Filed under: NOAA, government, hurricanes, images, meteorology
This is not the first time that an unmanned drone has provided us with information on what is happening below. But, it is some of the first spectacular images of weather systems from above without satellite assistance. Sit back and appreciate the technology! Read more about the Global Hawk here.
Global Hawk, an unmanned aircraft, took off from California for a long endurance flight over and around Hurricane Earl when the storm was 349 miles south southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. This imagge, captured from a high-resolution video camera mounted to the Global Hawk, shows details in the clouds within the eye. NASA/NOAA photo.
A unique unmanned aircraft soared high above Southern California and the Pacific Ocean yesterday, loaded with nearly a dozen instruments to track information about the air it encountered. A NOAA pilot guided the plane remotely from the flight operations room at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, and scientists from NASA, NOAA, and academia scrutinized data to see how their instruments dealt with the cold temperatures and low pressures above 50,000 ft. altitude. The aircraft, a Global Hawk 116-foot-wingspan unmanned aircraft system once used by the U.S. Air Force, soared for more than 24 hours over the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of Alaska to the tropics on its longest duration science flight to date. Global Hawk Pacific mission objectives include measuring levels of chemicals and particles in the atmosphere that affect climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion. Data from unmanned aircraft systems is expected to improve forecasts of storms, air quality, and climate as their use for atmospheric research grows. Thanks to NASA for this photo of a Global Hawk Pacific takeoff. More on this collaborative program is available at http://www.espo.nasa.gov/glopac/
NASA’s unmanned aircraft Global Hawk took this image of a low-pressure system (formerly Hurricane Frank) over the eastern Pacific on Aug. 28. A joint effort between NOAA and NASA, it was the first-ever unmanned flight over a tropical cyclone. High resolution (Credit: NASA/NOAA)
Filed under: NASA, government, images, remote sensing, satellite
The imagery from the NASA MODIS hardware is impressive to say the least.On August 29, 2010 NASA captured a spectacular full color image of the two hurricanes. As posted on the Goddard Space Flight Center Flickr page,
“NASA image acquired August 29, 2010
Two powerful storms span the Atlantic Ocean on August 29, 2010 when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite captured this true color image. In the south, storm bands cover the Leeward Islands while in the north, the bands reach nearly to the coast of Newfoundland.
Hurricane Danielle, the northern storm, carried maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kpm) at the time of this image, making it a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. The center of the storm was located 605 miles (795 km) southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland. In this image, the storm shows a clear asymmetry, with most bands located in the northern semi-circle of the storm and the eye is indistinct. Increasing asymmetry and a dissipating eye are signs of a weakening storm. By the evening of August 30, Danielle became a post-tropical storm, and was predicted to continue to dissipate over the next few days.
To the south, Hurricane Earl shows several curved bands of thunderstorms around a dense center. Near the time of the image, the maximum sustained winds were 75 mph (120 km/hr), making it a Category 1 Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
By the evening of August 30, 2010, Hurricane Earl had strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained wind speeds of 135 mph (215 km/hr). It was located 110 mi (170 km) northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico and moving away from the Virgin Islands. The storm was expected to continue to travel towards the north-northwest, passing near the east coast of the United States by the end of the week. National Hurricane Center tracking errors are 200-300 miles 4-5 days out, and it is not yet possible to accurately predict what, if any direct impact this storm may have on the United States.
Storm surge can be expected to lift tidal levels to 3-5 feet above normal in areas of hurricane warnings and 1 to 3 feet above normal in areas of tropical storm warnings. Such storm surges will be accompanied by large and battering waves.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team”
Right-click and download the image below (13.9MB)
NASA image acquired August 29, 2010 Two powerful storms span the Atlantic Ocean on August 29, 2010 when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite captured this true color image. In the south, storm bands cover the Leeward Islands while in the north, the bands reach nearly to the coast of Newfoundland. Hurricane Danielle, the northern storm, carried maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kpm) at the time of this image, making it a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. The center of the storm was located 605 miles (795 km) southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland. In this image, the storm shows a clear asymmetry, with most bands located in the northern semi-circle of the storm and the eye is indistinct. Increasing asymmetry and a dissipating eye are signs of a weakening storm. By the evening of August 30, Danielle became a post-tropical storm, and was predicted to continue to dissipate over the next few days. To the south, Hurricane Earl shows several curved bands of thunderstorms around a dense center. Near the time of the image, the maximum sustained winds were 75 mph (120 km/hr), making it a Category 1 Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. By the evening of August 30, 2010, Hurricane Earl had strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained wind speeds of 135 mph (215 km/hr). It was located 110 mi (170 km) northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico and moving away from the Virgin Islands. The storm was expected to continue to travel towards the north-northwest, passing near the east coast of the United States by the end of the week. National Hurricane Center tracking errors are 200-300 miles 4-5 days out, and it is not yet possible to accurately predict what, if any direct impact this storm may have on the United States. Storm surge can be expected to lift tidal levels to 3-5 feet above normal in areas of hurricane warnings and 1 to 3 feet above normal in areas of tropical storm warnings. Such storm surges will be accompanied by large and battering waves. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team Click here to see more images from MODIS NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook
Filed under: NASA, Uncategorized, government, images, remote sensing, satellite
As taken from NASA, “Three Storms The current Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite GOES-13 captured this image of Hurricane Danielle heading for the north Atlantic (top center), Hurricane Earl with a visible eye hitting the Leeward Islands (left bottom) and a developing tropical depression 8 (lower right) at 1:45 p.m. EDT on Aug. 30.
Image Credit: NASA GOES Project”
Filed under: NASA, government, images, remote sensing, satellite
Image above via Twitpic
Here is what NASA had to say about the history of Akimiski Island, Canada:
“Scraped clean and weighted down for thousands of years by Pleistocene ice sheets, Akimiski Island in James Bay provides a case study of how Earth’s land surfaces evolve following glaciation. During the last ice age, this small island was buried under several thousand meters ice, but since its retreat, the island has rebounded (risen in elevation) and new beach areas have emerged, streams and lakes have formed, and trees and other vegetation have colonized the new territory.
This image of Akimiski Island was captured by the Landsat 7 satellite on August 9, 2000. Mudflats surrounding the island brighten the nearshore waters, while rivers on the mainland (lower left; Ontario Province, Canada) spill brown, tannin-loaded sediments into the strait. The island is relatively flat; the highest elevations (around 60 meters) are found in the southern part of the island, where forested, north-south trending ridges (beach ridges shaped during the ice age) alternate with elongated lakes (close up image).
Along the southern coastline, the beach is traced with numerous “bathtub rings,” created by wave action on the shore at previous sea levels. The water line is the result of two competing processes. Sea levels rose as the Ice Age ended and ice sheets melted, but in addition, the island’s elevation has increased over thousands of years as it rebounds from having been pressed down by the massive slabs of ice.
- References
- Martini, I.P., and Glooschenko, W.A. (1984). Emergent Coasts of Akimiski Island, James Bay, Northwestern Territories, Canada: Geology, Geomorphology, and Vegetation. Sedimentary Geology, 37 (4), 229-250.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data provided by the University of Maryland’s Global Land Cover Facility. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.
- Instrument:
- Landsat 7 – ETM+“
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