Earth Observation

SpaceX Dragon Spies Earth

May 23, 2012

All systems are functioning nominally aboard the Earth orbiting Dragon cargo carrier launched yesterday, May 22, atop the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. SpaceX has released the picture above of the Earth as seen by a thermal imager that Dragon will use in its upcoming approach to the International Space Station.

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The Other End of an Eclipse

May 22, 2012

As the annular eclipse on May 20 sent skywatchers around the globe gazing upwards to see the Sun get darkened by the Moon’s silhouette, NASA’s Terra satellite caught the other side of the event: the Moon’s shadow striking the Earth!

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Watch How Life Recovers from Devastation

May 17, 2012

If a portion of Earth underwent a major cataclysm, how long would it take for life to recover? The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens is giving scientists a an unprecedented opportunity to witness a recovery from devastation, as the eruption leveled the surrounding forest, blasted away hundreds of meters of the mountain’s summit, and [...]

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Stunning Timelapse of Planet Earth from Elektro-L

May 17, 2012

We’ve shared the images and a previous timelapse of Earth’s northern hemisphere, but now here’s a breath-taking timelapse of the entire blue (and green!) marble as seen from Russia’s Elektro-L weather-forecasting satellite, orbiting at a geostationary height of about 36,000 km (22,300 miles). This new video was created by James Drake using some of the [...]

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The End Of Envisat

May 13, 2012

Well, it’s official. After ten years of groundbreaking observation of our planet, ESA has declared the end of the Envisat mission after losing contact with the satellite on April 8, 2012. All attempts to re-establish communication with Envisat have so far been unsuccessful, and although recovery teams will continue to determine the cause of signal [...]

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From Russia With Love: A Singularly Stunning Image of Earth

May 11, 2012

Unlike most satellite images of Earth, this one was not assembled from multiple swath scans or digitally projected onto a globe model — it’s the full disk of our planet in captured as a single, enormous 121 megapixel image, acquired by Russia’s Elektro-L weather-forecasting satellite.

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Chaos and Education at 120,000 feet for Camilla the Rubber Chicken

May 1, 2012

In my travels, I’ve had the pleasure of regularly meeting up with Camilla the Rubber Chicken, the social media maven and mascot for NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. But lately I’ve been seeing here virtually everywhere — on television, splashed across all sorts of websites, and even in my local newspaper. What Camilla does is try [...]

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View from Orbit of a Huge White Sands Dust Storm

April 30, 2012

It’s clear from this image of why a region in New Mexico, USA is called ‘White Sands.’ The dust plumes in this photograph taken by an astronaut on board the International Space Station show a dust storm in the White Sands National Monument. But this is a huge dust storm. The white dust plumes stretch [...]

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Antarctica’s Ice Being Eaten Away From Below

April 25, 2012

Data collected from a NASA ice-watching satellite reveal that the vast ice shelves extending from the shores of  western Antarctica are being eaten away from underneath by ocean currents, which have been growing warmer even faster than the air above.

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Earthrise, Revisited

April 23, 2012

On December 24, 1968, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, William Anders and Jim Lovell were the first humans to witness an Earthrise as our home planet came up over the lunar horizon. The photos they captured were the first of their kind, instantly inspiring the imaginations of millions and highlighting the beauty and fragility of [...]

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Earth Day Timelapse

April 22, 2012

In honor of Earth Day, enjoy this beautiful timelapse compiled by science educator James Drake, who put together one of the first ISS flyover videos. This video was created from images produced by the Russian geostationary Electro-L Weather Satellite, and the images are some of the largest whole disk images of our planet, as the [...]

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Is This The Last Image From Envisat?

April 18, 2012

The European Space Agency’s venerable Envisat satellite may have sent back its final image, according to recent news from the Agency.

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Dubai’s Island Version of the World, As Seen from Space

April 11, 2012

Usually astronauts have to go much farther away than low Earth orbit to see the entire world in one view, but The World Islands resorts in Dubai provides a unique — if not manufactured — view of Earth’s continents from space. The World Islands are a collection of man-made islands shaped into the continents of [...]

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Earth’s Van Gogh Oceans

April 10, 2012

I was traveling the day this video was released, so missed posting it earlier. If you haven’t seen it yet, this animation of ocean surface currents is just mesmerizing. It shows ocean currents from June 2005 to December 2007, created with data from NASA satellites. In the video you can see how bigger currents like [...]

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Moscow At Night

April 10, 2012

Tracing a bright star upon the Earth, the lights of Russia’s capital city blaze beyond the solar panels of the International Space Station in this photo, captured by the Expedition 30 crew on the night of March 28, 2012.

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Go an Hour Without Power: Earth Hour 2012

March 30, 2012

You’ve seen all the videos and images we’ve been featuring lately that astronauts on the International Space Station have taken of Earth from orbit. The one ubiquitous feature is the amount of lights showing up from cities and towns around the world. But will you be turning off the lights this weekend for Earth Hour [...]

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What Does Space Look Like From Space?

March 18, 2012

Pretty impressive, I’d say! This video is a compilation of different time-lapses taken from the ISS over the past several months, edited by Alex Rivest and shared on Vimeo. It shows just how incredible the stars can appear from the night side of our planet… and 240 miles up!

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Satellite Photo of Vancouver and the Fraser River

March 13, 2012

I just had to post this satellite photograph of Vancouver with the sediment plume streaming out of the Fraser River. Not just because it’s beautiful, which it is, but also because so much of my life is tied together with that city and river. I was born in Vancouver, and spent half my time there [...]

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Antarctica Gives NASA Satellite The Ol’ Frazil Dazzle

February 24, 2012

Ghostly green tendrils drift out into Mackenzie Bay off the coast of eastern Antarctica in this image, acquired by NASA’s Earth-Observing (EO-1) satellite on Feb. 12, 2012. The tendrils are made of fine particles of ice called frazil, the result of upwelling cold water from deep beneath the Amery ice shelf.

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The Sky Is Falling, Scientists Report

February 23, 2012

Ok, maybe not the sky itself… but the clouds. According to recent research by climate scientists in New Zealand, global cloud heights have dropped.

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