Universe Today » Earth Observation

Get a $36 Million World Map for Free

Nancy Atkinson — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:12:20 +0000

When the first Landsat Earth-observing satellite launched in 1972, virtually every piece of technology that we think of as essential for viewing, sharing, or analyzing digital images — like the internet or DVD's — either hadn’t been invented or commercialized, like the microprocessors that run desktop computers. “It cost about $4,000 for a single Landsat image, and it takes about 9,000 of them to map the land area of the globe,” said Jeff Masek, from NASA. "To make a global image for just one time period would have cost $36 million." But now, in this age where everything is digital and it's easy to exchange information, anyone can download Landsat images for free. Recently, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey put the finishing touches on a new collection of mapped images covering the entire land surface of the Earth. However, if you want the entire full-size version, it would be as big as the Hoover Dam.
(...)
Read the rest of Get a $36 Million World Map for Free (131 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Crescent Earth as Seen by Comet Chasing Spacecraft

Nancy Atkinson — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:34:34 +0000

Title this one "Rich Blue Crescent" (as opposed to Pale Blue Dot.) This spectacular image of our home planet was captured by the OSIRIS instrument on ESA's Rosetta comet chaser today (November 12) at 12:28 GMT from about 633,000 km as the spacecraft approached Earth for the third and final swingby. Closest approach is due at 07:45 GMT, on November 13. You can follow Rosetta's progress at ESA's Rosetta site and the Rosetta Blog.

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Comets, Earth Observation, rosetta

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

NASA Satellites Monitor Tropical Storm Ida

Nicholos Wethington — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:18:11 +0000

NASA has been keeping an eye on tropical storm Ida off the Gulf Coast, which was downgraded from a hurricane earlier today. Its satellites have been helping meteorologists to measure the rainfall and windspeeds of the storm. Ida is predicted by the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida to make landfall near Pensacola, Florida on Tuesday morning (Nov. 10th), after which it is expected to drop in intensity and head East.(...)
Read the rest of NASA Satellites Monitor Tropical Storm Ida (311 words)

© nick for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: hurricanes, live satellite view

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Two ESA Satellites Launch Successfully

Nicholos Wethington — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:47:11 +0000

UPDATE: Information about both SMOS and the Proba-2 satelite are on ESA Television. The program loop is embedded at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!

Last night at 2:50 am Central European Time, two European Space Agency (ESA) satellites were successfully launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia. The Rockot launch vehicle was carrying both the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite, and the Proba-2 satellite. SMOS will monitor the moisture exchange of the Earth between the ocean, air and land as well as the salinity of the oceans and the moisture of the soil in an effort to better understand how these factors influence the climate of our planet. Proba-2 will test out various instruments, including a small wide angle optical camera, and instruments for monitoring the plasma environment in orbit and the Sun's corona.(...)
Read the rest of Two ESA Satellites Launch Successfully (442 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Arctic Sea Ice Extent is Third Lowest on Record

Nancy Atkinson — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:29:49 +0000

U.S. satellite measurements show Arctic sea ice extent in 2009 – the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by floating ice – was the third lowest since satellite measurements were first made in 1979. While the ice area at minimum was an increase from the past two years, it is still well below the average for the past 30 years. In the video above, Tom Wagner, NASA's cryosphere program manager, describes the shrinking of Arctic sea ice and the significance of the problem for the rest of the planet.
(...)
Read the rest of Arctic Sea Ice Extent is Third Lowest on Record (464 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Artic Sea Ice, Earth Observation

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

NASA 3-D Map Shows Flooding Rains of Typhoon Ketsana

Nancy Atkinson — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:20:25 +0000

Data from NASA's TRMM satellite was used to create an enhanced 3-D topographic rainfall map of Ketsana's flooding rains received in the Philippines. The dark yellow and orange areas indicate 375 mm (~15 inches) to over 475 mm (~19 inches), respectively. The red area over Manila indicates almost 2 feet of rain fell. Credit: SSAI/NASA, Hal Pierce

Data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite has been used to create a 3-D map of rainfall over the Phillipines from September 21-28, 2008. Armed with both a passive microwave sensor and a space-borne precipitation radar, TRMM has been measuring the amount of rainfall created by the tropical cyclone, Typhoon Ketsana (known in the Phillippines as "Ondoy"). A record 13.43 inches of rain fell in Manila in six hours between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. local time, which is equivalent to about a month's worth of rain for the area. In just 24 hours, Ketsana dropped 17.9 inches (455 mm) of rain in Manila in just 24 hours on Saturday, September 26.
(...)
Read the rest of NASA 3-D Map Shows Flooding Rains of Typhoon Ketsana (220 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

GOCE Satellite Begins Mapping Earth's Gravity in Lower Orbit Than Expected

Nancy Atkinson — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:54:36 +0000

Anaglyph images created from an ESA video animation of global gravity gradients. A more accurate global map will be generated by ESA's GOCE craft. Credit: ESA and Nathanial Burton Bradford.

Is Earth's gravity field as intriguing and misshapen as this image above? We're about to find out. The sexy looking Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer or GOCE satellite has completed its calibration and is now in its science orbit to map the tiny variations of Earth's gravity in unprecedented detail. And it turns out the sun's current period of low solar activity has a side benefit for the GOCE mission. Less solar activity means a calmer environment for GOCE in its low Earth orbit, so its current orbit of 255 km is a few kilometers lower than engineers had originally planned. This is good news – the gravity measurements being made at the moment will be even more accurate.
(...)
Read the rest of GOCE Satellite Begins Mapping Earth's Gravity in Lower Orbit Than Expected (405 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Earth Observation, GOCE, Satellites

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

From Space: Huge River of Dust Over Australia

Nancy Atkinson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:53:53 +0000

A river of dust over Eastern Australia on Sept. 24, 2009. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.

This isn't a special effect image from a new catastrophe movie; it is an actual satellite image of the dust storm sweeping over and around eastern Australia, heading across the Tasman Sea toward New Zealand. A dense wall of dust descended upon Sydney on Sept. 23, creating an apocalyptic scene (see these images from Boston Globe's Big Picture) and the river of dust continues unabated across water. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of the storm on September 24, at 11:10 a.m., New Zealand time (23:10 UTC on September 23). The distance between the far northern edge of the plume and the southern edge is about 3,450 kilometers (2,700 miles), roughly equivalent to the distance between New York City and Los Angeles. Below, see how the storm progressed across the Sea later in the day.
(...)
Read the rest of From Space: Huge River of Dust Over Australia (125 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Looking Down the Eye of Typhoon Choi-Wan

Nancy Atkinson — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 02:14:03 +0000

Choi Wan on Sept. 17, 2009. Credit: the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua Satellite.

Here's a look at Typhoon Choi-Wan. This is a big storm covering a huge area, and luckily it is now weakening as it continues to move northeast over the Pacific Ocean. This image was taken on Sept. 18, 2009, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua Satellite. Although the storm maintains its tightly wound symmetric shape, the striking clear eye is gone, unlike the image below, which was taken on Sept. 15. Now a category 3 storm, Choi-wan now has winds of about 200 kilometers per hour (125 miles per hour or 110 knots), whereas on the 15th, sustained winds were clocked at between 250 kilometers per hour (155 miles per hour or 135 knots) and 240 km/hr (150 mph or 130 knots), according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The storm continues to skirt along the coast of Japan, causing huge waves, but is not expected to make landfall.
(...)
Read the rest of Looking Down the Eye of Typhoon Choi-Wan (128 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Earth From Space: Plankton Bloom

Nancy Atkinson — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:39:27 +0000

This Envisat image captures a plankton bloom in the Barents Sea. Credit: ESA

What a gorgeous shot of our blue planet! This Envisat satellite image taken on August 19, 2009 captures a plankton bloom larger than the country of Greece stretching across the Barents Sea off the tip of northern Europe. The land visible across the bottom of the image belongs to Norway (left) and Russia’s Murmansk Oblast.
(...)
Read the rest of Earth From Space: Plankton Bloom (94 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Loch Ness Monster On Google Earth?

Nancy Atkinson — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:21:31 +0000

As only a British tabloid (and Fox News) could, reports came out this week of the Loch Ness Monster being spotted on Google Earth. "This amazing image on Google Earth could be the elusive proof that the Loch Ness Monster exists," The Sun reported. Well, for one thing, this doesn't look *anything* like Nessie. Doesn't he have a long black neck? And another thing about this: it looks surprisingly like a …. boat. Imagine that, a boat on a lake captured by Google Earth! Astounding!
Look closely and you'll see the squared off back end of the boat (the stern), the rounded ~~stern~~ bow in front, and the tentacle-looking things are just the boat's wake. This looks very much like another image of a boat on Loch Ness on Bing (below). Click on the picture to get to the image on Bing and zoom out for the full effect.
(...)
Read the rest of Loch Ness Monster On Google Earth? (53 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 26 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cryptozoology, Debunking, google earth, lock ness monster

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

How Close Did Hurricane Bill Come to the US East Coast?

Nancy Atkinson — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:50:32 +0000

Hurricane Bill kept its distance from the US mainland, seemingly skirting along the eastern seaboard and fitting perfectly within the coastline curves on this NASA satellite image. Thankfully, the storm largely missed the eastern states, with the center of the storm well off the coast. It appears Bill will keep its distance from the Canadian coast as well. It has now been downgraded to a tropical storm, and is expected to weaken over the next 24 hours. As of late Sunday night, the storm had maximum sustained winds near 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour with higher gusts. This image was taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, taken at 2:00 p.m. EDT (14:00 UTC) on August 23, 2009.
Source: NASA Earth Observation website

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

NASA Video of Hurricane Bill

Nancy Atkinson — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:52:02 +0000

This just in — the NASA/NOAA satellite GOES-14 has just released video taken on August 20 (that's today!) of Hurricane Bill, the first hurricane of the season. This spectacular video is a collection of a few quick movies put together by the GOES-14 team and includes an impressive zoom-out, showing how big the hurricane is, relative to the hemisphere. Yes, Bill is large, with sustained winds of 217 kph (135 mph), making it a powerful Category 4 storm. The winds extend outward up to 80 miles from the center. Bill stretches more than 1,200 kilometers (746 miles) across, and the storm’s partially cloud-filled eye is nearly 50 kilometers (31 miles) wide.

See an image below of Bill from NASA's MODIS satellite, taken on August 19, 2009.
(...)
Read the rest of NASA Video of Hurricane Bill (91 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Watch Satellite Data In Action

Nancy Atkinson — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:37:45 +0000

Ever wonder about all the different data that satellites are collecting as they orbit Earth? This video is a sample of Bella Gaia, a 45-minute movie is meant to be watched in an immersive theater, such as a fulldome planetarium. This clip is an audio visual "Living Atlas" journey of our world, showing the beauty and fragility of planet Earth as seen through satellite data. Created by director and violist Kenji Williams, the The movie is based on the stunning orbital imagery created by SCISS' Uniview software and NASA, and shows data ranging from oil consumption and air traffic, over Earth's magnetosphere and polar sub storms to time-lapse images of the Arctic ice melt. It's a new way to look at Earth, and hopefully will instill some of the awe that the first "Earthrise" images brought. Look for the full version coming soon to an immersive theater near you. More info on Bella Gaia.

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

LCROSS Sees Life on Earth

Nancy Atkinson — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:44:46 +0000

The LCROSS spacecraft took a look back at Earth, and guess what it saw? Evidence of intelligence? Not so much. But it did see evidence of life. On Aug. 1, 2009, the LCROSS spacecraft took a gander at Earth to help calibrate and test its science payload. During the Earth observations, the spacecraft's spectrometers were able to detect the signatures of the Earth's water, ozone, methane, oxygen, carbon dioxide and possibly vegetation.
(...)
Read the rest of LCROSS Sees Life on Earth (281 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Declassified Ice Loss Images

Nancy Atkinson — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:23:00 +0000

Ice loss in Barrow Alaska from 2006 to 2007. Credit: US Geological Survey

Last week the US government released more than a thousand intelligence images of Arctic ice that have been used to help scientists study the impact of climate change. The images were taken by spy satellites, as part of the Medea program, which lets scientists request spy pictures from environmentally sensitive locations around the world. After they were taken, the Bush Administration released the photographs to the scientists but deemed them "unsuitable for public release." Earlier this month, the National Academy of Sciences recommended the Obama Administration declassify the photos, which they did within a few hours of the recommendation.

Various blogs are saying these dramatic images are faked, but since they are available through the US Geological Survey , that hardly seems likely. Over 700 images show changes of sea ice in various recent years from six sites around the Arctic Ocean, with an additional 500 images of 22 sites in the United States.
(...)
Read the rest of Declassified Ice Loss Images (87 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

The Grand Canyon From Space

Nancy Atkinson — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:07:28 +0000

The Grand Canyon is an awesome sight on Earth — one of the seven natural wonders of the world – and it looks breathtaking from space, too. This image was taken by the Envisat satellite, showing canyon walls, rock structures, old lava flows, buttes, ravines, stair-step topography in hues of pink, violet and gray.
(...)
Read the rest of The Grand Canyon From Space (183 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

NASA, Japan Release Most Complete Topographic Map of Earth

Nancy Atkinson — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:50:02 +0000

In this perspective view, the new topographic maps show the LA Basin. Credit: NASA, MET

Topographic maps are some of the most used and valuable maps for both government and the general public. Now, NASA and Japan have released a new digital topographic map of Earth Monday that covers more of our planet than ever before and was created from nearly 1.3 million individual stereo-pair images collected by the Japanese Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or ASTER, on board NASA's Terra spacecraft. It is available online to users everywhere at no cost.
(...)
Read the rest of NASA, Japan Release Most Complete Topographic Map of Earth (323 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Volcanic Shockwave Captured by ISS Imagery

Nancy Atkinson — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:16:13 +0000

These images of Sarychev Volcano were popping up everywhere in the internet yesterday, but unfortunately I was out of intertube contact most of the day. But these images are too awesome not to share! Astronauts on board the International Space Station took these striking views of Sarychev Volcano (Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan) on June 12, 2009. Notice the shock wave around the edge of the volcano's plume and the "hole" the clouds that the eruption caused. Sarychev Peak is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain, and it is located on the northwestern end of Matua Island. Here are few more images taken in sequence as the ISS flew 354 km (220 miles) overhead:
(...)
Read the rest of Volcanic Shockwave Captured by ISS Imagery (207 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Scientists Follow the Poop to Find Penguins From Space

Nancy Atkinson — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:41:47 +0000

An emporer penguin colony at Halley Bay. Credit: British Antarctic Survey

This just in from the 'things kids can giggle about' department: British scientists are using satellite images to find colonies of emperor penguins in Antarctica. While their natural camouflage makes them blend into the shadows of the sea ice where they breed, their droppings, or guano, show up perfectly from space. "We can't see actual penguins on the satellite maps because the resolution isn't good enough," said mapping expert Peter Fretwell. "But during the breeding season the birds stay at a colony for eight months. The ice gets pretty dirty and it's the guano stains that we can see."
(...)
Read the rest of Scientists Follow the Poop to Find Penguins From Space (209 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Researchers Seeing Red on Ocean Health

Nancy Atkinson — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:21:53 +0000

The MODIS instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite compiled this global view of the amount of fluorescent light emitted by phytoplankton in the ocean. Credit: Oregon State University

With the help of an orbiting satellite, researchers have conducted the first global analysis of the health and productivity of ocean plants. Using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, scientists have for the first time measured remotely the amount of fluorescent red light emitted by ocean phytoplankton and assess how efficiently the microscopic plants are turning sunlight and nutrients into food through photosynthesis. Now that they have their first data, this method should allow scientists to effectively keep an eye on the health of our oceans. So what did they find out so far?
(...)
Read the rest of Researchers Seeing Red on Ocean Health (595 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

First Observations of Biological Particles in High-Altitude Clouds

Nancy Atkinson — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:33:41 +0000

Wave clouds. Credit: Andrew Heymsfield

A team of atmospheric chemists has moved closer to what's considered the "holy grail" of climate change science: the first-ever direct detections of biological particles within ice clouds. Ice in Clouds Experiment – Layer Clouds (ICE-L) team mounted a mass spectrometer onto a C-130 aircraft and made a series of high-speed flights through a type of cloud known as a wave cloud. Analysis of the ice crystals revealed that the particles that started their growth were made up almost entirely of either dust or biological material such as bacteria, fungal spores and plant material. While it has long been known that microorganisms become airborne and travel great distances, this study is the first to yield direct data on how they work to influence cloud formation.
(...)
Read the rest of First Observations of Biological Particles in High-Altitude Clouds (371 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Icebergs Breaking Away from Wilkins Ice Shelf

Nancy Atkinson — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:45:00 +0000

Icebergs coming off of a collapsed ice bridge on the Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Credits: ESA (Annotations by A. Humbert, Münster University)

The latest satellite images show that icebergs have begun to break away from the northern front of the Wilkins Ice Shelf – indicating that the huge shelf has become unstable. This follows the collapse three weeks ago of the ice bridge that had previously linked the Antarctic mainland to Charcot Island. On April 24, satellite data from ESA's Envisat satellite and the German Aerospace Centre's TerraSAR-X satellite showed that the first icebergs had started to break away from the fragile ice shelf. A very rough estimate suggests that, so far, about 700 sq km of ice has been lost from the Wilkins Ice Shelf.
(...)
Read the rest of Icebergs Breaking Away from Wilkins Ice Shelf (401 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Satellites Show How Earth Moved During Earthquake

Nancy Atkinson — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:58:39 +0000

An Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) interferogram. Credit: IREA-CNR

If you have ever experienced an earthquake, you know that the Earth literally moves beneath your feet. And now there's satellite data to show just how much. Scientists studying satellite radar data from ESA’s Envisat and the Italian Space Agency’s COSMO-SkyMed, have been able analyze the movement of Earth during and after a recent earthquake in central Italy. A 6.3 earthquake shook the town of L’Aquila in on April 6, 2009, and satellite data is being used to map surface deformation in the Earth that took place after the quake and the numerous aftershocks that followed.
(...)
Read the rest of Satellites Show How Earth Moved During Earthquake (342 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Fires Rage Through Central America

Ian O'Neill — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:29:12 +0000

Hundreds of fires rage in southern Mexico, on the Yucatan Peninsula, and in northern Guatemala and northern Honduras. Image by NASAs Aqua satellite (see the super-high resolution version)

Having just read about the deadly wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma, I was interested to see whether one of NASA's Earth-monitoring satellites have been tracking the situation from orbit. Whether it is too early for observations to come in, or whether one of the satellites have yet to make a pass directly above the states it is unclear, but along the way I noticed a rather striking image of the Yucatan Peninsula, Central America. In the picture retrieved by NASA's Aqua satellite are countless wildfires dotted over Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. It looks like a combination of arson, agricultural activity and accidental blazes are gripping the region, fuelled by dry vegetation…
(...)
Read the rest of Fires Rage Through Central America (477 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh