Browse All : Images of West Virginia and Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Snow Covers Northeastern United States on February 20, 2003

Snow Covers Northeastern Uni …

Title	Snow Covers Northeastern United States on February 20, 2003
Abstract	Snow cover left from a storm front that came through from February 16 to February 17, 2003.
Completed	2003-02-21

Terra/Aqua Snow Sequence January/February 2003

Terra/Aqua Snow Sequence Jan …

Title	Terra/Aqua Snow Sequence January/February 2003
Abstract	This is a sequence of snow images from the Terra and Aqua Satellites in January and February 2003.
Completed	2003-02-26

Floods in the U.S. Midwest

Title	Floods in the U.S. Midwest
Description	Floods in the U.S. Midwest Heavy rain and snow on January 4 and 5, 2004, have left swollen rivers throughout the U.S. Midwest. Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky are shown in these false-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) images where water is black, vegetation is green, and clouds are white and peach. In the top image, taken on January 7, 2004, by the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite, the Ohio, Wabash, and White Rivers are noticeably wider compared to an image acquired just one week earlier. The Ohio and the Wabash Rivers form a ?v? in the center of the image, with the Ohio River on the south. Near the top of the image, the White River branches off of the Wabash River. Other area rivers also appear to be fuller. The states affected by the floods include Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. According to news reports, the flood waters are covering mostly farmland, though houses and roads were also flooded. Cold temperatures followed the storm, making clean-up difficult. The high-resolution images provided above have a resolution of 500 meters per pixel. Image courtesy Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC

Floods in the U.S. Midwest

Title	Floods in the U.S. Midwest
Description	Floods in the U.S. Midwest Heavy rain and snow on January 4 and 5, 2004, have left swollen rivers throughout the U.S. Midwest. Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky are shown in these false-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) images where water is black, vegetation is green, and clouds are white and peach. In the top image, taken on January 7, 2004, by the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite, the Ohio, Wabash, and White Rivers are noticeably wider compared to an image acquired just one week earlier. The Ohio and the Wabash Rivers form a ?v? in the center of the image, with the Ohio River on the south. Near the top of the image, the White River branches off of the Wabash River. Other area rivers also appear to be fuller. The states affected by the floods include Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. According to news reports, the flood waters are covering mostly farmland, though houses and roads were also flooded. Cold temperatures followed the storm, making clean-up difficult. The high-resolution images provided above have a resolution of 500 meters per pixel. Image courtesy Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC

Floods in the U.S. Midwest

Title	Floods in the U.S. Midwest
Description	Floods in the U.S. Midwest Heavy rain and snow on January 4 and 5, 2004, have left swollen rivers throughout the U.S. Midwest. Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky are shown in these false-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) images where water is black, vegetation is green, and clouds are white and peach. In the top image, taken on January 7, 2004, by the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite, the Ohio, Wabash, and White Rivers are noticeably wider compared to an image acquired just one week earlier. The Ohio and the Wabash Rivers form a ?v? in the center of the image, with the Ohio River on the south. Near the top of the image, the White River branches off of the Wabash River. Other area rivers also appear to be fuller. The states affected by the floods include Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. According to news reports, the flood waters are covering mostly farmland, though houses and roads were also flooded. Cold temperatures followed the storm, making clean-up difficult. The high-resolution images provided above have a resolution of 500 meters per pixel. Image courtesy Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC

First Big Snow in the East

Title	First Big Snow in the East
Description	A series of two storms charged out of the Mid-West and into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast between December 4 and 7, 2003, dumping the first big snow of the season on the Eastern United States. As much as three feet of snow fell in parts of the northeast, with lesser amounts spread across the Mid-Atlantic. This pair of images shows the snowy trail left by the storm across (top row, left to right) Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, and (bottom row) West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. The images were captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite on December 7, 2003. The top image scene combines the sensor?s observations in the infrared and near-infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum with observations in the visible (the part our eyes can see) to better separate clouds from snow. Snow appears red, snow-free ground appears green, clouds appear peach, and water is black. The bottom true-color image looks more like what would be natural to our eyes. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

First Big Snow in the East

Title	First Big Snow in the East
Description	A series of two storms charged out of the Mid-West and into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast between December 4 and 7, 2003, dumping the first big snow of the season on the Eastern United States. As much as three feet of snow fell in parts of the northeast, with lesser amounts spread across the Mid-Atlantic. This pair of images shows the snowy trail left by the storm across (top row, left to right) Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, and (bottom row) West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. The images were captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite on December 7, 2003. The top image scene combines the sensor?s observations in the infrared and near-infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum with observations in the visible (the part our eyes can see) to better separate clouds from snow. Snow appears red, snow-free ground appears green, clouds appear peach, and water is black. The bottom true-color image looks more like what would be natural to our eyes. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

Tropical Storm Bertha in the Gulf of Mexico

Tropical Storm Bertha in the …

Title	Tropical Storm Bertha in the Gulf of Mexico
Description	Remnants of Tropical Storm Bertha dumped heavy rains across parts of Louisiana and Mississippi on August 5, 2002. As much as 6.73 inches of rain fell in Pascagoula, Miss., according to news reports. Meanwhile, another tropical depression formed off the coast of South Carolina on Aug. 5 and is gathering strength. As of Aug. 6, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph, just 4 mph short of becoming a tropical storm, and was moving slowly eastward. If it continues to intensify, it will become Tropical Storm Cristobol. Elsewhere in this scene, a widespread pall of haze can be seen spanning from Arkansas and Missouri across Tennessee and Kentucky, and into Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland. Many of these regions received Code Red air quality warnings. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

Winter Storm Slams North Carolina and Virginia

Winter Storm Slams North Car …

Title	Winter Storm Slams North Carolina and Virginia
Description	A post-Christmas winter storm brought ice and snow to South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, closing Interstate 95, stranding motorists and airline passengers, and knocking out power to more than 20,000 households. This image captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite on December 27, 2004, shows the aftermath of the storm, a white swath of snow stretching from the southern edge of North Carolina, through Virginia, and across the Chesapeake Bay into Maryland and Delaware. The snow highlights the Great Dismal Swamp, which straddles the state line between Virginia and North Carolina. In the upper left corner, snow covers the mountainous terrain of West Virginia. The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center

Winter Storm Slams North Car …

Title	Winter Storm Slams North Carolina and Virginia
Description	A post-Christmas winter storm brought ice and snow to South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, closing Interstate 95, stranding motorists and airline passengers, and knocking out power to more than 20,000 households. This image captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite on December 27, 2004, shows the aftermath of the storm, a white swath of snow stretching from the southern edge of North Carolina, through Virginia, and across the Chesapeake Bay into Maryland and Delaware. The snow highlights the Great Dismal Swamp, which straddles the state line between Virginia and North Carolina. In the upper left corner, snow covers the mountainous terrain of West Virginia. The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center

Winter Storms Across the Eastern United States

Winter Storms Across the Eas …

Title	Winter Storms Across the Eastern United States
Description	Severe winter storms across much of the eastern half of the United States slowed travelers, closed schools and businesses, and knocked out electricity. According to the National Weather Service, a major ice storm coated North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia with a thick layer of ice on January 27, 2004. Ice up to an inch thick prompted South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford to declare a state of emergency. Icy power lines resulted in power outages for about 338,000 customers throughout North and South Carolina and Georgia. The storm later moved into Virginia and Maryland, where ice glazed several inches of snow that fell the previous day. To the north, heavy snow began to fall on January 27, and continued to inundate the southern New England States on January 28, when this image was taken. This false-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) image shows ice and snow in shades of red and orange. Darker red areas are aligned with those areas that received ice storms. The lighter red and orange areas show where snow covers the ground. Ice in the clouds over Pennsylvania appears peach, while water clouds are white. Vegetation is bright green. Streaks of red in the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays show where ice has formed near the shore. The states shown in this image include, from the top right corner, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite acquired this image at 10:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern time (15:30 UTC) on January 28, 2004. The high-resolution 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/?2004028-0128/EastCoast.A2004028.1530.367 ], including MODIS' maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC

A Radar Image of Venus

Title	A Radar Image of Venus
Explanation	The largest radio telescopes in the world are working together to create a new map of the surface of Venus. The surface of Venus [ http://www.nineplanets.org/venus.html ] is unusually hidden by a thick atmosphere [ http://bigmac.civil.mtu.edu/public_html/classes/ce459/projects/t15/r15.html ] of mostly carbon dioxide [ http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/chemweek/CO2/CO2.html ] gas. These thick clouds [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960923.html ] are transparent, however, to radar signals [ http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm_makemap3.htm ] sent and received from Earth. The two radio telescopes [ http://www.setileague.org/otherweb/othrtele.htm ] generating the most powerful radar ever are the Arecibo Telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981129.html ] in Puerto Rico [ http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/rq.html ] and the new Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope [ http://www.gb.nrao.edu/GBT/GBT.html ] in West Virginia [ http://www.state.wv.us/ ]. The new survey will resolve details as fine a one-kilometer across, and will be inspected for changes since the last major radar map [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991128.html ] was made by NASA's Magellan spacecraft [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/magellan/ ] that orbited Venus [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/venus.html ] from 1990 to 1994. Pictured above [ http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/pr/gbtfirstsci.html ] is part of a preliminary image showing details as small as five-kilometers across.

Fireball, Smoke Trail, Meteo …

Title	Fireball, Smoke Trail, Meteor Storm
Explanation	Returning from orbit [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001129.html ], space shuttles enter the atmosphere at about 8 kilometers per second as friction heats their protective ceramic tiles to over 1,400 degrees Celsius. By contrast, the bits of comet dust which became the Leonid meteors [ http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/ leonids.html ] seen on November 18, were moving at 70 kilometers per second, completely vaporizing at altitudes of around 100 kilometers. In this [ http://www.astropix.com/HTML/SHOWCASE/LEONID3.HTM ] single 5 minute time exposure, three Leonid meteors are [ http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/meteor.html ] shooting through skies [ http://www.astro.caltech.edu/observatories/palomar/ faq/answers.html#whatwasthat ] above Spruce Knob, West Virginia, USA. Background stars are near the constellation Orion. The brightest meteor, a fireball [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001116.html ], dramatically changes colors along its path and leaves a smokey persistant [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000428.html ] trail drifting in high-altitude winds. From that extremely dark site, at an elevation of 1,200 meters, astrophotographer [ http://www.astropix.com/ ] Jerry Lodriguss reports, "We observed a [zenithal hourly rate [ http://comets.amsmeteors.org/glossary.html ]] of about 3,600 at 10:30 UT and very high rates from 9:30 UT until well into the start of astronomical twilight at 10:50 UT. It was quite a spectacular storm [ http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ ast22jun99_2.htm ], with bolides going off like flashbulbs, green and red fireballs and other fainter Leonids in all parts of the sky."

Asteroid 2007 TU24 Passes th …

Title	Asteroid 2007 TU24 Passes the Earth
Explanation	Asteroid 2007 TU24 passed by the Earth yesterday, posing no danger. The space rock, estimated [ http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroid-20080125.html ] to be about 250 meters across, coasted by just outside the orbit of Earth's Moon. The passing was not very unusual [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050417.html ] -- small rocks strike Earth daily, and in 2003 a rock the size of a bus passed inside the orbit of the Moon, being detected only after passing [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031015.html ]. TU24 was notable partly because it was so large. Were TU24 [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TU24 ] to have struck land, it might have caused a magnitude [ http://www.geo.mtu.edu/UPSeis/magnitude.html ] seven earthquake [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19fMs633Td4 ] and left a city-sized crater [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990711.html ]. A perhaps larger danger would have occurred were TU24 [ http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001309/ ] to have struck the ocean and raised a large tsunami [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami ]. This radar image [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-014 ] was taken two days ago. The Arecibo Radio Telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981129.html ] in Puerto Rico [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico ] broadcast radar that was reflected by the asteroid and then recorded by the Byrd Radio Telescope [ http://www.gb.nrao.edu/gbt/ ] in Green Bank [ http://www.nrao.edu/administration/personnel_office/greenbank.shtml ], West Virginia [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia ]. The resulting image [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-014 ] shows TU24 to have an oblong and irregular shape. TU24 [ http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroid-20080128-clips.html ] was discovered only three months ago, indicating that other potentially hazardous asteroids [ http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/ ] might lurk in our Solar System [ http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] currently undetected. Objects like TU24 [ http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080128-asteroid-radar.html ] are hard to detect because they are so faint and move [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060328.html ] so fast. Humanity's ability to scan the sky to detect, catalog, and analyze such objects has increased notably [ http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/css/ ] in recent years.

The 100-Meter Green Bank Radio Telescope

The 100-Meter Green Bank Rad …

Title	The 100-Meter Green Bank Radio Telescope
Explanation	The largest single-dish fully steerable radio telescope [ http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/intro/faq.html ] began operation in 2000 August in Green Bank [ http://www.nrao.edu/administration/personnel_office/greenbank.shtml ], West Virginia [ http://www.state.wv.us/ ], USA [ http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html ]. Dedicated as the Robert C. Byrd [ http://www.senate.gov/~byrd/ ] Green Bank Telescope, the device weighs over 30 times more than the Statue of Liberty [ http://www.libertystatepark.com/statueof.htm ], and yet can point anywhere in the sky [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010113.html ] more precisely than one thousandth of a degree [ http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/trig/angle.html ]. The main dish is so large that it could house a football game, allowing it to hear even the faint murmurs of quasars [ http://www.phys.vt.edu/~jhs/faq/quasars.html ] located across the universe. Anyone can propose to use the Green Bank Telescope [ http://www.gb.nrao.edu/GBT/GBT.html ], although formal proposals [ http://www.nrao.edu/GBT/proposals/index.shtml ] are reviewed competitively. The Green Bank Telescope [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1999AAS...195.8302L ]'s large size and innovative design [ http://www.gb.nrao.edu/GBT/technicalterms.html ] are allowing it to investigate radio waves [ http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/radio.html ] emitted from comets [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970415.html ], planets [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991128.html ], pulsars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010602.html ], distant galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010208.html ], and the distant early universe [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020218.html ].