The Earth From Space

[Waspie_Dwarf]

The Earth From Space

On the Spaceflight News site one of the longest and most popular threads was for images of Earth taken from space. It had been well established long before I joined the site.

These images showed the beauty, variety and sometime fragility of the amazing planet we live on.

As it was so popular it seems worth restarting it here.

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Dust Storm Spreads Out of Gobi Desert

Click here to view full image (3637 kb)

In early and mid-April 2006, waves of dust washed out of the Gobi Desert and spread across eastern China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan. According to news reports, a dust storm that hit South Korea over the weekend of April 8 was the worst the country had seen in four years.

This pair of images shows a massive wave of dust that blew out of deserts in north-central China on April 10, 2006. The top image, captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra on April 7, 2006, shows the landscape of northeastern China, including two large, sandy deserts that are part of the Gobi Desert region. Just a few days later, an image from the MODIS sensor on the Aqua satellite shows that the area was completely hidden by a wave of bright dust that reached beyond the Yellow River.

Gobi dust is whipped eastward with prevailing winds by spring storms and can spread all the way to the United States. The storms can be hazardous to public health both in terms of air quality and visibility. In addition, the dust storms can devastate croplands and contaminate sensitive electronic equipment. Dust storms in China are on the rise, probably as a result of land degradation, such as deforestation and overgrazing, and drought. The Chinese government has undertaken a large reforestation effort to combat the spread of deserts and to mitigate the effects of dust storms, particularly around urban areas such as Beijing.

The large image above shows the dust storm on April 10 at MODIS’ maximum spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images of this area of China in a variety of formats and resolutions.

NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

[Bella-Angelique]

It would be nice to see some satellite pics of some of those Bigfoot jungles, especially the one on the main page now.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Earth from Space: The Gulf of Aden – the gateway to Persian oil

Click on the image for high resolution version

13 April 2006
The Gulf of Aden, captured in this Envisat image, is located in the Indian Ocean and is situated between Yemen (seen above the gulf) on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia (seen below the gulf) in Africa.

The gulf – roughly 900 kilometres long and 500 kilometres wide – is an important waterway for transporting Persian Gulf oil. Together with the Red Sea, which it connects with in the northwest through the Bab el Mandeb sound, it forms an essential oil transport route between Europe and the Far East.
The Gulf of Aden, which runs in a west-east direction, and the Red Sea have been used for thousands of years for fishing, trading and transportation. Located on the great Mediterranean Sea-Indian Ocean trade route, the gulf was a strategic waterway sought by Portugal, Turkey and Great Britain in the 16th century. Britain prevailed and dominated the gulf by the 19th century.

When the British military withdrew from the area in the late 1960s, the use of the gulf was diminished due to the closing of the Suez Canal. Egypt renovated and reopened the canal in 1975, boosting activity in the gulf once again.

In recent years, the gulf has received a lot of attention due to piracy, terrorism and refugee smuggling. In October 2000, suicide bombers attacked and nearly sank the U.S. destroyer Cole in the gulf, and in 2002 the French oil tanker MIV Limburg, carrying Persian Gulf crude oil, was attacked.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 142 people died and another 40 went missing between 12-23 January this year while trying to cross the Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa to the coast of Yemen in search of gaining refugee status.

Last September the UNHCR called for international action to stem the flow of people falling prey to smugglers after at least another 150 passengers died within a three-week period. The refugee agency and local authorities have been raising awareness via radio broadcasts and video productions about the dangers of using smugglers to cross the Gulf of Aden.

The island seen in the image off the tip of Somalia is Socotra, which is part of an archipelago (not visible). According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the group of islands are of global significance for biodiversity and species endemism, with over one third of its flora and fauna being found nowhere else.

Socotra has been isolated biologically and has remained virtually untouched by modern development. The water around the archipelago remains pristine, having been unaltered by coastal pollution or over-exploitation.

Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) acquired this image on 1 March 2005.

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

[Waspie_Dwarf]

"Fossil Water" in Libya

Click here to view full image (3730 kb)

In the 1950s, oil exploration in Libya turned up another valuable resource: water. Huge aquifers, underground deposits of sand and rock that also contain water, lurked underneath the scorching sands. Libyans weighed the costs of bringing water up from the aquifers against transporting water from Europe and desalination of salt water, and chose the aquifers as the most cost-effective option.

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA ’s Terra satellite captured this image on April 10, 2006. It shows part of Libya’s massive water project, known as the Grand Omar Mukhtar, near the city of Suluq. Libyans plan to make the Grand Omar Mukhtar the country’s largest man-made reservoir. Water residing in reservoirs appears twice in this image, in the upper right and at the bottom. In both cases, the water appears dark blue. In this false-color image, vegetation appears red, and the brighter the red, the more robust the vegetation. In this arid place, the vegetation results from irrigated agriculture, so the areas of red appear in the crisp geometric shapes of carefully planned fields. The circular spots of red almost certainly result from center-pivot irrigation. Cityscape structures such as pavement and buildings appear in gray. Bare ground appears tan or beige.

Water hiding in aquifers can actually be cleaner than water resting in above-ground reservoirs because the process of percolating through soil and rock can remove impurities. Water can rest underground in aquifers for thousands or even millions of years. When geologic changes seal the aquifer off from further “recharging,” the water inside is sometimes called “fossil water.” Libya’s aquifer is one of these “fossils.” Radiocarbon dating has revealed that some Libya’s aquifer water has been there for 40,000 years, since before the end of the last ice age. Many populated areas, including cities in the United States, rely on aquifer water. Although some aquifers are still being recharged by natural processes, humans can easily drain aquifers faster than nature can renew them.

Further Reading:
Libya’s thirst for “fossil water” from the BBC

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

[frogfish]

My favorite picture from space of Earth is the composite of Earth at night.

[Psychokinesis]

Nice pictures.

[Master Sage]

Nice looking!

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Oresund Bridge

In 1991, the governments of Denmark and Sweden agreed to build a bridge to connect the two countries across the Oresund Strait. The 16-kilometer-long Oresund Link between Malmo, Sweden (right), and Copenhagen, Denmark (left), was completed and opened to traffic in 2000. Denmark and Sweden were linked once more —7,000 years after rising sea levels accompanying the end of the Ice Age severed the dry-land connection between the two.

The Oresund Link has three main segments. On the Denmark side, the link begins with a 3,510-meter (2.2-mile) underwater tunnel. The tunnel emerges from the water onto a roadway on a 4,055-meter (2.5-mile) artificial island, Peberholm, which appears as a bright white shape to the south of the natural island in the scene. The cable-supported Oresund Bridge stretches 7,845 meters (4.9 miles) across the eastern part of the Strait toward Sweden, making a thin white line across the image.

Deep water appears dark blue, shallow water appears bright blue, vegetation appears green, and developed or paved areas appear white. Several white specks in the waters of the Strait are boats or ships.

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

+ Full Resolution


Source: NASA - Multimedia - Image of the Day Gallery

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Dust Storm Spreads Out of Gobi Desert

Large Images:
April 13, 2006 (2.66 MB)
March 19, 2006 (2.71 MB)

Many California counties were in a state of emergency on April 13, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired the top image. A month of above-average rainfall taxed river systems, levees, and reservoirs in Central California, particularly along the San Joaquin River. Inky black in this false-color image, the river has spread beyond its banks to cover bright green squares of farmland. Earlier in April, two burst levees along the Merced River flooded homes and farms, forcing evacuations, according to news reports. Those floods had subsided by the time this image was acquired, and the Merced River looks much as it did in mid-March, before the floods began.

The flooding was not limited to the area shown in this image. The Dartmouth Flood Observatory also reported flooding along the Consumes, Sacramento, and Navarro Rivers to the north. These floods are visible in the large images provided above and in daily images provided by the MODIS Rapid Response Team.

NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Salt Dome in the Zagros Mountains, Iran

Click here to view full image (277 kB)

The Zagros Mountains in southwestern Iran present an impressive landscape of long linear ridges and valleys. Formed by collision of the Eurasian and Arabian tectonic plates, the ridges and valleys extend hundreds of kilometers. Stresses induced in the Earth’s crust by the collision caused extensive folding of the preexisting layered sedimentary rocks. Subsequent erosion removed softer rocks, such as mudstone (rock formed by consolidated mud) and siltstone (a slightly coarser-grained mudstone) while leaving harder rocks, such as limestone (calcium-rich rock consisting of the remains of marine organisms) and dolomite (rocks similar to limestone containing calcium and magnesium). This differential erosion formed the linear ridges of the Zagros Mountains. The depositional environment and tectonic history of the rocks were conducive to the formation and trapping of petroleum, and the Zagros region is an important part of Persian Gulf production.

This astronaut photograph of the southwestern edge of the Zagros mountain belt includes another common feature of the region—a salt dome (Kuh-e-Namak or “mountain of salt” in Farsi). Thick layers of minerals such as halite (common table salt) typically accumulate in closed basins during alternating wet and dry climatic conditions. Over geologic time, these layers of salt are buried under younger layers of rock. The pressure from overlying rock layers causes the lower-density salt to flow upwards, bending the overlying rock layers and creating a dome-like structure. Erosion has spectacularly revealed the uplifted tan and brown rock layers surrounding the white Kuh-e-Namak to the northwest and southeast (center of image). Radial drainage patterns indicate another salt dome is located to the southwest (image left center). If the rising plug of salt (called a salt diapir) breaches the surface, it can become a flowing salt glacier. Salt domes are an important target for oil exploration, as the impermeable salt frequently traps petroleum beneath other rock layers.

Astronaut photograph ISS012-E-18774 was acquired February 28, 2006, with a Kodak 760C digital camera using a 180 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, and 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]

Dust over Japan

Click here to view full image (3192 kB)

Something more than clouds hovered over Japan on April 18, 2006. Dust filled the skies as well. The dust traveled to the island nation from the Gobi Desert. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard the Terra satellite took this picture on April 18. In this image, the eastward-moving, tan dust mingles with white clouds. An especially thick plume of dust heads toward the Korean Peninsula and the island of Japan from the west coast of China.

The same day this picture was taken, Japan’s Meteorological Agency announced that the dust storm reached Tokyo, the first such weather event in that city in six years. The agency predicted reduced visibility but no health hazards. Research results published in 2005, however, suggested that dust storms may carry bacteria from China to Japan.

If the Japanese hoped others could understand the frustrations this dust storm caused, they needed to look no further than Beijing. Spring is the season for Gobi Dust storms, but this storm appeared to be unusually hard on China’s citizens. According to news reports, it was the worst in five years, dumping some 300,000 tons of dust on Beijing. It was also the second dust storm to hit that city in a week. According to some reports, Chinese officials planned to seed clouds in hopes of bringing some relief.

In 2005, a Nature paper examined China’s changing environment. Partially worsened by human actions such as overgrazing and grassland degradation, dust storms began to increase in the 20th century. Between AD 300 and 1949, northwestern China saw a dust storm on average every 31 years. After 1990, the average jumped to one such storm per year. According to news reports, at the time this storm hit, the average rate of dust storms for the Beijing region (in northeastern China) was five or six a year. This storm was the eighth to hit the region in 2006.

Further Reading:
Liu, J., and Diamond, J. (2005) China’s environment in a globalizing world. Nature. 435:1179-1186.

Sandstorms frustrate Beijing’s efforts for azure sky from ChinaView.cn. April 18, 2006.

Beijing is covered by desert sandstorm from Telegraph.co.uk. April 18, 2006.

Dust storms may carry bacteria to Japan from China

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

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Drought in Eastern Africa

Large images:

March 2006 (4.0 MB)

February 2006 (3.2 MB)

In eastern Africa, the rains generally come in two seasons. A short rainy season generally occurs sometime between October and December, and a long rainy season comes between March and May. But in 2005, the long rainy season provided little rainfall, and the short rainy season failed altogether. Much of the region suffered severe drought. Crops and natural vegetation, including grazing land for livestock, withered. Livestock deaths and human food shortages were widespread.

By March 2006, the long rainy season resumed in some locations, but not all. This pair of images reveals the impact of the 2005 drought on vegetation in East Africa using vegetation data from the SPOT satellite. Areas where vegetation was much less abundant or healthy than normal are shown in brown, and places where vegetation was robust are shown in green. In February 2006 (bottom image), after the failure of the 2005 short rainy season, vegetation amount and health across a wide swath of the region was far below normal. By March (top), the long rainy season had begun in some places, and the image shows that vegetation had begun to rebound in parts of northern Tanzania, southwestern Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and southwestern Ethiopia. But vegetation across large parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan was still suffering from the effect of drought.

Rains continued to arrive in different locations in early and mid-April 2006, but according to relief organizations, they will not bring an immediate end to the human crisis. The rains can bring temporary, but often damaging, flooding that can elevate disease risk. In addition, the large-scale deaths of livestock among herders and nomads who depend on the animals for food and income will be a hardship for much longer than it takes the vegetation to recover.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of Jennifer Small, NASA GIMMS Group at Goddard Space Flight Center.

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Earth from Space: Beijing blanketed in dust

Click on the image for high resolution version

21 April 2006
The worst sandstorm in five years swept through Beijing, China, overnight Sunday covering the city in some 300 000 tonnes of sand and yellow dust. Envisat captured the sand whipping over the capital on 17 April 2006. (Landmass has been outlined in black around the Yellow Sea for reference.)

Every year from March to the end of May, dust blowing off the Mongolian desert plain descends upon northern China, but the problem has worsened in recent years as north-western parts of the country turn into desert.
In 2004, The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said the dust storm problem is plaguing Northeast Asia nearly five times as often as it did in the 1950s and is worsening with growing desertification. To combat the spread of its desert areas, Beijing has been making efforts to plant trees and vegetation.

Hospitals in Beijing reported on Monday a sudden rise in patients with breathing difficulties, while health officials warned children to stay indoors and residents to wear masks outdoors. According to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Department, Beijing rated the pollution caused by the dust storm grade V – the most serious level in pollution grading.

More than 300 sprinklers were deployed by the city government to clean at least 500 urban roads, covering an area of 30 million square metres. Still, the dust loomed and China’s Central Meteorological Bureau announced on Tuesday it was preparing to seed clouds to make rain in hopes it would clear the air. Seeding clouds involves using aircraft to spray moisture-laden clouds with a crystalline substance such as silver iodide, which can prompt moisture contained in the clouds to freeze and fall as rain.

In addition to Beijing, the dust storms have affected Tianjin, Xinjiang in the northwest and other areas in the Jilin province in the northeast. The storm blew dust as far away as South Korea and Japan. In recent years, dust storms in northern China have spread as far as the United States.

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

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Restless Augustine Island

Click here to view full image (2646 kB)

Alaska’s Augustine Volcano started 2006 with a bang, producing explosive eruptions in mid-January. The volcano had quieted by March 2006, although the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) warned that explosive eruptions could still occur at any time. The volcano continued a fairly similar behavior pattern in April.

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA ’s Terra satellite captured this image on April 18, 2006. According to the AVO, Augustine’s seismic activity jumped that day. The volcano continued its customary steam plume, and light winds allowed the plume to rise directly above the summit about 300 to 600 meters (1,000 to 2,000 feet). This image shows the steam plume flowing from the summit in the south. The cloudy form to the north could be cloud, or a steam plume from the volcano’s pyroclastic flow deposits—hot rock fragments and ash.

Augustine Volcano is considered the most active volcano in the eastern Aleutian arc. Its biggest historical eruption occurred in 1883 when the volcano’s dome collapsed. The volcano erupted again in 1986, producing an avalanche of ash, rock fragments, and gas. Augustine’s activity spans a longer time span than historical records cover, and its oldest dated volcanic rocks are more than 40,000 years old.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Siachen Glacier

Click here to view full image (3906 kB)

At an altitude of roughly 5,400 meters (17,700 feet), the Siachen Glacier in Kashmir is a forbidding place. Blizzards can last for weeks, temperatures can drop to -55 degrees Celsius (-67 degrees Fahrenheit), and crevasses can swallow a person whole. At much lower altitudes, the glacier’s impact is benign: it is the source of the Nubra River flowing into India.

Sometimes described as a white snake, the Siachen Glacier is more than 70 kilometers long. Lying inside a rock-strewn trough roughly 2 kilometers wide, the glacier is covered with snow in the middle. Landsat 7 took this picture on September 30, 2001. The glacier’s central region is covered with snow, and that snow and the rest of the glacier’s icy surface appear white. Glaciers can merge together like rivers, and that is the case here. In the center of the image, two rivulets of ice flow together, heading toward the northeast. In between the white glacial expanses are the jagged peaks of the Himalaya Mountains. At an altitude far too high to support a forest, the mountainous surfaces appear in varying shades of beige. In the large image, some vegetation is visible at lower elevations.

India and Pakistan fought for control of this glacier starting in the 1980s. Long known as the world’s highest battleground, the glacier could enjoy a different status. By early 2006, some diplomats discussed making the area a peace park.

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

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day Edited May 10, 2006 by Waspie_Dwarf

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Lake Poopó Water Levels

High-resolution images:
ISS012-E-6468 (300 kB JPEG)
ISS012-E-6469 (330 kB JPEG)
ISS012-E-20585 (270 kB JPEG)

Lake Poopó sits high in the Bolivian Andes, catching runoff from its larger neighbor to the north—Lake Titicaca (not shown)—by way of the Desaguadero River, which is the muddy area at the north end of the lake. Because Lake Poopó is very high in elevation (roughly 3,400 meters, or 11,000 feet above sea level), very shallow (generally less than 3 meters, or 9 feet), and the regional climate is very dry, small changes in precipitation in the surrounding basin have large impacts on the water levels and area of Lake Poopó. When the lake fills during wet periods, it drains from the south end into the Salar de Coipasa salt flat (not shown). Water levels in Lake Poopó are important because the lake is one of South America’s largest salt-water lakes, making it a prime stop for migratory birds, including flamingoes. The lake has been designated as a RAMSAR site.

These photographs were taken in November 2005 (whole lake) and March 2006 (detail) by the Expedition 12 crew of the International Space Station. In November, water levels had dropped, exposing large tracts of salt and mud flats. A wet and cool period between December 2005 and the end of February 2006 resulted in flooding of Poopó with muddy waters from the Desaguadero River. The area of the March 9 photograph is indicated on the November 3 mosaic by a white polygon. Comparison of the photographs shows the extent of flooding of the western salt flats—sufficient to create an ephemeral island. The ISS crew is tasked to track such changes, which are related to regional weather patterns. Lake Poopó’s sensitivity to precipitation in the high Andes (possibly reflecting larger climate cycles) provides an excellent visual indicator of weather and climate trends.

Astronaut photographs ISS012-E-6468, ISS012-E-6469 were acquired November 3, 2005, with a Kodak 760C digital camera using a 180 mm lens. Astronaut photographs ISS012-E-20585 and ISS012-E-20586 were acquired March 9, 2006, with a Kodak 760C digital camera using a 400 mm lens. All images are 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. 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]

Tropical Cyclone Monica

Click here to view full image (3599 kb)

Tropical Cyclone Monica formed off the northeastern coast of Australia on April 17, 2006. This is the same general area where Cyclone Larry formed a month earlier. On April 19 and 20, Cyclone Monica crossed Cape York Peninsula with weaker winds than Larry, and its path in northern Queensland took it well away from most settled areas. However, Monica’s second act proved quite different. The cyclone gathered size and power in the Gulf of Carpentaria and rebuilt into a Category 5 storm. Monica grazed across the top of the Northern Territory, threatening communities throughout Arnhem Land, Kakadu, and the city of Darwin with heavy rains and very high winds. Many Australian news services were comparing Monica to 1974’s powerful Cyclone Tracy which flattened Darwin and was the most devastating storm to ever hit Australia.

This photo-like image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite on April 24, 2006, at 2:00 p.m. local time (04:30 UTC). Cyclone Monica at this time was an impressively large and powerful storm. Sustained peak winds in the storm system were roughly 285 kilometers per hour (180 miles per hour) around the time the image was captured, and gusts reached as high as 350 km/hr (220 mph). These winds put Monica firmly in the rare and most powerful, Category 5, rating. The eye of the storm appears like a deep whirlpool hovering just off the Australian coastline.

Monica was predicted to come ashore again on the Coburg Peninsula and to strike Darwin on April 25. Ordinarily, Australians observe Anzac Day on April 25 (honoring Australians who served in the First World War), but throughout the Northern Territory, all services and events were cancelled.

The high-resolution image provided above is provided at the full MODIS spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions.

Links
Australian Bureau of Meteorology

NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team Goddard Space Flight Center.

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Floods on the Danube River

Click here to view full image (3176 kb)

The Danube River spills over into farm fields in the northeastern corner of Serbia in this image, taken by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite on April 24, 2006. Though water levels on the Danube River in Eastern Europe had been expected to fall by this time, the river was still running high on April 24. Melting snow and spring rain have driven rivers across Central Europe over their banks, causing widespread flooding. High water levels on the Danube forced evacuations throughout Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria in late April 2006, according to news reports.

In the region shown here, a small village is nestled within a bend in the river. Streets, houses, and exposed earth form a tight grey grid within the village, interrupted by occasional red squares where plants are growing. The rest of the land in the scene is covered with long, rectangular agricultural fields. Bare fields, as yet unplanted, are grey, while those in which crops are growing are red. The river, blue, seeps over its banks and across the fields in the center of the image. Smudges of blue along the banks of the river in the village hint that flooding may be occurring here too, though the darker colors may also be shadows cast by the small clouds overhead. On April 23, Reuters reported that some 225,000 hectares of Serbia’s farm land, about 5 percent of the arable land in the country, had been flooded or threatened by floods.

Numerous images of floods in Central Europe can be found in the Earth Observatory’s Natural Hazards: Floods section.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

[Waspie_Dwarf]

A Merger of Mighty Rivers

The Ohio River becomes a tributary of the Mississippi River directly south of Cairo, Illinois, a small city on the spit of land where the rivers converge (at center of this photograph). Brown, sediment-laden water flowing generally northeast to south from the Ohio River is distinct from the green and relatively sediment-poor water of the Mississippi River (flowing northwest to south). The color of the rivers in this image is reversed from the usual condition of a green Ohio and a brown Mississippi. This suggests that the very high rainfall in December 2005 over the Appalachians and the northeastern United States has led to greater-than-normal amounts of sediment in the rivers and streams of the Ohio River watershed. The distinct boundary between the two river’s waters indicates that little to no mixing occurs even 3-4 miles (5-6 kilometers) downstream.

Cairo became a prosperous port following the Civil War due to increased riverboat and railroad commerce. Small features visible in the image on the Ohio are river barges, which indicate the continued importance of Cairo as a transport hub. Flooding of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers presents a continual danger to the city; this danger is lessened by the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway that begins directly to the south of the river confluence. During major flood events, the floodway lessens flood stages upstream (such as at Cairo) and adjacent to the floodway. Part of the extensive levee system associated with flood control of the Mississippi River is visible in the image. Barlow Bottoms (image right), located in adjacent Kentucky, is a wetland bird-watching location that is replenished by periodic floods and releases of Ohio River water.

Image Credit: NASA

+ Full Resolution


Source: NASA - Multimedia - Image of the Day Gallery

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Earth from Space: East Mediterranean - Land of converging cultures

Click on the image for high resolution version

27 April 2006
The Eastern Mediterranean Sea area is highlighted in this Envisat image, featuring Turkey, Cyprus and Crete.

Formerly known as Anatolia, modern Turkey was founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal, who was later honoured with the title ‘Ataturk’ which means ‘Father of the Turks’. Turkey is a Eurasian country with the majority of its territory located in South-western Asia and a small portion located in the Balkan region of South-eastern Europe. Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul (visible at centre top of image) is the only city in the world that straddles two continents (Europe and Asia), making it a true meeting place of the East and the West.
Turkey has a rich history and diverse culture stemming from various elements of the Ottoman, European and Islamic traditions. Throughout history this region has given rise to many civilisations – such as the Hittites, Thracians, Hellenistics, Byzantines and Ottomans. And because of its strategic location, it has also been invaded by many civilisations, including the Mysians, Celts, Romans and Alexander the Great. It also provided the setting of the legendary Trojan War depicted in Homer’s Iliad.

Turkey’s location has also made it vulnerable to earthquakes with the 1 000-kilometre long North Anatolian fault located just 15 kilometres south of Istanbul. It is also located on the relatively small Anatolian plate, which is squeezed between three other major tectonic plates – the African and Arabian plates to the south, and the Eurasian plate to the north. The combination of these plate movements has been the source of eight earthquakes of magnitude 7 or greater in the last century.

Within three months in 1999, two earthquakes struck Turkey leaving a path of destruction. The first on 17 August measured 7.4 on the Richter scale, while the second on 12 November measured 7.2. According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the two quakes left more than 18 000 people dead and over 300 000 homeless.

Because earthquakes can suddenly render current maps out-of-date, Earth Observation satellite images are useful for providing updated views of how the landscape has been affected as well as creating reference cartography for emergency operations. In addition, before and after satellite images of the area enable authoritative damage assessment as a basis for planning remedial action.

The island of Cyprus (seen at bottom right) is a former British colony that became independent in 1960. It is the legendary birthplace of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. According to Hesiod’s Theogony, Aphrodite emerged fully grown from the froth of the sea.

Crete (the elongated island seen at the bottom left of the image) is the largest of the Greek islands spanning some 260 kilometres from west to east and 60 kilometres at its widest point. Crete was home to one of the first civilisations in Europe, the Minoans.

This image was acquired on 21 July 2004 by Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) working in Full Resolution mode.

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

[oldvariant42]

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

Hats Off Waspie_Drawf

Keep up the Good Work!!!

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Ekuma River and Etosha Pan, Namibia

High-resolution images:
March 2, 2006 (320 kB JPEG)
June 24, 2005 (380 kB JPEG)

Etosha Pan in northern Namibia is a large, dry lakebed in the Kalahari Desert. The 120-kilometer-long (75-mile-long) lake and its surroundings are protected as one of Namibia’s largest wildlife parks. Herds of elephants occupy the dense mopane woodland on the south side of the lake. Mopane trees are common throughout south-central Africa, and host the mopane worm, which is the larval form of the Mopane Emperor Moth and an important source of protein for rural communities. About 16,000 years ago, when ice sheets were melting across Northern Hemisphere land masses, a wet climate phase in southern Africa filled Etosha Lake. Today, Etosha Pan is seldom seen with even a thin sheet of water covering the salt pan.

Two images taken about nine months apart document an unusually wet summer in southern Africa. The upper view (March 2006) shows the point where the Ekuma River flows into the salt lake; the lower regional image (June 2005) shows the same inlet—but dry—on the north shore of Etosha Pan. The Ekuma River is almost never seen with water, but in early 2006, rainfall twice the average amount in the river’s catchment generated flow. Greens and browns show vegetation and algae growing in different depths of water where the river enters the dry lake (upper image, center). Typically, little river water or sediment reaches the dry lake because water seeps into the riverbed along its 250-kilometer (55-mile) course, reducing discharge along the way. In this image, there was enough surface flow to reach the Etosha Pan, but too little water reached the mouth of the river to flow beyond the inlet bay. The unusual levels of precipitation also filled several small, usually dry lakes to the north (upper image, right).

Astronaut photograph ISS012-E-23057 was acquired March 2, 2006, with a Kodak 760C digital camera using a 180 mm lens. The regional oblique view, ISS011-E-9504, was taken June 24, 2005, also with the Kodak 760C and a 180 mm lens. Both images are 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. 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]

Floods in Myanmar (Burma)

Large Images:
April 30, 2006 (1.80 MB)
April 23, 2006 (1.72 MB)

With winds near 210 kilometers per hour (130 miles per hour), powerful Cyclone Mala swept ashore over Myanmar (Burma) late on April 28, 2006. The storm inundated the Southeast Asian country with heavy rain and left widespread flooding in its wake. The wetlands surrounding the mouths of the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River were still dark blue and black with water when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured the top image on the afternoon of April 30.

Just a week earlier (lower image), the region had been dry, with water confined to the channels cut by the river as it drains into the Andaman Sea. The land is tan with patches of green where plants are growing. Light clouds, blue and white in the false-color images, drift over the region. On April 30, the wetlands brimmed with water brought by the storm. Offshore, the ocean is milky blue and green where sediment carried by draining flood water has washed into the sea. Additional flooding can be seen farther north along the Ayeyarwady in the large image. According to the Myanmar state media, one person died and 21 others were injured in the storm.

The large images provided above have a resolution of 250 meters per pixel, MODIS’ maximum resolution. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images of Myanmar in several resolutions.


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

Source: NASA - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Fires along the Border of Mongolia and Russia

Click here to view full image (1333 kb)

Large fires were burning at the border of Russia and Mongolia on May 1, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the region. The actively burning portions of the fires are outlined in red, and plumes of thick, brownish-gray smoke blow southeast. Dark, almost charcoal-colored burn scars are spread across the landscape. At upper left, snow still covers mountain peaks despite the arrival of spring more than a month before.

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

[Waspie_Dwarf]

International Space Station Imagery


Click image for high resolution version

ISS013-E-08139 (19 April 2006) --- A setting sun and the thin blue airglow line at Earth’s horizon was captured in this image photographed by an Expedition 13 crewmember from a window on the International Space Station.

Source: NASA - Human Space Flight Gallery Edited May 19, 2006 by Waspie_Dwarf