earthquake Raises Reefs in t
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| Title |
Earthquake Raises Reefs in the Solomon Islands |
| Description |
The massive magnitude 8.1 earthquake [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17603 ] that jolted the Solomon Islands on April 1, 2007, permanently changed the shoreline on Ranongga Island, west of the epicenter. New beach was added to the western shore of the island when the earthquake lifted the island as much as three meters, exposing near-shore coral reefs, reported the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. [ http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1892185.htm ] The freshly exposed reefs are visible beneath a veil of clouds in the top image, acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on April 11, 2007. The lower image, taken on March 31, 2006, shows the island's former shoreline. Lush tropical vegetation is red in these images, while the exposed reef is dark grey. Water is black and clouds range from light blue lavender to white. The exposed reef adds tens of meters to most of the shoreline, and more than 150 meters at the tip of the spit of land shown in this image. The earthquake occurred along the plate boundary, where the Australia/Woodlark/Solomon Sea plates slide beneath the denser Pacific plate. Friction between the sinking (subducting) plates and the overriding Pacific plate led to the large earthquake on April 1, said the United States Geological Survey (USGS) summary of the earthquake. [ http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2007/us2007aqbk/#summary ] Large earthquakes are common in the region, though the section of the plate that produced the April 1 earthquake had not caused any quakes of magnitude 7 or larger since the early 20th century, said the USGS. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] |
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Earthquake Raises Reefs in t
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| Title |
Earthquake Raises Reefs in the Solomon Islands |
| Description |
The massive magnitude 8.1 earthquake [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17603 ] that jolted the Solomon Islands on April 1, 2007, permanently changed the shoreline on Ranongga Island, west of the epicenter. New beach was added to the western shore of the island when the earthquake lifted the island as much as three meters, exposing near-shore coral reefs, reported the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. [ http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1892185.htm ] The freshly exposed reefs are visible beneath a veil of clouds in the top image, acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on April 11, 2007. The lower image, taken on March 31, 2006, shows the island's former shoreline. Lush tropical vegetation is red in these images, while the exposed reef is dark grey. Water is black and clouds range from light blue lavender to white. The exposed reef adds tens of meters to most of the shoreline, and more than 150 meters at the tip of the spit of land shown in this image. The earthquake occurred along the plate boundary, where the Australia/Woodlark/Solomon Sea plates slide beneath the denser Pacific plate. Friction between the sinking (subducting) plates and the overriding Pacific plate led to the large earthquake on April 1, said the United States Geological Survey (USGS) summary of the earthquake. [ http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2007/us2007aqbk/#summary ] Large earthquakes are common in the region, though the section of the plate that produced the April 1 earthquake had not caused any quakes of magnitude 7 or larger since the early 20th century, said the USGS. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] |
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El Nino Rainfall Patterns ov
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| 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’s 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). |
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Landslide Buries Valley of t
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| Title |
Landslide Buries Valley of the Geysers |
| Description |
Geysers are a rare natural phenomena found only in a few places, such as New Zealand, Iceland, the United States (Yellowstone National Park), and on Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula. On June 3, 2007, one of these rare geyser fields was severely damaged when a landslide rolled through Russia's Valley of the Geysers. The landslidea mix of mud, melting snow, trees, and boulderstore a scar on the land and buried a number of geysers, thermal pools, and waterfalls in the valley. It also blocked the Geyser River, causing a new thermal lake to pool upstream. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this infrared-enhanced image on June 11, 2007, a week after the slide. The image shows the valley, the landslide, and the new thermal lake. Even in mid-June, just days from the start of summer, the landscape is generally covered in snow, though the geologically heated valley is relatively snow free. The tree-covered hills are red (the color of vegetation in this false-color treatment), providing a strong contrast to the aquamarine water and the gray-brown slide. According to the Russian News and Information Agency (RIA [ http://en.rian.ru/ ]) [English language], the slide left a path roughly a kilometer and a half (one mile) long and 200 meters (600 feet) wide. Within hours of the landslide, the water in the new lake inundated a number of additional geysers. The geysers directly buried under the landslide now lie under as much as 60 meters (180 feet) of material, according to RIA reports. It is unlikely that the geysers will be able to force a new opening through this thick layer, adds RIA. Among those directly buried is Pervenets (Firstborn), the first geyser found in the valley, in 1941. Other geysers, such as the Bolshoi (Greater) and Maly (Lesser) Geysers, were silenced when buried by water building up behind the new natural dam. According to Vladimir and Andrei Leonov of the Russian Federation Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, [ http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/expeditions/2007/Geyser_Valley-06-2007/Geyser_Valley-06.htm ], the new lake appears to be stable and draining gradually through the earthen dam, alleviating fears of a catastrophic flood. Should the new lake drain enough, many of the inundated geysers may restart. Initial reports from the Volcanology and Seismology Institute state this has already happened for some geysers. Geysers outside of the slide region, including the Velikan (Giant) Geyser and a major section of the geyser field known as Vitrazh (Stained Glass) appear to have escaped damage. In addition to destroying a number of geysers, the landslide may have damaged habitats in the Valley of the Geysers. The thermal waters and heated steam jets made this valley warmer than the surrounding landscape, and the warmth supported a unique ecosystem. The loss of a large part of its heat source may alter the ecosystem, but it is not clear what additional longer-term changes might occur. For example, salmon that spawn in the Geyser River will be confined to the lower reaches of the river, and bears, which depended on salmon, will need to shift feeding grounds correspondingly. Thanks to Sergey Chernomorets and Boris Yurchak for information and translation. You can download a 15-meter-resolution KMZ file of Valley of the Geysers [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Jun2007/kamgeysers_ast_2007162.kmz ] for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/ ] NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. |
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Fall Colors around Lake Supe
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| Title |
Fall Colors around Lake Superior |
| Description |
The calendar may have set September 23 as the first day of autumn in 2007, but the forests that line the eastern shore of Lake Superior had already started to mark the turning of the season. By September 23, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this photo-like image, the forests of northern Michigan and southern Ontario flamed orange as the first trees of the seasonmaplesbegan to display their brilliant red and orange fall colors. Veins of green run through the sea of orange where the deciduous forest gives way to deep green pine trees. The most vivid color is concentrated in Canada's province of Ontario. Located farther south, Michigan's trees show only a hint of color. The St. Mary's River seems to be the dividing line between the brightest colors and the as-yet-unchanged forest. The river is also the border between the United States and Canada, as well as the only waterway linking Lake Superior to the rest of the Great Lakes. Orange and green forest gives way to gray along the banks of the river where the cities of Sault St. Marie, Ontario, and Sault St. Marie, Michigan, are located. Separated into two cities by the split between Canada and the United States after the Revolutionary War, the city was the first permanent European settlement in either Ontario or Michigan. A faint tan line spanning the river is the bridge that links the two cities. The pale green grid south of Sault St. Marie, Michigan, reveals patterns of land use, either from agriculture or forestry. The large image provides an unusually cloud-free view of all of the Great Lakes. Similar spots of color stretch across southern Canada and parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The northern plains of the United States have started to turn yellow as grasses ripen, but the eastern forests in Pennsylvania and New York remain deep green. Red squares scattered throughout the large image mark the locations of fires. The large image is at MODIS' maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The image is available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response System. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC |
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Fires Across the Western Uni
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| 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 |
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Fires Across Western United
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| 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 |
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Fires and Thick Smoke over S
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| Title |
Fires and Thick Smoke over South America |
| Description |
The skies over the heart of South America were thick with the smoke from thousands of fires on September 9, 2007. In this image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ], challenging for scientists to say what the overall effect of smoke on clouds and rainfall is. NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] and Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellites each have a MODIS sensor capable of detecting fires and mapping the extent of smoke aerosols on a daily basis. Scientists from around the world are using these data to advance our understanding of how natural and human-caused fires are changing our planet. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team., satellite, locations where the sensor detected actively burning fires are marked with red dots. The skies are flooded with smoke, which pools along the eastern foothills of the Andes Mountains for thousands of kilometers. (North-to-south this image covers 3,050 kilometers, if we laid it over a map of the central United States, it would spill over the borders into both Canada and the Gulf of Mexico for at least a hundred kilometers in both directions.) Although naturally occurring fires are not uncommon in the drier forests and grasslands of South America, this type of intense, continent-spanning fire activity is almost certainly a product of human activities. Some fires are intentional, set by people to clear forest, savannas, and grasslands for ranching or farming. Other fires occur accidentally from human activities. Landscapes that have been disturbed by logging, fragmentation, or previous accidental fire are more prone to catch fire accidentally. In these situations, planned fires (such as brush clearing fires on already cleared land) can easily get out of control and invade other areas, especially during drought years. The image spans a variety of ecological regions. The top of the scene, including Peru, northern Bolivia, and western Brazil is home to the southernmost portions of the Amazon Rainforest. These wetter forests give way to the south to drier forests and more open woodlands in southern Bolivia, northwestern Paraguay and northern Argentina east of the Andes, this area is called the Chaco. In Uruguay and southern Brazil, the natural vegetation is savannas and grasslands. Even in ecosystems where fires occur naturally (the Chaco, savannas, and grasslands), human activities may change the frequency and intensity of fires. The number and different kinds of plants and animals may change as a result. And in the Amazon, naturally occurring fire was historically very rare, and trees and other plants have no real adaptations to fire. Fires in the rainforest have the potential to completely transform the Southern Amazon forests into a savanna. Fires influence not only the land surface, but the atmosphere as well. Research suggests that the impacts of smoke on the tropical atmosphere vary from place to place, season to season, and year to year. Studies have shown smoke reducing cloudiness over the Amazon itself, but not over the nearby ocean and not every year. The net impact on rainfall is also uncertain. Smoke particles suppress cloud formation by providing an over-abundance of condensation sites for water vapor. The water vapor spreads out over these particles, and it takes the cloud droplets longer to get big enough to fall as rain. The flip side, however, is that the smaller, lighter cloud droplets can rise much higher into the atmosphere, which ultimately invigorates updrafts, intensifies thunderstorms, and produces large hail and heavy rain. The competing effects in different areas and weather conditions make it extremely |
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Murphy Complex Fire
| Title |
Murphy Complex Fire |
| Description |
When two large, previously separate wildfires (Rowland and Elk Mountain) near the Idaho-Nevada state line merged over the July 21 weekend, fire management officials renamed the incident as the Murphy Complex Fire. According to the morning report from the National Interagency Fire Center on July 23, 2007, the blaze had consumed more than 560,000 acres and was 15 percent contained. This image of the Murphy Complex Fire was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite on July 22. Places where the sensor detected actively burning fire are outlined in red. The dry grassland and sagebrush terrain appears olive-tan, while the sprawling burned area appears deep brown. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA1 ] images of the western United States in additional resolutions. Images of the separate fires were previously published in the Fires in Idaho and Eastern Oregon [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14398 ] event. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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