[Waspie_Dwarf]

Viedma Glacier, Argentina

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The icefields of Patagonia, located at the southern end of South America, are the largest masses of ice in the temperate Southern Hemisphere (approximately 55,000 square kilometers). The icefields contain numerous valley glaciers that terminate in meltwater-fed lakes. These are known as “calving” glaciers, as they lose mass when large ice chunks collapse from the terminus—or end—of the glacier. These newly separated chunks of ice are then free to float away, much like ice cubes in a punch bowl.

The terminus of the Viedma Glacier, approximately 2 kilometers across where it enters Lake Viedma, is shown in this astronaut photograph. Moraines are accumulations of soil and rock debris that form along the sides and front of a glacier as it flows across the landscape (much like a bulldozer). Independent valley glaciers can merge together as they flow down slope, and the moraines become entrained in the center of the new ice mass. These medial moraines are visible as dark parallel lines within the white central mass of the glacier (image center and left). Crevasses—oriented at right angles to the medial moraines—are also visible in the grey-brown ice along the sides of the glacier. The canyon-like crevasses form as a result of stress between the slower moving ice along the valley sides (where there is greater friction) and the more rapidly moving ice in the center of the glacier. Calving of ice from the southwestern fork of the glacier terminus is visible at image lower left.

As they respond to regional climate change, the Patagonian glaciers are closely monitored using remotely sensed data. Scientists compare series of images collected over time to monitor the change in ice extent and position. Scientists have also estimated changes in volume using topographic data from NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. The Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) Website is an excellent resource for glacier-monitoring information.

Astronaut photograph ISS012-E-6947 was acquired April 12, 2006, with a Kodak 760C digital camera using a 800 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, Johnson Space Center. The images in this article have been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program 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.

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Smoke over the Norwegian Sea

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Milky white over the deep blue Norwegian Sea, a thick cloud of smoke drifts north along the coast of Norway in this photo-like image, taken on May 7, 2006, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. The smoke is coming from hundreds of fires burning in western Russia, most of which are probably man-made agricultural fires. By the time this image was taken, smoke had lingered over the Norwegian Sea for more than a week as the fires continued to burn. In this image, hazy skies extend from Denmark, lower right, west to Iceland, upper left. The densest of the smoke hangs over the Shetland Islands (right) and the Faroe Islands (left). The northern shores of Great Britain are in the lower left corner of the image.

The large image provided above has a resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides the image in additional resolutions.

NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

[Bone_Collector]

Those pics are breathtaking Waspie_Dwarf! Great work!

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Mount Ubinas, Peru

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A faint white plume rose from the summit of the Ubinas volcano on May 8, 2006, when the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image. Peru’s most active volcano, Ubinas forced evacuations on April 21, after a series of explosions sent ash, gas, and lava fragments more than three kilometers into the air, said the U.S. Geological Survey in its weekly Volcanic Activity Report. The fumes caused respiratory problems, and livestock fell ill or died after eating ash-coated grass.

Evidence that people live on the volcano’s fertile slopes can be seen in this image. Crop-planted fields are bright red flecks against the dull natural vegetation on the south and east slopes of the volcano. In the lower right corner of the image, the vegetation is a duller tone of red than elsewhere in the image. The difference in color is at least partially because there is less agriculture in the region, but may also have resulted from ash dusting the ground.

The volcano itself has steep, lava-strewn slopes topped by a round caldera. The cliff-like caldera walls drop 150 meters to the caldera floor, where a deep funnel-shaped vent opens. Ubinas sits in Southern Peru, due west of Lake Titicaca.

Further Reading:
Global Volcanism Program from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using ASTER data made available by NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team


Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Atacama Desert, Chile

Vivid colors belie the arid landscape of northern Chile where the Atacama Desert, one of the world’s driest, meets the foothills of the Andes. Here salt pans and gorges choked with mineral-streaked sediments give way to white-capped volcanoes.

This scene was acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite on Oct. 28, 2001.

Image Credit: NASA/USGS

+ Full Resolution


Source: NASA - Multimedia - Image of the Day Gallery

[Waspie_Dwarf]

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Nice pictures.

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Nice looking!

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Bravo.........Outstanding Pictures......!!!!!!

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Words are useless for such an amazingly beautiful image. Just wow!

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Those pics are breathtaking!

I said it was a popular thread on SFN, I thought it would be here too. I'm glad people are enjoying them. As long as ESA and NASA keep publishing them, I'll keep posting them.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Cape Horn

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The southern tip of South America tapers off into a collection of rugged islands known as Tierra del Fuego. The southernmost headland in this archipelago (group of islands) is Cape Horn. Before the completion of the Panama Canal, ships had to “round the Horn” in order to move goods or people from the Atlantic side of North and South America to the Pacific. The area is notorious for its sailing hazards: strong winds, large waves, and icebergs drifting up from Antarctica.

This image from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite shows some of the islands at the tip of South America, including the Wollaston Islands (top right) and the Hermite Islands (center). Cape Horn sits on one of the Hermite Islands, Isla Hornos. Precipitation is abundant in the area, and the islands are lush with green vegetation except at high elevations, where bare rock appears to be exposed. Small lakes (easy to confuse with shadows) are scattered across most of the islands. A veil of thin clouds hangs over much of the scene, and bright white snow stands out on the east-facing summits of the mountains on the Wollaston Islands. Along some of the coastlines, white lines of breaking surf swirl in the water. The image was collected on September 20, 2005.

NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Bezymianny Volcano

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The Bezymianny Volcano experienced an explosive eruption on May 9, 2006. The volcano emitted an ash column as high as 15 kilometers (9.3 miles). According to news reports, the Aleutian Islands in western Alaska saw an ashfall advisory as a result of this eruption. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard the Aqua satellite took this picture on May 10, 2006. In this image, the volcano appears near the center of the image, and its ash plume moves away from the summit in a slightly counter-clockwise direction, dissipating at it moves eastward.

Situated on the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia, the Bezymianny Volcano was once considered extinct, until an eruption in the mid-1950s proved it was still active. That eruption produced a horseshoe-shaped crater following the collapse of the summit. The crater was later filled by growth of the lava dome and intermittent explosive eruptions.

NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Earth from Space: Volcanic view


Click on the image for high resolution version

12 May 2006
ESA’s micro-satellite, Proba, captured the Santa Ana Volcano in El Salvador. The Santa Ana Volcano, also known as the Ilamatepec Volcano, is El Salvador’s highest point with a height of 2 381 metres. It is about 65 kilometres west of San Salvador – El Salvador’s capital.

The volcano erupted on 1 October 2005, killing two people and forcing thousands to flee the area. Although volcanic activity in the area is not unusual, Santa Ana had been dormant since 1904.
About ten percent of the world's population live near an active volcano. During the 1990 United Nations-sponsored International Decade for Disaster Reduction, 18 volcanoes were selected for special study, but there are at least 600 more which are or may become active.

In this context, monitoring and response initiatives are of paramount importance. Experts in volcanology have called for more volcanoes to be monitored - at present only one in five is. Through the use of satellite imagery, it is possible to detect both the small surface movements which may herald a volcanic eruption and to monitor the aftermath.

Proba's High Resolution Camera (HRC) acquired this image on 21 December 2005. The HRC is a black and white camera that incorporates a miniature Cassegrain telescope, giving it far superior spatial resolution than the human eye.

Proba (Project for On Board Autonomy) is an ESA micro-satellite launched in October 2001 as a technology demonstrator, but it is now operated as an ESA Earth Observation Third Party Mission.

Orbiting 600 kilometres above the Earth’s surface, Proba boasts an 'intelligent' payload and has the ability to observe the same spot on Earth from a number of different angles and different combinations of optical and infra-red spectral bands.

Source: ESA - Observing the Earth - Image of the Week

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Pinnacles National Monument

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Steep rocky crags and towering cliffs rise out of the Gabilan Mountains east of Salinas Valley in Central California. Called Pinnacles National Monument, the landscape was formed as wind, water, and earthquakes carved away a 23 million-year-old volcano. The region was set aside as a National Monument on January 16, 1908, and now encompasses 24,514 acres.

The park’s rugged landscape gives this Landsat-7 image a wrinkled appearance. The plants that grow in this arid region are brown from the summer heat. Most of these plants are chaparral, plants adapted to arid climates, but pine and oak forests and grasslands also grow in the monument. The region has hot, dry summers with cool winters in which moderate rain falls. During the winter and spring rains, the mountains are green, dotted with wildflowers in the spring. When the rains stop, the region quickly turns brown. This image was taken on June 19, 2001, well after the end of the rainy season.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the University of Maryland’s Global Land Cover Facility.

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Valley of the Gods, Utah

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Warriors frozen is time is how Navajo legends are said to describe the eerie red rock spires in Valley of the Gods in Utah. In fact, the rocks forming this stark landscape are much older than the Navajo. This rocky valley lies at the base of Cedar Mesa, and the rocks were deposited by the invasion of a shallow sea about 250 million years ago. Over time, the water retreated, and the ancient sandstones and shales gradually turned red or purple as the iron in the rocks mixed with oxygen to form rust.

Space Imaging’s IKONOS satellite acquired this image of Valley of the Gods on May 9, 2004. In this image, the desert landscape appears in varying shades of cream, beige, rust, brown, and gray. Stair-stepped rock formations and towering pinnacles characterize this valley. Valley of the Gods is a pint-sized version of its larger and better-known cousin, Monument Valley, which is about 65 kilometers (40 miles) away.

Image copyright GeoEye.

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Dust and Smog in Northeast China

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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 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.

Astronaut photograph ISS013-E-6947 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 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.

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

This post has been edited by Waspie_Dwarf: 19 June 2006 - 09:11 PM

[Waspie_Dwarf]

South Georgia Island

There is no permanent human base on South Georgia Island, a British territory in the South Atlantic Ocean that lies about 800 miles east of the Falkland Islands. The crew of the International Space Station captured the rugged and isolated landscape of the northern shore of the island in this August 2005 photo.

South Georgia Island is notable on several fronts. The first recorded explorer to land on the island was Captain James Cook aboard the HMS Resolution in 1775. He mapped part of the coastline, but was discouraged by the thick ice cover, lack of vegetation, and steep mountains. Mt. Paget, the highest peak, rises to 9,625 feet above sea level, and the island supports 161 glaciers. Cook named the southernmost point of the island “Cape Disappointment” when he realized he had not reached Antarctica.

The high mountains protect the north and eastern coast of the island from the prevailing gales coming from Antarctica and the west. The steep topography also makes deep bays along the coast, which provide habitat for wildlife and anchorages for whaling ships. The island supports major rookeries of penguins and albatrosses, and large seal populations. This view centers on Mt. Paget and Cumberland Bay. The former whaling station Grytviken is located within the bay. Today, the encampment supports the scientific base for the British Antarctic Survey and Bird Island Research Station.

Image Credit: NASA

+ Full Resolution


Source: NASA - Multimedia - Image of the Day Gallery

[frogfish]

Breathtaking...

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Java and the Merapi Volcano

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Part of the “Ring of Fire,” a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that partially rings the Pacific Ocean Basin, the island of Java in Indonesia is littered with active volcanoes. In May 2006, vulcanologists warily watched one of the island’s most active volcanoes: Merapi. Merapi had rumbled for weeks without a serious eruption, but in early May, its activity escalated. According to news reports, a plume of rock, ash, and hot gas flowed several kilometers down the volcano’s western slope. At its summit, the volcano built a lava dome, a kind of “cap” on pressurized volcanic material underneath.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard the Terra satellite took this picture on May 14, 2006. In this image, clouds have collected at Merapi’s summit, which is a fairly common occurrence. To the east of Merapi is Semeru Volcano, which also showed signs of unrest in May 2006, emitting plumes of volcanic ash.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, while ordering residents of nearby villages to evacuate the area around Merapi Volcano, authorities warned of a more serious threat than lava flow. This volcano could also produce a gas cloud hot enough to instantly incinerate anyone or anything in its path, they said. The authorities warned that scorching gas, combined with rock fragments and ash, could stream down the side of the volcano at hundreds of kilometers an hour. Nevertheless, some locals refused to leave, some of them citing the need to care for their livestock. Authorities expected neither the nearby town of Magelang nor the provincial capital of Yogyakarta to face imminent danger, although, according to the CNN Website, the United Nations predicted that the volcano might displace as many as 80,000 people.

Both Merapi and Semeru rank among Indonesia’s most active volcanoes. Lying in a densely populated area, Merapi Volcano has periodically decimated cultivated crops on its western and southern flanks, and the upper portion of the volcano is bereft of vegetation due to frequent eruptions. To the east of Merapi, Semeru Volcano is Java’s highest volcano, rising 3,676 meters (over 12,000 feet) above the nearby coastal plains. Both volcanoes have claimed human lives with historical eruptions.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC.

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day