Narrow Search
 
 
Advanced Search

Browse All : Images of Pacific Ocean from 2006

Printer Friendly
1 2 3
1-50 of 121
     
     
Hubble Images of Asteroids H …
Title Hubble Images of Asteroids Help Astronomers Prepare for Spacecraft Visit
Global Rotation of SeaWiFS B …
Title Global Rotation of SeaWiFS Biosphere Decadal Average without Land
Abstract The SeaWiFS instrument aboard the Seastar satellite has been collecting ocean data since 1997. By monitoring the color of reflected light via satellite, scientists can determine how successfully plant life is photosynthesizing. A measurement of photosynthesis is essentially a measurement of successful growth, and growth means successful use of ambient carbon. This animation shows an average of 10 years worth of SeaWiFS data. Dark blue represents warmer areas where there tends to be a lack of nutrients, and greens and reds represent cooler nutrient-rich areas which support life. The nutrient-rich areas include coastal regions where cold water rises from the sea floor bringing nutrients along and areas at the mouths of rivers where the rivers have brought nutrients into the ocean from the land.
Completed 2007-04-16
Global Rotation of SeaWiFS B …
Title Global Rotation of SeaWiFS Biosphere Decadal Average with Land
Abstract The SeaWiFS instrument aboard the Seastar satellite has been collecting ocean data since 1997. By monitoring the color of reflected light via satellite, scientists can determine how successfully plant life is photosynthesizing. A measurement of photosynthesis is essentially a measurement of successful growth, and growth means successful use of ambient carbon. This animation shows an average of 10 years worth of SeaWiFS data. Dark blue represents warmer areas where there tends to be a lack of nutrients, and greens and reds represent cooler nutrient-rich areas which support life. The nutrient-rich areas include coastal regions where cold water rises from the sea floor bringing nutrients along and areas at the mouths of rivers where the rivers have brought nutrients into the ocean from the land.
Completed 2007-04-16
SeaWiFS Biosphere from 1997 …
Title SeaWiFS Biosphere from 1997 to 2006
Abstract The SeaWiFS instrument aboard the Seastar satellite has been collecting ocean data since 1997. By monitoring the color of reflected light via satellite, scientists can determine how successfully plant life is photosynthesizing. A measurement of photosynthesis is essentially a measurement of successful growth, and growth means successful use of ambient carbon. This animation represents nearly a decade's worth of data taken by the SeaWiFS instrument, showing the abundance of life in the sea. Dark blue represents warmer areas where there is little life due to lack of nutrients, and greens and reds represent cooler nutrient-rich areas. The nutrient-rich areas include coastal regions where cold water rises from the sea floor bringing nutrients along and areas at the mouths of rivers where the rivers have brought nutrients into the ocean from the land. A recent study indicates there is a correlation between this ocean nutrients and changes in sea surface temperature (SST). The results show that when SSTs warm, marine plant life in the form of microscopic phytoplankton declines. When SSTs cool, marine plant life flourishes. Changes in phytoplankton growth influence fishery yields and the amount of carbon dioxide the oceans remove from the atmosphere. This could have major implications on the future of our ocean's food web and how it relates to climate change. Once the animation pulls out to a full global view, the remaining animation can be compared to the animation titled 'MODIS Sea Surface Temperature from 2002 to 2006'. Please click here to view the corresponding animation.
Completed 2006-11-22
MODIS Sea Surface Temperatur …
Title MODIS Sea Surface Temperature from 2002 to 2006
Abstract A recent study indicates there is a correlation between ocean nutrients and changes in sea surface temperature (SST). The results show that when ocean water warms, marine plant life in the form of microscopic phytoplankton tend to decline. When water cools, plant life flourishes. Changes in phytoplankton growth influence fishery yields and the amount of carbon dioxide the oceans remove from the atmosphere. This could have major implications on the future of our ocean's food web and how it relates to climate change. The temperature data in this visualization comes from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard NASA's Terra and Aqua spacecraft. In order to see the correlation between SST and SeaWiFS data, this animation can be compared to the latter part of the animation called 'SeaWiFS Biosphere from 1997 to 2006'. Please click here to see this other animation.
Completed 2006-11-22
CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS …
Title CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS over Central America
Abstract Associated with tropical thunderstorms are broad fields of cirrus clouds that flow out of the tops of the vigorous storm systems that form over warm tropical oceans. These clouds play a role in how much infrared energy is trapped in Earth's atmosphere. NASA's Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4) mission, which runs from July 16, 2007 through August 8, 2007, aims to document the full lifecycle of these clouds. Observations from four A-Train satellites flying in formation will complement the aircraft measurements with large-scale views of many different features of the atmosphere. Observations from this mission along with previous studies will improve our understanding of what effect a warming climate with rising ocean temperatures will have on these cloud systems. These images over Central America, produced in support of the TC4 mission, show a tropical storm system over Central and South America on August 2, 2006 as measured from multiple satellite sensors, including Aqua MODIS, CloudSat and CALIPSO. In this view from the Pacific Ocean, Panama is on the left and South America is shown on the right. In the following series of still images, each satellite's measurement is shown individually and in combination with the others from the same camera viewpoint. The profile showing CloudSat and CALIPSO data is truncated at a height of twenty kilometers and exaggerated ten times. The land topography is also exaggerated by a factor of ten.
Completed 2007-06-26
CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS …
Title CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS over Central America
Abstract Associated with tropical thunderstorms are broad fields of cirrus clouds that flow out of the tops of the vigorous storm systems that form over warm tropical oceans. These clouds play a role in how much infrared energy is trapped in Earth's atmosphere. NASA's Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4) mission, which runs from July 16, 2007 through August 8, 2007, aims to document the full lifecycle of these clouds. Observations from four A-Train satellites flying in formation will complement the aircraft measurements with large-scale views of many different features of the atmosphere. Observations from this mission along with previous studies will improve our understanding of what effect a warming climate with rising ocean temperatures will have on these cloud systems. These images over Central America, produced in support of the TC4 mission, show a tropical storm system over Central and South America on August 2, 2006 as measured from multiple satellite sensors, including Aqua MODIS, CloudSat and CALIPSO. In this view from the Pacific Ocean, Panama is on the left and South America is shown on the right. In the following series of still images, each satellite's measurement is shown individually and in combination with the others from the same camera viewpoint. The profile showing CloudSat and CALIPSO data is truncated at a height of twenty kilometers and exaggerated ten times. The land topography is also exaggerated by a factor of ten.
Completed 2007-06-26
CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS …
Title CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS over Central America
Abstract Associated with tropical thunderstorms are broad fields of cirrus clouds that flow out of the tops of the vigorous storm systems that form over warm tropical oceans. These clouds play a role in how much infrared energy is trapped in Earth's atmosphere. NASA's Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4) mission, which runs from July 16, 2007 through August 8, 2007, aims to document the full lifecycle of these clouds. Observations from four A-Train satellites flying in formation will complement the aircraft measurements with large-scale views of many different features of the atmosphere. Observations from this mission along with previous studies will improve our understanding of what effect a warming climate with rising ocean temperatures will have on these cloud systems. These images over Central America, produced in support of the TC4 mission, show a tropical storm system over Central and South America on August 2, 2006 as measured from multiple satellite sensors, including Aqua MODIS, CloudSat and CALIPSO. In this view from the Pacific Ocean, Panama is on the left and South America is shown on the right. In the following series of still images, each satellite's measurement is shown individually and in combination with the others from the same camera viewpoint. The profile showing CloudSat and CALIPSO data is truncated at a height of twenty kilometers and exaggerated ten times. The land topography is also exaggerated by a factor of ten.
Completed 2007-06-26
CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS …
Title CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS over Central America
Abstract Associated with tropical thunderstorms are broad fields of cirrus clouds that flow out of the tops of the vigorous storm systems that form over warm tropical oceans. These clouds play a role in how much infrared energy is trapped in Earth's atmosphere. NASA's Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4) mission, which runs from July 16, 2007 through August 8, 2007, aims to document the full lifecycle of these clouds. Observations from four A-Train satellites flying in formation will complement the aircraft measurements with large-scale views of many different features of the atmosphere. Observations from this mission along with previous studies will improve our understanding of what effect a warming climate with rising ocean temperatures will have on these cloud systems. These images over Central America, produced in support of the TC4 mission, show a tropical storm system over Central and South America on August 2, 2006 as measured from multiple satellite sensors, including Aqua MODIS, CloudSat and CALIPSO. In this view from the Pacific Ocean, Panama is on the left and South America is shown on the right. In the following series of still images, each satellite's measurement is shown individually and in combination with the others from the same camera viewpoint. The profile showing CloudSat and CALIPSO data is truncated at a height of twenty kilometers and exaggerated ten times. The land topography is also exaggerated by a factor of ten.
Completed 2007-06-26
CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS …
Title CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS over Central America
Abstract Associated with tropical thunderstorms are broad fields of cirrus clouds that flow out of the tops of the vigorous storm systems that form over warm tropical oceans. These clouds play a role in how much infrared energy is trapped in Earth's atmosphere. NASA's Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4) mission, which runs from July 16, 2007 through August 8, 2007, aims to document the full lifecycle of these clouds. Observations from four A-Train satellites flying in formation will complement the aircraft measurements with large-scale views of many different features of the atmosphere. Observations from this mission along with previous studies will improve our understanding of what effect a warming climate with rising ocean temperatures will have on these cloud systems. These images over Central America, produced in support of the TC4 mission, show a tropical storm system over Central and South America on August 2, 2006 as measured from multiple satellite sensors, including Aqua MODIS, CloudSat and CALIPSO. In this view from the Pacific Ocean, Panama is on the left and South America is shown on the right. In the following series of still images, each satellite's measurement is shown individually and in combination with the others from the same camera viewpoint. The profile showing CloudSat and CALIPSO data is truncated at a height of twenty kilometers and exaggerated ten times. The land topography is also exaggerated by a factor of ten.
Completed 2007-06-26
CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS …
Title CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS over Central America
Abstract Associated with tropical thunderstorms are broad fields of cirrus clouds that flow out of the tops of the vigorous storm systems that form over warm tropical oceans. These clouds play a role in how much infrared energy is trapped in Earth's atmosphere. NASA's Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4) mission, which runs from July 16, 2007 through August 8, 2007, aims to document the full lifecycle of these clouds. Observations from four A-Train satellites flying in formation will complement the aircraft measurements with large-scale views of many different features of the atmosphere. Observations from this mission along with previous studies will improve our understanding of what effect a warming climate with rising ocean temperatures will have on these cloud systems. These images over Central America, produced in support of the TC4 mission, show a tropical storm system over Central and South America on August 2, 2006 as measured from multiple satellite sensors, including Aqua MODIS, CloudSat and CALIPSO. In this view from the Pacific Ocean, Panama is on the left and South America is shown on the right. In the following series of still images, each satellite's measurement is shown individually and in combination with the others from the same camera viewpoint. The profile showing CloudSat and CALIPSO data is truncated at a height of twenty kilometers and exaggerated ten times. The land topography is also exaggerated by a factor of ten.
Completed 2007-06-26
CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS …
Title CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS over Central America
Abstract Associated with tropical thunderstorms are broad fields of cirrus clouds that flow out of the tops of the vigorous storm systems that form over warm tropical oceans. These clouds play a role in how much infrared energy is trapped in Earth's atmosphere. NASA's Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4) mission, which runs from July 16, 2007 through August 8, 2007, aims to document the full lifecycle of these clouds. Observations from four A-Train satellites flying in formation will complement the aircraft measurements with large-scale views of many different features of the atmosphere. Observations from this mission along with previous studies will improve our understanding of what effect a warming climate with rising ocean temperatures will have on these cloud systems. These images over Central America, produced in support of the TC4 mission, show a tropical storm system over Central and South America on August 2, 2006 as measured from multiple satellite sensors, including Aqua MODIS, CloudSat and CALIPSO. In this view from the Pacific Ocean, Panama is on the left and South America is shown on the right. In the following series of still images, each satellite's measurement is shown individually and in combination with the others from the same camera viewpoint. The profile showing CloudSat and CALIPSO data is truncated at a height of twenty kilometers and exaggerated ten times. The land topography is also exaggerated by a factor of ten.
Completed 2007-06-26
CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS …
Title CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS over Central America
Abstract Associated with tropical thunderstorms are broad fields of cirrus clouds that flow out of the tops of the vigorous storm systems that form over warm tropical oceans. These clouds play a role in how much infrared energy is trapped in Earth's atmosphere. NASA's Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4) mission, which runs from July 16, 2007 through August 8, 2007, aims to document the full lifecycle of these clouds. Observations from four A-Train satellites flying in formation will complement the aircraft measurements with large-scale views of many different features of the atmosphere. Observations from this mission along with previous studies will improve our understanding of what effect a warming climate with rising ocean temperatures will have on these cloud systems. These images over Central America, produced in support of the TC4 mission, show a tropical storm system over Central and South America on August 2, 2006 as measured from multiple satellite sensors, including Aqua MODIS, CloudSat and CALIPSO. In this view from the Pacific Ocean, Panama is on the left and South America is shown on the right. In the following series of still images, each satellite's measurement is shown individually and in combination with the others from the same camera viewpoint. The profile showing CloudSat and CALIPSO data is truncated at a height of twenty kilometers and exaggerated ten times. The land topography is also exaggerated by a factor of ten.
Completed 2007-06-26
CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS …
Title CloudSat, Calipso and MODIS over Central America
Abstract Associated with tropical thunderstorms are broad fields of cirrus clouds that flow out of the tops of the vigorous storm systems that form over warm tropical oceans. These clouds play a role in how much infrared energy is trapped in Earth's atmosphere. NASA's Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4) mission, which runs from July 16, 2007 through August 8, 2007, aims to document the full lifecycle of these clouds. Observations from four A-Train satellites flying in formation will complement the aircraft measurements with large-scale views of many different features of the atmosphere. Observations from this mission along with previous studies will improve our understanding of what effect a warming climate with rising ocean temperatures will have on these cloud systems. These images over Central America, produced in support of the TC4 mission, show a tropical storm system over Central and South America on August 2, 2006 as measured from multiple satellite sensors, including Aqua MODIS, CloudSat and CALIPSO. In this view from the Pacific Ocean, Panama is on the left and South America is shown on the right. In the following series of still images, each satellite's measurement is shown individually and in combination with the others from the same camera viewpoint. The profile showing CloudSat and CALIPSO data is truncated at a height of twenty kilometers and exaggerated ten times. The land topography is also exaggerated by a factor of ten.
Completed 2007-06-26
SeaWiFS Biosphere Global Rot …
Title SeaWiFS Biosphere Global Rotation from 1997 to 2006
Abstract The SeaWiFS instrument aboard the Seastar satellite has been collecting ocean data since 1997. By monitoring the color of reflected light via satellite, scientists can determine how successfully plant life is photosynthesizing. A measurement of photosynthesis is essentially a measurement of successful growth, and growth means successful use of ambient carbon. This animation represents nearly a decade's worth of data taken by the SeaWiFS instrument, showing the abundance of life in the sea. Dark blue represents warmer areas where there is little life due to lack of nutrients, and greens and reds represent cooler nutrient-rich areas. The nutrient-rich areas include coastal regions where cold water rises from the sea floor bringing nutrients along and areas at the mouths of rivers where the rivers have brought nutrients into the ocean from the land.
Completed 2007-04-16
Comparing the 1998-1999 La N …
Title Comparing the 1998-1999 La Nina event to the corresponding 2006 Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly Conditions
Abstract Are we seeing another La Nina event in 2006? This animation compares the winter 1998-1999 La Nina event to the corresponding 2006 conditions in the Pacific Ocean. This is done by comparing Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies (i.e., differences from normal SST values) between 1999 and 2006. Blue areas indicate ocean regions 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than the norm. During the 1998-1999 La Nina event this resulted in a distinct area of deep blue stretching across the Pacific Ocean. Through this comparison, one can see that our current ocean temperature conditions do not reflect those same conditions during the 1998-1999 La Nina event.
Completed 2006-05-30
Comparing the 1998-1999 La N …
Title Comparing the 1998-1999 La Nina event to the corresponding 2006 Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly Conditions
Abstract Are we seeing another La Nina event in 2006? This animation compares the winter 1998-1999 La Nina event to the corresponding 2006 conditions in the Pacific Ocean. This is done by comparing Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies (i.e., differences from normal SST values) between 1999 and 2006. Blue areas indicate ocean regions 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than the norm. During the 1998-1999 La Nina event this resulted in a distinct area of deep blue stretching across the Pacific Ocean. Through this comparison, one can see that our current ocean temperature conditions do not reflect those same conditions during the 1998-1999 La Nina event.
Completed 2006-05-30
Comparing the 1998-1999 La N …
Title Comparing the 1998-1999 La Nina event to the corresponding 2006 Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly Conditions
Abstract Are we seeing another La Nina event in 2006? This animation compares the winter 1998-1999 La Nina event to the corresponding 2006 conditions in the Pacific Ocean. This is done by comparing Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies (i.e., differences from normal SST values) between 1999 and 2006. Blue areas indicate ocean regions 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than the norm. During the 1998-1999 La Nina event this resulted in a distinct area of deep blue stretching across the Pacific Ocean. Through this comparison, one can see that our current ocean temperature conditions do not reflect those same conditions during the 1998-1999 La Nina event.
Completed 2006-05-30
Comparing the 1998-1999 La N …
Title Comparing the 1998-1999 La Nina event to the corresponding 2006 Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly Conditions
Abstract Are we seeing another La Nina event in 2006? This animation compares the winter 1998-1999 La Nina event to the corresponding 2006 conditions in the Pacific Ocean. This is done by comparing Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies (i.e., differences from normal SST values) between 1999 and 2006. Blue areas indicate ocean regions 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than the norm. During the 1998-1999 La Nina event this resulted in a distinct area of deep blue stretching across the Pacific Ocean. Through this comparison, one can see that our current ocean temperature conditions do not reflect those same conditions during the 1998-1999 La Nina event.
Completed 2006-05-30
MODIS Sea Surface Temperatur …
Title MODIS Sea Surface Temperature around the Australian Continent
Abstract The earliest technique for measuring Sea Surface Temperature (SST) was dipping a thermometer into a bucket of water. The first automated technique for determining SST was accomplished by measuring the temperature of water in the intake port of large ships. A large network of coastal buoys in U.S. waters is maintained by the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC). Since about 1990, there has also been an extensive array of moored buoys maintained across the equatorial Pacific Ocean designed to help monitor and predict the El Niño phenomenon. Since the 1980s satellites have been increasingly utilized to measure SST and have provided an enormous leap in our ability to view the spatial and temporal variation in SST. The satellite measured SST provides both a synoptic view of the ocean and a high frequency of repeat views, allowing the examination of basin-wide upper ocean dynamics not possible with ships or buoys. For example, a ship traveling at 10 knots (20 km/h) would require 10 years to cover the same area a satellite covers in two minutes. This animation uses SST data taken at nighttime from the MODIS/Aqua and MODIS/Terra satellites. This data has many important applications that permit scientists to use ocean temperatures to observe ocean circulation and locate major ocean currents. Ocean current analysis can facilitate ocean transportation. Additionally, by using SST, scientists can monitor changes in ocean temperatures and relate these to weather and climate changes like coral bleaching around the Great Barrier Reef. Finally, the SST changes have many important biological implications for hospitable/inhospitable conditions for many organisms including species of plankton, seagrasses, shellfish, fish, coral, and mammals.
Completed 2005-02-28
MODIS Sea Surface Temperatur …
Title MODIS Sea Surface Temperature around the Australian Continent
Abstract The earliest technique for measuring Sea Surface Temperature (SST) was dipping a thermometer into a bucket of water. The first automated technique for determining SST was accomplished by measuring the temperature of water in the intake port of large ships. A large network of coastal buoys in U.S. waters is maintained by the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC). Since about 1990, there has also been an extensive array of moored buoys maintained across the equatorial Pacific Ocean designed to help monitor and predict the El Niño phenomenon. Since the 1980s satellites have been increasingly utilized to measure SST and have provided an enormous leap in our ability to view the spatial and temporal variation in SST. The satellite measured SST provides both a synoptic view of the ocean and a high frequency of repeat views, allowing the examination of basin-wide upper ocean dynamics not possible with ships or buoys. For example, a ship traveling at 10 knots (20 km/h) would require 10 years to cover the same area a satellite covers in two minutes. This animation uses SST data taken at nighttime from the MODIS/Aqua and MODIS/Terra satellites. This data has many important applications that permit scientists to use ocean temperatures to observe ocean circulation and locate major ocean currents. Ocean current analysis can facilitate ocean transportation. Additionally, by using SST, scientists can monitor changes in ocean temperatures and relate these to weather and climate changes like coral bleaching around the Great Barrier Reef. Finally, the SST changes have many important biological implications for hospitable/inhospitable conditions for many organisms including species of plankton, seagrasses, shellfish, fish, coral, and mammals.
Completed 2005-02-28
MODIS Sea Surface Temperatur …
Title MODIS Sea Surface Temperature around the Australian Continent
Abstract The earliest technique for measuring Sea Surface Temperature (SST) was dipping a thermometer into a bucket of water. The first automated technique for determining SST was accomplished by measuring the temperature of water in the intake port of large ships. A large network of coastal buoys in U.S. waters is maintained by the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC). Since about 1990, there has also been an extensive array of moored buoys maintained across the equatorial Pacific Ocean designed to help monitor and predict the El Niño phenomenon. Since the 1980s satellites have been increasingly utilized to measure SST and have provided an enormous leap in our ability to view the spatial and temporal variation in SST. The satellite measured SST provides both a synoptic view of the ocean and a high frequency of repeat views, allowing the examination of basin-wide upper ocean dynamics not possible with ships or buoys. For example, a ship traveling at 10 knots (20 km/h) would require 10 years to cover the same area a satellite covers in two minutes. This animation uses SST data taken at nighttime from the MODIS/Aqua and MODIS/Terra satellites. This data has many important applications that permit scientists to use ocean temperatures to observe ocean circulation and locate major ocean currents. Ocean current analysis can facilitate ocean transportation. Additionally, by using SST, scientists can monitor changes in ocean temperatures and relate these to weather and climate changes like coral bleaching around the Great Barrier Reef. Finally, the SST changes have many important biological implications for hospitable/inhospitable conditions for many organisms including species of plankton, seagrasses, shellfish, fish, coral, and mammals.
Completed 2005-02-28
MODIS Sea Surface Temperatur …
Title MODIS Sea Surface Temperature around the Australian Continent
Abstract The earliest technique for measuring Sea Surface Temperature (SST) was dipping a thermometer into a bucket of water. The first automated technique for determining SST was accomplished by measuring the temperature of water in the intake port of large ships. A large network of coastal buoys in U.S. waters is maintained by the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC). Since about 1990, there has also been an extensive array of moored buoys maintained across the equatorial Pacific Ocean designed to help monitor and predict the El Niño phenomenon. Since the 1980s satellites have been increasingly utilized to measure SST and have provided an enormous leap in our ability to view the spatial and temporal variation in SST. The satellite measured SST provides both a synoptic view of the ocean and a high frequency of repeat views, allowing the examination of basin-wide upper ocean dynamics not possible with ships or buoys. For example, a ship traveling at 10 knots (20 km/h) would require 10 years to cover the same area a satellite covers in two minutes. This animation uses SST data taken at nighttime from the MODIS/Aqua and MODIS/Terra satellites. This data has many important applications that permit scientists to use ocean temperatures to observe ocean circulation and locate major ocean currents. Ocean current analysis can facilitate ocean transportation. Additionally, by using SST, scientists can monitor changes in ocean temperatures and relate these to weather and climate changes like coral bleaching around the Great Barrier Reef. Finally, the SST changes have many important biological implications for hospitable/inhospitable conditions for many organisms including species of plankton, seagrasses, shellfish, fish, coral, and mammals.
Completed 2005-02-28
2006 Fifth-Warmest Year on R …
Title 2006 Fifth-Warmest Year on Record
Description On February 8, 2007, climatologists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) announced that 2006 was the fifth-warmest year in the past century. GISS scientists estimated that the five warmest years on record were, in descending order, 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003, and 2006. Other climatology groups ordered the years somewhat differently due to different measuring techniques, especially in areas with sparse measurements, but they also considered these years to be the warmest. According to NASA GISS director James Hansen, 2007 is likely to see warmer temperatures than 2006 and could prove to be the warmest on record, thanks to an El Niño and continued emissions of greenhouse gases. The top image is a global map showing temperature anomalies during 2006, blue being the coolest and red being the warmest. Areas with cooler-than-average temperatures appear primarily in the northern Pacific Ocean and Southern Ocean, as well as the interior of Antarctica. The very warmest regions appear in the Arctic and the Antarctic Peninsula, which is consistent with climate predictions that global warming will occur more quickly and dramatically in high latitudes. The red colors that dominate the image reveal the overall warmth of 2006 compared to the long-term average. The graph below the image tracks mean global temperatures compared to the 1951 to 1980 mean. This graph shows two lines, the 5-year mean, indicated in red, and the annual mean, indicated in pink. Temperatures peaked around 1940 then fell in the 1950s. By the early 1980s, temperatures surpassed those of the 1940s and, despite ups and downs from year to year, they continued rising beyond the year 2000. Days before NASA GISS announced 2006's warm temperatures, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a new assessment of climate change. A consensus document complied by more than 1,200 authors and reviewers representing 113 nations, predicts continued warming of 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade for the next few decades. Like the previous report, published in 2001, this assessment estimated how likely it was that "most of the warming" that occurred in the latter half of the 20th century resulted from increases in greenhouse gases from human activities. The 2001 report gave a probability of greater than 66 percent. The 2006 report gave a probability of greater than 90 percent. A special report in Nature described the current report as a turning point "not because of the figures themselves, which are largely in line with previous IPCC forecasts, but because the science behind them is now certain enough to make a serious response from policymakers almost inevitable." NASA graph adapted from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies Surface Temperature Analysis [ http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/ ] by Robert Simmon.
Ash Plume from Anatahan
Title Ash Plume from Anatahan
Description The Anatahan Volcano emitted a plume of volcanic ash on March 19, 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard the Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite captured this image the same day. In this image, the tiny volcanic island sends a plume of volcanic ash or dust toward the southwest, over the Pacific Ocean. The right edge of the image shows a phenomenon called sunglint caused when sunlight bounces off the ocean's surface and into the satellite sensor. Anatahan sits near the center of the Northern Mariana Islands. The islands result from a collision between the Pacific Plate and the Philippine Plate. As the Pacific Plate slides under the Philippine Plate, rocks heat up and break up. They eventually force their way to the surface through weak spots in the Philippine Plate and emerge as volcanoes like Anatahan. This volcano began erupting in January 2005 and remained active for much of the year. In August 2005, the volcano quieted, but in early March 2006, the governor of the Northern Mariana Islands extended the state of emergency for the island of Anatahan, citing continued volcanic activity. Except for those conducting scientific research, the island remained off limits for human habitation and travel. Volcanic ash can pose hazards for local air travel as well, as dustings from volcanoes can damage airplane engines. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Anatahan ] of Anatahan.
Ash Plume from Anatahan
Title Ash Plume from Anatahan
Description The Anatahan Volcano emitted another plume of volcanic ash on March 24, 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite captured this image the same day. In this image, the tiny volcanic island sends a plume of volcanic ash toward the west, over the Pacific Ocean. The ash cloud disperses rapidly as it travels westward. In early March 2006, the governor of the Northern Mariana Islands extended the state of emergency for the island of Anatahan, citing continued volcanic activity. Except for those conducting scientific research, the island remained off limits for human habitation and travel. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Anatahan ] of Anatahan.
Day Fire in Southern Califor …
Title Day Fire in Southern California
Description The winds spreading smoke from the Day Fire northwest of Los Angeles, California, have shifted once again. On September 20, 2006, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite captured this image of smoke spreading southeast over Los Angeles. The day before, smoke blew northeast, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13881 ] while on September 17, the smoke blew west, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13869 ] over the Pacific Ocean. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fire are outlined in red. According to the September 21 report from the National Interagency Fire Center, [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] the Day Fire had grown to 99,950 acres and was 35 percent contained. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Day Fire in Southern Califor …
Title Day Fire in Southern California
Description A shift in the winds affecting the Day Fire [ http://www.inciweb.org/incident/475/ ] northwest of Los Angeles swept smoke to the northeast on September 19, 2006. On the previous day, winds had pushed a thick plume of smoke westward over the Pacific Ocean. This pair of images of the fire on September 19 was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite. The natural-color image at top is similar to a digital photo, and uses only visible light. The image at bottom has been enhanced with MODIS' observations of shortwave- and near-infrared light to make the burned areas (deep red) stand out from unburned vegetation (green). In both images the actively burning parts of the fire are outlined in red. In the false-color image, bright pink glows within the fire perimeters are probably areas of open flame. According to the September 20 report from the National Interagency Fire Center, [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] the Day Fire was 93,339 acres and 20 percent contained. Parts of the Angeles and Los Padres National Forests were closed, and evacuations and road closures in the area continued. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides daily images of the entire western United States at additional resolutions. [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA5 ] NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Drought in Southeastern Aust …
Title Drought in Southeastern Australia
Description Deep red paints the coastal mountains of southeastern Australia, hangs over the continent's arid interior, and dots much of the rest of the land in this image, indicating that unusually high temperatures reigned in November 2006. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the monthly average temperature for the country hit a record high in November. The average temperature for the continent was 2.11 degrees Celsius warmer than average, with local temperatures rising more than 4 degrees C above average for the month in places. These abnormally high air temperatures are reflected in the extreme land surface temperatures shown in this image. The land is usually much warmer to the touch than the temperature recorded by a thermometer hanging above the ground, and so, during November, land surface temperatures in Australia were as much as 10 degrees Celsius above a five-year average. The greatest deviation from normal temperatures is shown in dark red in this image. Average temperatures are white, and cooler-than-average temperatures are blue. The temperature data were collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. The temperature anomaly was greatest in the Great Dividing Range, which curves along the coasts of Victoria and New South Wales in southeast Australia. The heat and a lack of spring rain may have primed the mountains for devastating wildfires. By the end of December, several large wildfires [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14029 ] raced through the mountains, threatening local communities and clouding the skies over much of southeastern Australia with dense smoke. The high temperatures in the Great Dividing Range and elsewhere were just part of an unusually warm and dry spring, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13943 ] which in turn, was an extension of a dry year. Some of the dryness may be linked to a weak El Niñno in the Pacific Ocean. El Niñno is a regular climate pattern during which sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator heat up and trade winds weaken. Though the effects of El Niñno vary, the phenomenon often changes rainfall patterns around the world. In Australia, El Niñno often brings a dry winter and spring. It is also linked to an increase in the number of extreme fire days, during which conditions are hot, dry, and windy. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of Zhengming Wan, MODIS Land Surface Temperature Group, Institute for Computational Earth System Science [ http://www.icess.ucsb.edu/ ], University of California, Santa Barbara.
Dust and Smog in Northeast C …
Title Dust and Smog in Northeast China
Description Much of the land surface is obscured in this oblique image of the North China Plain and parts of Inner Mongolia. In this image, a mass of gray smog—mainly industrial pollution and smoke from domestic burning—obscures Beijing and surrounding cities. Numerous plumes with their source points appear within the mass. Beijing suffers some of the worst air pollution in the world from these chronic sources, and the characteristic colors and textures of the smog can be easily seen through the windows of the International Space Station. The pale brown material in Bo Hai Bay, about 300 kilometers east of Beijing, is sediment from the Yellow River and other rivers. Separated from the smog mass by a band of puffy, white cumulus clouds is a light brown plume of dust. The line of white clouds has developed along the steep slope that separates the heavily populated North China Plain—the location of the largest population concentration on Earth—and the sparsely populated semi-desert plains of Inner Mongolia. Most Northern Hemisphere deserts saw dust storms in the spring of 2006, and the Gobi and Taklimakan Deserts of western China were no exception. Dust plumes originating in these deserts typically extend hundreds of kilometers eastward, regularly depositing dust on Beijing, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan. Some plumes even extend over the Pacific Ocean. In extreme cases, visible masses of Gobi-derived dust have reached North America. An astronaut handheld-camera image taken in 1996 shows a broad corridor of smog moving off the mainland out into the Pacific Ocean from China's more southerly population center near Taiwan. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=15295 ] Astronaut photograph ISS013-E-21250 [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS012&roll=E&frame=21250 ] was acquired March 2, 2006, with a Kodak 760C digital camera using a 50 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, Johnson Space Center. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program [ http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/home/index.html ] supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ ]
Hokkaido, Japan
Title Hokkaido, Japan
Description Cities mingle with rugged hills and a dormant volcano in this image of Hokkaido, Japan. This three-dimensional image comes from observations made 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 July 23, 2006. The view is toward the north and slightly east. Green indicates vegetation, beige and gray indicate bare ground, paved surfaces, or buildings, and dark blue indicates water. The water body at the top of the image is the Pacific Ocean. Now dormant, Mount Yotei is a stratovolcano—a symmetrical cone composed of alternating layers of hardened lava, solidified ash, and volcanic rocks ejected in previous eruptions. It reaches a height of 1,898 meters (6,227 feet), and its summit sports a 700-meter- (2,297-foot-) wide crater. Snow often caps this volcano, but in this summertime shot, the volcano's summit is snow-free. The volcano is also known as Ezo-Fuji for its resemblance to Mount Fuji. As angular patches of gray and beige indicate, urban areas surround the volcano, most notably the city of Kutchan to the northwest. Even when volcanoes remain active, people often settle close to them, drawn by benefits [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/NatHazards/ ] of good soil and mild climates that appear to outweigh the risks. NASA image by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.
Hurricane Daniel
Title Hurricane Daniel
Description Hurricane Daniel formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean on July 16, 2006, off the Mexican coast south of Baja California. The tropical depression strengthened to storm status in the next day, and as the fourth storm in the Eastern Pacific, was named Daniel. By early morning on July 18, winds in the storm reached 120 kilometers per hour (75 miles per hour), bringing Daniel to hurricane strength, just as the previous three storms of the Eastern Pacific had already done in 2006. Like most hurricanes that form in this region, Daniel tracked out into the Pacific farther away from land. It headed west-northwest, where there is little in the way of barriers to its gathering strength, but also little prospect for it to strike inhabited areas. This photo-like image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] on the Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on July 18, 2006, at 2:10 p.m. local time (21:10 UTC). Daniel has a very well-defined spiral shape and active thunderstorm systems close to the eyewall. At the time the Aqua satellite passed overhead, Daniel had a closed eye: the center of the storm still had cloud cover. Open-eye hurricanes are generally well-developed and powerful systems, a status that Daniel had not yet achieved, though forecasts called for the hurricane to continue to grow in size and strength over the next few days. Sustained winds in the storm system were estimated to be around 120 kilometers per hour (75 miles per hour) around the time the image was captured, according to the University of Hawaii's Tropical Storm Information Center, [ http://www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/Tropical/tropical.html ] very similar to its strength earlier in the day when it first achieved hurricane status. By July 20, though, the apparent pause in the storm's gathering power was long over, and sustained winds were reported to be 200 km/hr (125 mph). NASA image by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC.
Hurricane Daniel
Title Hurricane Daniel
Description With winds near 240 kilometers per hour (150 miles per hour or 130 knots), Hurricane Daniel was a powerful and dangerous storm when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image on July 21, 2006, over the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Daniel has tightly spiraling clouds that circle an open eye with near-perfect symmetry: hallmarks of a well-organized storm. At the time, 2:55 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (21:55 UTC), Daniel was a strong Category 4 storm, its winds just a few knots short of a Category 5 storm. The Central Pacific Hurricane Center [ http://www.prh.noaa.gov/cphc/tcpages/DANIEL.php ] predicted that the storm would move slowly northwest, gradually degrading into a tropical storm before hitting the island of Hawaii on July 28. The large image provided above has a resolution of 500 meters per pixel. The image is available in additional resolutions, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?2006202-0721/Daniel.A2006202.2155 ] including the sensor's maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel, from the MODIS Rapid Response Team. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC
Hurricane Lane
Title Hurricane Lane
Description The 2006 Atlantic hurricane season may have had a slow start with no major hurricanes until mid-September, but the Eastern Pacific season was not so quiet. By September 14, when yet another tropical depression (area of low air pressure) reached storm strength and required a name, the National Hurricane Center [ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ ] was already on the twelfth entry in its Pacific storm name list, Lane. During the next 24 hours, Lane grew from storm to hurricane, and continued intensification to reach Category 3 [ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshs.shtml ] status on September 16. This photo-like image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on September 15, 2006, at 12:00 p.m. local time (18:00 UTC). Lane was a very large and well-defined hurricane in this image, possessing a distinct center and spiral-arm structure. However, the eye of the storm was cloud-filled, or "closed," and the cloud bands were not symmetrical. With the storm center offshore over the Pacific Ocean, the hurricane was able to form and intensify. At the same time, the large portion of the storm over land robbed it of some of its potential power and distorted the storm's shape. Hurricane Lane had sustained winds of around 130 kilometers per hour (80 miles per hour) at the time this satellite image was acquired, according to the University of Hawaii's Tropical Storm Information Center. [ http://www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/Tropical/tropical.html ] Despite its interactions with the Mexican coast, Lane was able to intensify after this image was acquired. It came ashore on September 17 and degenerated within a few hours to tropical storm strength. Though the areas of the storm where the sustained peak winds reached as fast as 200 kilometers per hour (120 miles per hour) were not over land, the Pacific coast of Mexico was drenched in heavy rain, pounded with surf and storm surge, and buffeted by powerful winds. The high-resolution image provided above is at MODIS' full spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions. [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?2006258-0915/Lane.A2006258.1800 ] You can also download a 250 m resolution KMZ file [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Sep2006/Lane.A2006258.1800.250m.kmz ] for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html ] NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center.
Hurricane Paul
Title Hurricane Paul
Description Hurricane Paul formed on October 21, 2006, in the eastern Pacific near the coast of Mexico. It grew quickly to hurricane strength as it spun off the coast near Baja California for the next several days. The sixteenth named storm of the Pacific storm season, Paul remained offshore as of October 24, though residents of southern Baja California were eyeing it warily for signs it might shift and come ashore there. This photo-like image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] on the Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on October 23, 2006, at 12:30 p.m. local time (20:30 UTC). Paul at the time of this image was a small, well-defined swirl. However, cloud patterns over a wide area appear to be under the storm's influence, with clouds reaching as far as southern Baja. Winds around the center of Hurricane Paul were whipping around at 160 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour), according to the University of Hawaii's Tropical Storm Information Center. [ http://www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/Tropical/ ] In 2005, the record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season was the focus of attention, with the number of named storms exhausting the letters of the alphabet. But as of late October 2006, the hurricane activity in the eastern Pacific Ocean was outpacing the Atlantic: 16 named storms (9 of them hurricanes) versus 9 named storms (5 of them hurricanes). On average, the eastern Pacific Ocean experiences more tropical storms and hurricanes than the Atlantic Basin, 16.4 compared to 10.1. Powerful hurricanes in the eastern Pacific rarely make landfall in the western United States. Persistent easterly winds not only tend to steer storms away from the coast, but they also "shove" the ocean's surface water westward, away from the coast, allowing cool water to well up to replace it. The cool water weakens any storms that do approach the coast. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team.
Hurricane Paul
Title Hurricane Paul
Description As October drew to a close, Hurricane Paul was approaching the southern tip of Mexico's Baja Peninsula. The sixteenth named Pacific storm of the 2006 season, Paul was whipping up sustained winds of 165 kilometers per hour (105 miles per hour) at the time of the National Hurricane Center's 11:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time briefing on October 23. The storm track and intensity forecasts for Paul were still uncertain at that time, but landfall along the southern tip of Baja Peninsula as a strong storm was still a possibility. In this image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra satellite on October 22, 2006, the eye of Hurricane Paul was several hundreds kilometers southwest of Baja. A bright disk of clouds spirals counter-clockwise into a cloudy eye at the heart of the storm. In places, this smooth-seeming cloud deck is rippled by puffy cloud tops—a sign of thunderstorms lofting heat and moisture high into the atmosphere. The southern tip of Baja Peninsula appears along the top edge of the image. In 2005, the record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season was the focus of attention, with the number of named storms exhausting the letters of the alphabet. But as of late October 2006, the hurricane activity in the eastern Pacific Ocean was outpacing the Atlantic: 16 named storms (9 of them hurricanes) versus 9 named storms (5 of them hurricanes). On average, the eastern Pacific Ocean experiences more tropical storms and hurricanes than the Atlantic Basin, 16.4 compared to 10.1. Powerful hurricanes in the eastern Pacific rarely make landfall in the western United States. Persistent easterly winds not only tend to steer storms away from the coast, but they also "shove" the ocean's surface water westward, away from the coast, allowing cool water to well up to replace it. The cool water weakens any storms that do approach the coast. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team.
Ice in the Beaufort Sea
Title Ice in the Beaufort Sea
Description From the time Europeans discovered the North American continent to the mid-twentieth century, sailors searched for a northwest passage that would connect the Atlantic Ocean (and Europe) to the Pacific Ocean (and Asia). No such passage exists through the continent, but during the summer, a northwest route through the Arctic opens up. By sailing around Greenland, threading the islands of the Canadian Arctic, and skimming along the Canadian and Alaska northern shores, a ship traveling from Europe to East Asia can save as much as 4,000 kilometers. However, the Northwest Passage is not a viable shipping route most of the year. During the winter, thick sea ice builds up, blocking the passage of all ships. Even during the summer, when the sea ice has melted or thinned, icebreakers must often accompany ships through the passage. The challenges of navigating the Northwest Passage are evident in these photo-like images of the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and Canada's Yukon and Northwest Territories. Though the passage is often clear by the end of July, as it was in 2005 (lower image), the sea was still frozen almost to the shore by July 25, 2006 (top). Very little of the inky, blue-black sea is visible under the white expanse of ice. The ice is not smooth, rather, slightly darker areas show where new ice has formed around chunks of older ice from previous years. The section of the Beaufort Sea that is visible in the top image is clouded with brown sediment flowing into the water from the Mackenzie River. There are several reasons for the lingering ice, says Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. First, temperatures in the region dropped below average in the fall of 2005 and remained cool, so sea ice was able to form quickly. Record melting during 2005 allowed old, thick ice from the north to drift into the Beaufort Sea. Some of this old ice may still be in the sea, frozen among the new ice that formed over the winter. Finally, wind is probably pushing yet more ice toward the shore. Though there was more ice in the Beaufort Sea at the end of July 2006 than there had been in previous years, the Arctic as a whole continued to melt at an ever-quickening pace. By June 2006, sea ice in the Arctic covered 1.2 million fewer square kilometers than the long-term average measured between 1979 and 2000, said Meier. This put sea ice concentrations (the percentage of ice that covers a predefined area) at a record low for June, breaking the record set in June 2005, during which sea ice extent was down 0.8 million square kilometers from the average. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured these images on July 25, 2006, and July 25, 2005. The large images provide above are at MODIS' maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. Both the 2005 and 2006, images are available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response Team. NASA images courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC
Manam, Papau New Guinea
Title Manam, Papau New Guinea
Description Two kinds of plumes are obvious in this image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite on September 3, 2006. A greenish-tan plume of sediment is running off into the Pacific Ocean from a river on the east coast of mainland Papua New Guinea and curving northwest. An ash and/or steam plume from Manam Volcano [ http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/southeast_asia/manam.html ] casts a bright grayish pall over the center of the scene, though the plume is not as bright as the sprinkling of clouds. Manam has billowed out clouds of ash and steam several times throughout 2006. The volcano has been in an active state since 1974, and particularly strong eruptions in 2004 caused many of the island's residents to evacuate to the mainland. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC. [ http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]
Fire East of Los Angeles
Title Fire East of Los Angeles
Description Smoke from a forest fire in Cleveland National Forest pooled over Los Angeles, California, on February 6, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite passed overhead and captured this image. The actively burning part of the fire that MODIS detected is outlined in red, and gray-brown smoke swirls over the city and spreads out over the Pacific Ocean at image left. According to a Reuters report, hundreds of people were forced to evacuate their homes as the wind-whipped fire spread rapidly. This image is shown at MODIS' maximum spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The larger image shows a wider region. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides additional images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA5 ] of this area on a daily basis. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Pacific Typhoons
Title Pacific Typhoons
Description Three different typhoons were spinning over the western Pacific Ocean on August 7, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite acquired this image. The strongest of the three, Typhoon Saomai, formed in the western Pacific on August 4, 2006, as a tropical depression. Within a day, it had become organized enough to be classified as a tropical storm. While Saomai was strengthening into a storm, another tropical depression formed a few hundred kilometers to the north, and by August 6, it became tropical storm Maria. Bopha formed just as Maria reached storm status and became a storm itself on August 7. As of August 7, the University of Hawaii?s Tropical Storm Information Center [ http://www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/Tropical/tropical.html ] predicted that Bopha and Saomai would continue on tracks that would take each into China, while Maria would move northwest across the southern end of Japan. Saomai was predicted to gather strength, while Maria and Bopha were projected to remain near their current strengths. This photo-like image was acquired at 12:35 p.m. local time (04:35 UTC) on August 7. It is unusual, but certainly not unprecedented, to have three storm systems all in the same general area at one time. The trio makes an interesting illustration of the evolution of tropical storm systems. Bopha, the youngest at just a few hours old, shows only the most basic round shape of a tropical storm. Maria, a day older, shows more distinct spiral structure with arms and an apparent central eye. Despite their differences in appearance, both storms were around the same size and strength, with peak sustained winds of around 90 and 100 kilometers per hour (58 and 63 miles per hour), respectively. A day older than Maria is the much more powerful Typhoon Saomai. At the time of this image, the typhoon had sustained winds of around 140 km/hr (85 mph), and forecasters predicted that it would continue to gather strength before coming ashore in China, according to the University of Hawaii's Tropical Storm Information Center. The typhoon's well-developed structure (including a distinct, closed eye in the center) in comparison to Maria is clear in this image. The slanting diagonal feature through the image is sunlight bouncing off the ocean into the MODIS instrument, a phenomenon called sunglint. The very bright patch is where the reflection is strongest. NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center.
Fires in Northern California
Title Fires in Northern California
Description Two fire complexes were burning in northern California on September 24, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite passed overhead and captured this image. The forested mountains appear deep green, while bright smoke traces the course of rivers and streams. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are marked in red. To the south is the Bar Complex Fire, which was 79,690 acres and 39 percent contained as of September 25, according to the daily report from the National Interagency Fire Center. [ http://www.nifc.gov/nicc ] To the north, the Uncles Complex was about 25,185 acres and 50 percent contained. The smoke from the fires hangs over the Pacific Ocean in the western half of the image. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA1 ] of the area in a variety of resolutions and formats. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center.
Shekell Fire, California
Title Shekell Fire, California
Description A long plume of smoke from a wildfire in southern California crossed the Channel Islands and spread out over the Pacific Ocean on December 3, 2006. This image of the Shekell Fire was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite at 12:25 p.m. local (Pacific) time. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fire are outlined in red. According to news reports, the fire was burning near the town of Moorpark, which is about 10 kilometers (about 6.2 miles) west of Simi Valley. The fire, which began early Sunday morning, had destroyed several homes, and burned about 9,700 acres as of Monday morning, December 4. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides twice-daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA5 ] of the area at additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Smog and Sand over Beijing
Title Smog and Sand over Beijing
Description During the early part of the year, there is considerable outflow of pollution from China and Southeast Asia. Carbon monoxide is a good tracer of this pollution because it is produced by incomplete combustion processes such as the burning of fossil fuels in urban and industrial areas, the use of biofuels in developing countries, and by biomass burning in the tropics. This false-color image shows the concentrations of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere off the coast of Asia and out over the Pacific Ocean. This image represents a composite of data collected during February 2006 by the Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument aboard NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite. The colors represent the amount of carbon monoxide in a column of air, given in molecules per square centimeter. The gray areas show where no data were collected due to persistent cloud cover. Pollution plumes from Asia can be observed in satellite imagery as they spread far out over the Pacific Ocean, and in some instances the plumes reach the western coast of the United States. Over China, industrial emissions are mainly responsible for the high levels of carbon monoxide observed in the image. In Southeast Asia (lower left corner), February and March are months for widespread agricultural burning, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13406 ] and the carbon monoxide over that region may be from the high number of fires. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the Univeristy of Toronto MOPITT teams.
Fires in Southern Mexico
Title Fires in Southern Mexico
Description On May 14, 2006, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite collected this image of numerous fires burning in southern Mexico. The locations of actively burning fires that MODIS detected are marked in red. Thick smoke settles over the Sierra Madre del Sur range at the bottom right of the scene. The "washed out" appearance of the Pacific Ocean in the bottom part of the image is from bright sunlight reflecting directly back to the sensor. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?CAmerica_2_02/ ] of the area in a variety of resolutions and formats. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center.
Subtropical Storm off the Co …
Title Subtropical Storm off the Coast of Oregon
Description Tropical storms, as their name suggest, tend to form in the tropics. However, from time to time similar-looking storms can form at higher latitudes. Extratropical storms have cold rather than warm cores, and they usually form their characteristic spiral shape when air masses of different temperatures and humilities collide. Another type of storm that can take a hurricane shape is a polar low, a small-scale, short-lived low-pressure storm system that forms at high latitudes. On rare occasions, however, there are peculiar, hybrid storms with some of the characteristics of a tropical storm and some characteristics of an extratropical storm. Such storms are sometimes called subtropical storms. This photo-like image of a rare subtropical storm in the Pacific Ocean was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] on the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on November 1, 2006. Located 900 miles off the coast of Oregon in the northwestern Pacific, this storm system looks like a hurricane, but it is located far from any of the typical hurricane formation areas. The storm originally formed from a cold-cored extratropical storm, but after spending two days over unusually warm water (perhaps as much as 2 degrees Celsius above normal for the time of year), it developed a warm center, and hurricane characteristics, such as a cloud-free eye and an eyewall of thunderstorms. With satellite-observed winds as high as 50 knots on November 2, the storm was strong enough to have been named if it had been in one of the routinely monitored hurricane basins. Because it formed outside the territory of any monitoring organizations, however, it was not named. The storm was being referred to as "Storm 91C" by the U.S. Navy. You can download a 250-meter-resolution KMZ file of Storm 91C [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Nov2006/nepacific_tmo_2006306.kmz ] for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html ] NASA image by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team at Goddard Space Flight Center.
Fires in the Yucatan and Cen …
Title Fires in the Yucatan and Central America
Description On April 18, 2006, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA'a Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite captured an image of numerous fires burning over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and northern Central America, including Guatemala and Honduras. The actively burning fires are marked in red. At lower right, clouds mingle with smoke over the Gulf of Honduras. At lower left, bright sunlight glints off the surface of the Pacific Ocean. February to May is the dry season in this part of the world, and these fires may be intentional agricultural fires set by people to prepare for the upcoming growing season, or they may be accidental forest fires. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response team produces daily imagery [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/servir/ ] of Mesoamerica (southern Mexico and Central America) as part of the SERVIR [ http://servir.nsstc.nasa.gov/about.html ] project, which provides satellite imagery and other data sources for environmental management and disaster support in the region. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center.
Tehuano Winds Stir the Pacif …
Title Tehuano Winds Stir the Pacific Ocean
Description During the winter, Central America may not see much snow, but it does see wind. In southern Mexico, the winds roar out toward the Pacific Ocean through breaks in the western coastal mountains. Called the Tehuano winds, these powerful winds were raging on February 9, 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite recorded the impact of the winds on the Gulf of Tehuantepec off the southern coast of Mexico, near the Guatemalan border on February 10, 2006. The top image shows sea surface temperature, with deep purple indicating the coolest temperatures and pinkish yellow indicating the warmest. A swath of intense dark purple—indicating cold water—stretches southward away from the coast. This strip of cold water shows where the Tehuano winds pushed surface waters away from shore, and allowed cold, deep water to well up and replace it. The churning waters brought nutrients up from the bottom of the ocean, and the suffusion of nutrients fertilized plants growing in the surface waters of the ocean, allowing them to grow more quickly. The bottom image shows chlorophyll concentration measured in milligrams per cubic meter of water, with blue indicating the lowest concentration and yellow indicating the highest. Plants, and thus chlorophyll, are thickest in the band of cold water stirred by the Tehuano winds. In both images, some areas appear black where clouds or sunglint (the reflection of sunlight off the ocean's surface) interfered with the satellite's ability to collect data. Land appears gray in both images. The powerful Tehuano winds that created the ocean conditions seen here are generated by the interaction between high- and low-pressure weather systems over the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. As cold, high-pressure weather systems move southward over the Gulf of Mexico, they produce a pressure gradient between high pressure over the Gulf of Mexico and low pressure over the Pacific. If you walk into an air-conditioned grocery store on a hot summer day, you may feel cool air blowing into your face. This is because air conditioners are not only pumping out cool air, they are often pushing more air into each cubic meter of the store than exists outside. Pressure gradients work in a similar way through southern Mexico and Central America, causing strong winds. Passing through narrow breaks in mountain chains, the winds intensify. Once they reach the Pacific, they affect the ocean water, as these images show. NASA image courtesy Norman Kuring, Ocean Color Team [ http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]
The East Pacific Rise from N …
Title The East Pacific Rise from Near and Far
Description What do oceanographers and astronauts have in common? Observations of the complex interactions between different Earth systems, for one. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station routinely observe and photograph the Earth's surface to visualize the complicated interfaces between the atmosphere, the ocean, the land, and life on the surface. Oceanographers are also interdisciplinary students of the Earth, their interests include geology, chemistry, hydrology, and biology. Currently, a team of scientists is cruising the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico and is preparing for submersible dives on the East Pacific Rise, part of the world's mid-ocean ridge system. The mid-ocean ridges are tectonic plate boundaries where new ocean crust forms. The plates move slowly apart, and lava erupts through vents and large fissures along the seafloor. Wrapping around the globe like the seams on a baseball, [ http://www.ridge2000.org/SEAS/for_students/reference/hydrothermal_vent_intro.html ] the mid-ocean ridge system is the largest single volcanic feature on the Earth. As part of their deep-sea expedition, the scientists will place a phone call to the astronauts on the space station to discuss their respective observations of Earth processes. Students are invited to learn more about both the oceanographic and space expeditions and to submit questions (see details at the bottom of this article.) This image, taken by an astronaut in early 2003, shows the land-sea interactions along a section of Mexico's west coast just south of Mazatlan and the Isla Marias archipelago. The islands are a manifestation of intersecting plate boundaries—the spreading center of the East Pacific Rise, which traces south from the Gulf of California, and the subduction zone that consumes the Cocos plate beneath southern Mexico. These islands are biologically important: they comprise the Islas Marias Biosphere Reserve and contain endemic species (found nowhere else) of raccoons and rabbits. They also provide important habitat for birds and marine life. Between the islands and the mainland, swirling surface currents are highlighted by sun glinting off the ocean surface. Along the Mexican coast, water flows out from a coastal lagoon, and nearshore currents carry sediment (light-colored water) along the beach front. The team of oceanographers preparing to visit the East Pacific Rise is returning to a study site a few hundred miles south of Manzanillo, Mexico, where lava erupted on the sea floor in 2006, creating new oceanic crust. Hydrothermal circulation through the new crust has created warm water vents that support a community of bizarre chemosynthetic organisms. Chemosynthetic organisms get energy not from photosynthesis, but from chemicals available in the mineral-rich fluids coming from hydrothermal vents. (See the Students Experiments at Sea Website [ http://www.ridge2000.org/SEAS/for_students/reference/hydrothermal_vent_intro.html ], for more information on hydrothermal vents, and the mid-ocean ridge system.) The scientists will use the deep-sea exploration vehicle known as "Alvin" [ http://www.whoi.edu/marops/vehicles/alvin/ ] to obtain a close look at the sea floor lavas, vents, and organisms. Oceanographers who are expert geologists, chemists, and biologists are working together to understand how the new lava, circulating waters, and organisms interact and affect each other. On Friday, January 26, 2007, "Alvin" scientists will make a phone call from the submersible vehicle on the East Pacific Rise to the International Space Station to talk to astronaut Suni Williams about their respective observations. Students are invited to submit questions to the scientists participating in the phone call. More information, including the student link, is provided at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's From the Seafloor to the Space Station Website. [ http://www.whoi.edu/sbl/liteSite.do?litesiteid=13252 ] Astronaut photograph ISS006-E-51456 [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS006&roll=E&frame=51456 ] was acquired in early 2003 with a Nikon 1 digital camera, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. The International Space Station Program [ http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/home/index.html ] supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov ]
Torrential Rain Brings Flood …
Title Torrential Rain Brings Floods and Landslides to South America
Description Persistent heavy rains in January 2007 triggered flooding across parts of central South America. The rains may be related to El Niño conditions [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17501 ] in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. El Niño, a warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean around the equator, tends to bring higher-than-average rainfall to parts of South America. In 2007, the unusually heavy rains caused floods and mudslides that killed more than 50 people in southeastern Brazil at the beginning of the year. The rains and floods expanded west into Bolivia and Peru during January. Approximately 40,000 people had been affected by flooding in Bolivia, reported the United Nations News Service, [ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6XQ3LK?OpenDocument&rc=2&emid=FL-2007-000012-BOL ] and floods and mudslides had killed at least 16 in central Peru, said BBC News. [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6293977.stm ] These images show rainfall over South America between December 22, 2006, and January 22, 2007. The images were made from the near-real-time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA), which is based in part on data collected by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM [ http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]) satellite. Total accumulated rainfall is shown in the top image. Splotches of dark red indicate where the heaviest rain, around 700 to 900 millimeters (about 28-36 inches) fell over Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru along the Andes Mountains. The lower image shows the rainfall anomalies (deviations from the average rainfall) recorded over South America during the same period since TRMM's launch in 1997. The anomaly pattern shows above-average rainfall (green and blue areas) stretching from southeast Brazil across central South America and into Peru, with below-average (dark yellow area) rainfall over central and eastern Brazil. This pattern is generally consistent with patterns seen during El Niño events. 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).
Tropical Cyclone Clare
Title Tropical Cyclone Clare
Description Residents of Western Australia's Pilbara Coast are accustomed to tropical storms, the Pilbara Coast sees more cyclones than any other part of the Australian coastline. Still, Tropical Cyclone Clare strained some nerves in early January 2006. Although the storm was downgraded from a Category 3 to a Category 2, it prompted hundreds of residents to evacuate the area, and downed some power and telephone lines. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite took this image of Clare at 10:30 a.m. local time on January 10, 2006. Hurricanes in the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific Ocean are termed cyclones, and their wind direction depends on whether they are north or south of the equator. In the Southern Hemisphere, cyclone winds blow in a clockwise direction. In this image, Clare stretches hundreds of kilometers across as it moves along the Pilbara Coast. At the time this image was taken, Clare was a well-developed storm system with peak sustained winds of around 100 kilometers (60 miles) per hour. The cyclone's center was about 300 kilometers from Port Hedland, the nearest major city. According to a report from ABC.net.au, the storm had winds as high as 200 kilometers per hour when it struck Dampier, a coastal town approximately 200 kilometers southwest of Port Hedland. The storm also dropped 20 centimeters (almost 8 inches) of rain on Dampier, and forecasters expected more rain for the area. Clare was expected to remain a Category 2 storm as it moved inland. As of the morning of January 10, 2006, however, only minor damage was reported. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.
1 2 3
1-50 of 121