![[Earth Pictures]](http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/earth/pictures/earthpic.gif)
TRMM Satellite Provides Five Year of Rainfall Data
Because El Niños and La Niñas have a major impact on flooding and drought distribution around the world, Adler’s findings have implications for better water resource management in the future. The findings will also assist in planning disaster relief and preparations for vector-borne disease outbreaks when flooding and extreme heat is predicted. For more on this story, go to the Public Affairs TRMM Rainfall Map website.
2000 December
Great Lakes Effect
Lake-effect snow occurs when cold dry air passes over a larger warmer lake and picks up moisture and heat. Clouds build overhead and eventually develop into snow showers as they move downwind. The image was enhanced and rendered at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The SEAWiFS sensor is carried aboard the OrbView-2 satellite.
05 December 2000
Eastern U.S. In the Grips of Old Man Winter
Provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE taken on November 21, 2000
Greenland Not So Green
A SeaWiFS pass over Greenland collected by the ground station in Resolute in northern Canada on July 15th, 2000 produced this image. Click on pic to enlarge image. This image provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE.
2000 November
Florida Cloudless
The only thing not obscuring Florida these days is clouds...
14 November 2000
Shenandoah Fires
The biggest cloud in the Washington D.C. region seems to be the one coming from the fires in Shenandoah National Park. This image provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE.
2000
November
Just in time for Halloween: View Fall foliage from space. (images and movies)
2000 October
Most of the eastern U.S. was cloud free October 11. Such widespread cloudlessness in this part of the world is rare. These clear skies are associated with a region of high pressure over the eastern central U.S.
11 October 2000
New Space Views of Southeast Asian Flood Aid United Nations Disaster Relief Effort (Details) For more images of the flooding, click on flooding.
11 October 2000
Cloudless Outer Banks as Eyed By SeaWiFS
04 October 2000
NASA Scientist Predicts Less Climate Cooling From Clouds
Don't count on clouds to come to the rescue if the Earth's current climate warming trend continues. That's according to new NASA research published in the October 1st issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate.
(Details)
1 October 2000
NOAA-16 Sends Back First Image
(Details)
21 September 2000
Click on pic to enlarge
This visible light/infrared composite image over Montana and Idaho was acquired by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on Aug. 23. The image shows the locations of actively burning wildfires (red pixels) and the thick shroud of smoke they produced (grey-blue pixels).
There was no Labor Day holiday for firefighters battling dozens of blazes that have consumed hundreds of thousands of acres across Montana and Idaho. But fire officials did get some assistance from an unexpected source as scientists from NASA, NOAA, the USDA Forest Service and the University of Virginia teamed up to provide them with new observations of the fires from NASA's Terra satellite. This marked the first time data from the recently-launched spacecraft were used operationally in a crisis situation. (Details)
12 September 2000
Click on pic to enlarge
Image Courtesy of SeaWiFS and ORBIMAGE
15 September 2000
Typhoon Saomai is bringing nasty weather to Japan. This image by SeaWiFs shows the location of the typhoon on September 12, 2000.
Click on pic to enlarge
Burn scars left behind
by the Idaho and Montana wildfires are clearly visible in this SeaWiFS image
taken September 7, 2000. This image along with those documenting the spread
of the fires can be seen on the SeaWiFS homepage at:
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html
07 September 2000
SeaWiFS captured this dust cloud blowing out over the Arabian Sea from Oman last March.
Smoke plumes are evident spewing over the Gulf of Mexico from wildfires in Texas and Louisiana. Click on pic to enlarge image. Image courtesy of SeaWiFS and Orbimage.
SeaWiFS saw this low pressure system over the North Atlantic northwest of Ireland August 31.
31 August 2000
These images show the increase in fires in the Midwest from August 2 through August 22. Seen by NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) on the OrbView-2 satellite, these images capture the plumes of smoke that extend east. The National Interagency Fire Center reported 84 fires burning in 14 states within 1.7 million acres of land as of today. Click on image to enlarge.
This image from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) shows high aerosol concentrations resulting from smoke on August 27. Visit the TOMS homepage and click on "Global Aerosol Hot Spots" to see the concentration of fires from Aug. 25 through Aug. 28.
2000 August
August 30th's SeaWiFS image shows Typhoon Prapiroon over the East China Sea.
30 August 2000
The SeaWiFS web site has a spectacular image of the Mediterranean Sea on August 25th showing smoke from fires on the Algerian coast as well as lots of dust. TOMS is therefore seeing not just dust but a combination of smoke and dust over the Mediterranean. The other TOMS image of August 25th shows a larger area, and smoke from fires in Greece can be seen in the southwest of that country.
25 August 2000
Tropical Storm Debby Weakens in the Atlantic
Click on pic to enlarge image
22 August 2000
This image shows SeaWiFS view of the smoke in Idaho and Montana on August 15 as well as views of what have become Tropical Depression Hector and Tropical Storm Ileana.
The second image, taken August 15 by TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer),
is of the aerosol output (airborne microscopic dust and smoke) from the fires.
Click for TOMS homepage.
15 August 2000
SeaWiFS imaged Hurricane Alberto earlier today as it churned the atmosphere east of Bermuda.
This is the SeaWiFS view of Typhoon Ewiniar to the south of Japan August 11. The remnants of Jelawat can still be seen over eastern China in the upper left corner of the image. Credit: Provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE
11 August 2000
This image shows fire danger around the United States, based on data collected between July 20th and 27th, 2000. Red areas indicate where fire potential is greater and green areas show places where the threat is lower. This fire potential map is based on the Soil Moisture Index (SMI). SMI is derived from temperature and vegetation measurements taken by NOAA's satellite-based Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). For more information, go to: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov
08 August 2000
Dense smoke from Idaho and western Montana is visible stretching all the way to Iowa and Minnesota in this image from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) on the OrbView-2 satellite This image was approximately at 3 p.m. EDT on August 8, 2000. Although the primary mission of SeaWiFS is to measure the biology of the ocean, it also provides stunning color imagery of the Earth's surface. The second image, taken August 8 by TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer), is of the aerosol output (airborne microscopic dust and smoke) from the fires. Click for TOMS homepage.
08 August 2000
August 7 
August 9
09 August 2000
Dense smoke from wildfires burning near the Idaho and Montana border can been seen drifting for hundreds of miles in the top image captured by NASA's SeaWiFS sensor on the OrbView-2 satellite. This image was approximately at 3 p.m. EDT on August 7, 2000. Click on pic to enlarge image. The second image, taken August 7 by TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer), is of the aerosol output (airborne microscopic dust and smoke) from the fires. Click for TOMS homepage.
07 August 2000
Dense smoke from wildfires burning in the western U.S. is visible in this image captured by NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS). The smoke plume in this image extends from northern Wyoming across the state of Montana. Fort Peck Reservoir in Montana and Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota are visible in the upper half of the image. This image was captured about 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 30, 2000. Click on pic to enlarge image.
30 July 2000
The average March snow line, depicted in red, would normally extend from New England through the Midwest to southern portions of North Dakota, continuing farther south in the western states. The actual snow cover captured from this composite of March 5th through 12th is depicted in white. Click on image to enlarge pic. Visit the Earth Observatory website for additional info.
July 2000
Click on pic to enlarge.
20 July 2000
SeaWiFS had a view of a phytoplankton bloom in the North Atlantic that looked a lot like a rampant lion with its forelegs over the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
17 July 2000
15 July 2000
14 July 2000
Colorful James Bay in Canada is captured by SeaWiFS on July 11. Click on image for larger pic.
11 July 2000
 Typhoon
Kirogi heads towards the Phillippines in this image taken by SeaWiFS
on July 5. Click on pic to enlarge image. |
Typhoon Kirogi closes in on Japan in this July 7 image taken by SeaWiFS. Click on image to enlarge pic. |
07 July 2000
New Zealand's South Island
SeaWiFS captures the South Island of New Zealand in this image from 26 June. Click on image above for larger view.
26 June 2000
Typhoon Kirogi is Coming on Strong
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These photos taken by
SeaWiFS two days apart on July 5
and July 7 show Typhoon Kirogi bearing down on the Phillipines.
Click on each image to view larger pics.
07 July 2000
Viva Italia!
SeaWiFS' ground station in Rome sent a nice clear view of the central Mediterranean area on June 19.
19 June 2000
Black Sea is Blooming!
This image taken by SeaWiFS on June 13 shows the color difference between the Black Sea (top) and the Mediterranean (bottom). The Black Sea is blooming with phytoplankton.
13 June 2000
First Hurricane of the 2000 Season
May 2000
First GOES-11 Image
18 May 2000
Earth View by Triana (or so it will look like...)
This image is a depiction
of what type of visuals we
might get from Triana once it is launched in 2001.
2000 April
Central
American Fires Viewed by Two
Goddard Spacecraft
24 April 2000
GREAT
LAKES LOOK GREAT!!
Image taken by the SeaWiFS spacecraft
April 2000
Terra Spacecraft Open for Business
After a picture-perfect launch into space last December, NASA's premier Earth Observing System Satellite, Terra, has completed on-orbit checkout and verification and is "open for business."
Terra, an international mission and part of NASA's Earth Sciences Enterprise, is opening a new window to the Earth and is providing daily information on the health of the planet. First images from the five instruments aboard Terra are being presented during a press briefing today at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.
19 April 2000
Blue Marble 2000
For downloadable images of Blue Marble 2000, go to: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/rsd/bluemarble/index.html
17 April 2000
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17 April 2000
Arctic Ozone Levels Significantly Low
During the preceding winter Arctic ozone levels reached their lowest point in eight years at an altitude of nearly 60,000 feet. Concentrations dropped more than 50 percent from their average. But measurements taken during the largest international campaign ever mustered to study the Arctic stratosphere are yielding better insights into the processes that control polar ozone. Called SOLVE (Stratospheric Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment), it included researchers from Europe, Russia, Canada, and the United States working together to develop better tools for predicting the state of polar ozone levels. These predictive tools will become more and more important in light of expected chlorine level declines due to the Montreal Protocol and what will likely be increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the coming decades.
For more on this story, go to: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/ftp/pub/PAO/Releases/2000/00-39.htm
or http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/imagewall/solve.html
05 April 2000
29 March 2000
19 March 2000
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This image (left) of the Mississippi Delta was acquired on February 24, 2000 and is one of the first scenes acquired by the Moderate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the EOS-Terra Spacecraft. The scene was made by combining three of the visible bands of the MODIS Land Surface Reflectance product. (Details) |
| This image to the right is color composite covering the Rift Valley, in land area of Ethiopia ( south of the image 2). The color difference of this image reflects the distribution of different rocks with the different amount of silicon dioxide. It is inferred that the area with whitish color is covered with basalt, and the area with pinkish color with andesite in center. This is the first image in history for spaceborne TIR multi-band image enabling to distinguish between rocks with same compositions. |
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Terra First Images Gallery website
10 March 2000
This photo taken
by Landsat in August 22, 1999 shows the region prior to the flooding.
This image taken
by Landsat in March 1, 2000 shows the devastation.
March 2000
26 February 2000
23 February 2000
For more information, go to: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/imagewall/AAAS/
March 2000
11 February 2000
The Worst Is Over??
As of noon Feb. 22,
the snow cover along the U.S. east coast had retreated well north of the Washington-Baltimore
area
as seen in this SeaWiFS image.
22 February 2000
Denmark
Taken by Storm
Storms packing winds of 90 mph hit Denmark last weekend (Jan. 29-30), causing widespread flooding and damage. The aftermath of that storm is evident in this image taken by SeaWiFS which shows marked murkiness around the country caused by the storm stirring up the waters.
07 February 2000
Australia
and Tasmania--And the Earth really is round!!
Spectacular views of the "down under" from SeaWiFS up above.
01 February 2000
East Coast of U.S. Gets Blasted in January by Old Man Winter
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January 20, 2000 |
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January 25, 2000 |
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Snowcover over the Eastern U.S. after the Jan. 25, 2000 snowstorm |
These pictures were all captured by the SeaWiFS spacecraft during its normal passes over the East Coast of the U.S.
31 January 2000
SeaWiFS captured this photograph of the north island of New Zealand last March. The uninhabited 2 x 2.4 km White Island (just barely visible to the right of the middle of the north island) is the emergent summit of a 16 x 18 km submarine volcano. The white smoke plume emanating from it is barely visible. Intermittent steam and ash eruptions have occurred throughout the short historical period, but its activity also forms a prominent part of Maori legends.
Balmy Bahamas
The Bahamas look mighty inviting to those in colder climates. This photo taken from SeaWiFS shows the islands in all their balmy glory.
12 January 2000
After
Dennis and Floyd Blew Through
These two images show
the effects that Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd had on North Carolina's estuaries.
The picture on top shows the North Carolina coast before either of the two hurricanes
came through (April 1999). The image on the bottom shows the estuaries after
the hurricanes. There is a marked increase in the muddiness around the
shore and in the estuaries due to hurricanes.
SeaWiFS home page
12 January 2000
Tasmania in Clear View
There looks to be some sort of aerosol over Bass Strait in this relatively clear SeaWiFS view of Tasmania. The phytoplankton coloring the waters south and west of the island highlight the turbulent nature of this part of the ocean.
10 January 2000
Delmarva Area Looks Marvelous!
Fair skies ahead for the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay area. This photo was taken by SeaWiFS on January 6, 2000.
06 January 2000
Haze Over China
This view of Eastern Asia was taken on January 2, 2000 showing the thick layer of haze over southern People's Republic of China, including the cities of Chengdu, Congqing, Wuhan, and the archaeologically important city of Xi'an. Researchers are unclear as to the source of the haze, but it is thick enough to obscure most of the natural colors reflected from the ground beneath.
On January 2, 2000,
the thick layer of haze over China was also detected by the Total Ozone Mapping
Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument onboard the Earth Probe Satellite. While best
known for mapping total column ozone on a daily basis, TOMS can also detect
and track aerosols located in the troposphere.
The haze is denoted by the TOMS aerosol index. For a given scene, the aerosol
index is proportional to the amount of light absorbed before it reaches the
ground. Light blue (0.2) indicates smaller amounts of aerosol
and dark red (1.6) indicates a greater amount of aerosol (dust or smoke).
For reflectivity (grayscale), the lighter tones means that more light is reflected
back to space by the clouds.
For more information on TOMS instruments, go to the TOMS home page at http://toms.gsfc.nasa.gov
05 January 2000
Snow in New England 1998/1999/2000
These images, taken by SeaWiFS show the difference in the amount of snow cover in December 1998, January 1999 and January 2000. What a difference a year makes.
05 January 2000
Albemarle and Pamlico Sound still look very dark in this SeaWiFS pass. All of the organic matter washed in by this summer's hurricanes is absorbing most of the incoming solar radiation.
08 December 1999
El Niño's Dramatic Impact on Ocean Biology, Carbon Dioxide Captured By a Unique Monitoring System
The 1997-98
El Niño/La Niña had an unprecedented roller-coaster effect on the oceanic food
chain across a vast swath of the Pacific, plunging chlorophyll levels to the
lowest ever recorded in December 1997 and spawning the largest bloom of microscopic
algae ever seen in the region the following summer. According to new results
published in the Dec. 10 issue of the journal Science, El Niño also dramatically
reduced the amount of carbon dioxide normally released into the atmosphere by
the equatorial Pacific Ocean. 
The
Official Reproduction Guidelines for Use of NASA Images and Emblems
Credit line for all images: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center The SeaWiFs Project
Science Visualization Studio
NOTE: All SeaWiFs images and data presented on this website are for research
and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFs data must be coordinated
with ORBIMAGE.
Artist Concept of Terra Instruments Scanning the Earth
Terra Spacecraft/Atlas IIAS Rocket Ready For Launch Dec. 16 -- The launch of NASA's Terra spacecraft aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS rocket is scheduled to occur on Thursday, Dec. 16 from Space Launch Complex 3 East at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The launch window is 25 minutes in duration extending from 10:33 - 10:58 a.m. PST (1:33 - 1:58 p.m. EST). (Details)
Terra Spacecraft To Lead The Way (Details); Terra Website
07 December 1999
NASA Spacecraft Observes Lowest Ozone Ever in Northern Hemisphere
A NASA spacecraft has
observed the lowest value of ozone ever seen in the Northern Hemisphere since
spacecraft first began ozone measurements in 1978. The measurement was obtained
on Nov. 30, 1999 using the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument
aboard NASA's Earth Probe (TOMS-EP) satellite. The measurement showed an extremely
low level of 165 Dobson Units (DU) over the North Sea between Scotland and Norway.
The blue color indicates lower than normal levels of ozone.
Scientists believe a combination of stratospheric and tropospheric weather systems
may be responsible for this extreme low ozone event. Scientists and others have
a keen interest in polar ozone depletion. While this particular record low value
results from a convergence of weather systems, severe depletions of ozone can
result from chemical processes. Chemically caused Arctic ozone losses have also
been observed, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere springs of 1996 and 1997.
TOMS ozone data and pictures are available on the Internet at: http://toms.gsfc.nasa.gov/
02 December 1999
NASA
Tests Design Concept For A New Pumpkin-Shaped Balloon For more information on NASA's Scientific Balloon Program visit NASA Wallops Flight Facility homepage or the Balloon Program website ; (Details)
08 November 1999
NASA scientists have developed a new digital tectonic activity map of the Earth that pinpoints the geologically and volcanically active features of the entire planet over the last one million years. (Details); Geodynamics Branch Homepage
05 November 1999
A NASA satellite
has shown that the area of ozone depletion over the Antarctic -- the well-known
ozone "hole" -- is a bit less in 1999 than it was last year.
TOMS ozone data and pictures are available at http://toms.gsfc.nasa.gov
or select Images or Antarctic Ozone for 7/99 to 10/99
QuickTime (160x120) (691KB). (Details)
05 October 1999
Smoke from forest fires has, for
the first time, been proven to inhibit rainfall, according to an extensive analysis
of data taken from NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft.
(Details) (JPEG
Image); Information and images from the TRMM mission are available at http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/
05 October 1999
If you think traffic is getting worse on your commute, you're not alone. Hundreds of commercial airline flights carry thousands of passengers from the U.S. to Europe each day-traveling along what has become the busiest jet super highway in the world: the Atlantic corridor. Could all of that air traffic exhaust be a detriment to the atmosphere at 35,000 feet the way that auto exhaust pollutes the air we breathe?
In a study to be released in the Oct. 15 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, NASA scientists found that the atmosphere over the Atlantic acts nothing like the Los Angeles basin when it comes to collecting ozone-the chemical responsible for smog. (Details)
Captions (click on thumbnail for larger image):
Specially designed chemical analyzer. The instrument is highly sensitive and able to analyze minute amounts of trace gases in the very clean atmosphere at 35 thousand feet. A probe protrudes from the plane taking in air for analyses of organic acids and nitric acid-a reaction product of nitrogen oxides that end up as acid rain. Other nitrogen oxides create ozone. In this part of the atmosphere, ozone acts as a heat-trapping greenhouse gas.
Contrails. The long wispy clouds that trail
jets can turn into cirrus clouds. Cirrus clouds add heat to the lower atmosphere.
Some scientists believe that cirrus clouds formed by aircraft may add to global
warming.
The
NASA DC-8 and the Deutschen Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt (DLR), Germany's
national space agency, Falcon-20.
Anne
Thompson, Goddard Space Flight Center atmospheric scientist and mission scientist
for the Subsonic Assessment Ozone and Nitrogen Oxides Experiment (SONEX), part
of NASA's Atmospheric Affects of Aviation Experiment.
A laser water vapor detector measures water vapor in the atmosphere between
the window of the plane and wing.
Tandem testing.
The NASA DC-8 flies in gas-sampling formation with a Deutschen Zentrum für Luft-und
Raumfahrt (DLR), Germany's national space agency, Falcon-20. The DLR has been
testing the affects of aircraft on the atmosphere since the early 1990s.
Gas-collecting
inlet probes protrude from the DC-8
Hot
Stuff from the GOES Project
Hurricane Floyd in the Sargasso Sea
A Collection of Hurricane Floyd Images -- Data from NOAA GOES satellite. Images produced by Dennis Chesters, Laboratory for Atmospheres, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
New Landsat 7 Images of the Earth Now Available
This Landsat 7 browse image shows the area around New York City including Newark, NJ and Long Island.
After soaring to space last spring, NASA's latest Earth-imaging satellite has completed its checkout phase and is now "open for business." New images from the Landsat 7 spacecraft are now available for viewing and purchase by scientific researchers and the general public via the Internet from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA.
GSFC
Press Release 99-095
Landsat Image Site
07 September 1999
This image was captured by NASA's
SeaWiFS instrument onboard the SeaStar satellite on August 25 at 1:12 p.m. EDT.
The purpose of the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) Project is
to provide data on the global oceans. SeaWifs and several other imaging devices
aboard NASA satellites are providing meteorologists with spectacular views of
the turbulent tropics. ( Full Story) (8/26/99)
SeaWiFS
30 August 1999 view of Dennis - click on image for larger view. For Hi-Res
view visit the SeaWiFS Homepage
August 28 GOES Quick-Time Movie of Hurricane Dennis (8.9MB)
Eclipse 99
On Wednesday, August 11, 1999, a
total eclipse of the Sun will be visible from within a narrow corridor that
traverses the Eastern Hemisphere. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow begins
in the Atlantic and crosses Central Europe, the Middle East, and India where
it ends at sunset in the Bay of Bengal. A partial eclipse will be seen within
the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes Northeastern
North America, all of Europe, Northern Africa and the western half of Asia.
This event is the last total solar eclipse of the 20th century, and it will
benefit formal and informal education communities alike.
Eclipse 99 Website - fact-filled
website on this eclipse, a history of eclipses and future eclipses. Visit
this site for images and movies from the Aug. 11 Eclipse.
http://www.williams.edu/Astronomy/eclipse99/
- composite image from Eclipse and SOHO EIT.
11 August 1999
Landsat 7 Spacecraft to Join NASA's Earth Science Team
NASA will deploy the first major satellite in an unprecedented program to check the health of Planet Earth and understand the complex interactions that drive global change with the April 15 launch of the Landsat 7, the latest mission in the Landsat series, which has been documenting the Earth’s surface for more than a quarter century.
For more detail, check
these links:
General Press Release 99-034
Landsat-7
Press Kit
31 March 1999
Rapid Thinning of the Greenland Ice Sheet
Click on Image above to launch quick-time movie
This movie depicts the airborne laser altimeter collecting data. In 1993 and 1994, NASA researchers surveyed the Greenland ice sheet using an airborne laser altimeter. Ten flight lines flown in 1993 in southern Greenland were resurveyed in 1998. Scientists used computers to create detailed maps of changes in the ice.
The Many Faces of Laser
Altimetry
The same laser altimetry technology used to measure changes in the Greenland
glaciers was also used to measure the amount of ice in the frozen northern polar
cap of Mars and changes in the California coast due to severe El Nino-driven
storms in 1998.
A study of Greenland
indicates a rapid thinning of glaciers along the east coast of the southern
half of the island and suggests that the lower elevation portion of the ice
sheet may be particularly sensitive to changes in climate. The results of this
study are significant because they provide the first evidence of widespread
thinning of low-elevation parts of one of the great polar ice sheets. Areas
of ice thinning are shown in blue, areas where ice is thickening are shown in
orange.
NASA Researchers Document Shrinking Of Greenland's Glaciers (Details)
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/~akekesi/Greenland/QuickTimes/plane.mov -- movie courtesy of NASA/Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio
04 March 1999
New
Animation Depicts Changs in Antarctic Ice Sheet
For the first time, scientists at NASA have generated a computer model depicting
changes in the Antarctic ice sheet since the peak of the last ice age - nearly
20,000 years ago. The West Antarctic ice sheet has lost nearly 2/3 of it's mass
during this period - a volume sufficient to raise sea level 33 feet.
West Antarctica is the most prominent remaining ice-filled marine basin on Earth.
It is drained by fast-moving ice streams that extend far into the ice-sheet
interior. There has been much debate over the potential effect of West Antarctic's
volume being released into the ocean. Scientists hope to better understand the
history of Antarctic ice sheet so they might better predict how the ice sheet
may respond to climate changes in the future.
Dr. Bob Bindschadler Glaciologist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Images and quicktimes can be downloaded after 8 a.m. Feb 3:
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/~akekesi/Antarctica/
Background information:
http://igloo.gsfc.nasa.gov/wais/
http://igloo.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/perspective.html
Images/Movies courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio - "Providing
an understanding of science through visualization."
17 February 1999
Montserrat explodes at dawn (0.9 MByte QT movie)
The routine GOES-8 visible images are slightly contrast-enhanced to watch the ash cloud rise to 20,000 ft (6 km), and spread across the lesser Antilles
Courtesy of Dennis.Chesters@gsfc.nasa.gov
13 January 1999
Goddard Homepage Earth Science Pictures Archive - 1; Archive - 2
El
Nino Latest Movies and Images
Public Use of Remote Sensing Data Image Catalog; with previews
Space radar images of Earth from the Shuttle
Coastal Zone Color Scanner Interactive Region Selection
Goddard's Space Science Image Gallery
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Last Revised: 29 December 2000
