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Planet On Fire Whoa! Beautiful visualization showing how...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 11:44:00 -0400

Planet On Fire

Whoa! Beautiful visualization showing how wildfire smoke, dust, and other airborne particulates swirl throughout Earth’s atmosphere (via NASA).

View the NASA video here

Earth As Art Ephemeral Lake Carnegie, in Western Australia,...

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 09:40:28 -0500

Earth As Art

Ephemeral Lake Carnegie, in Western Australia, fills with water only during periods of significant rainfall. In dry years, it is reduced to a muddy marsh.

Courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory

The Lena River, some 2,800 miles (4,400 km) long, is one of...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 14:15:01 -0500

The Lena River, some 2,800 miles (4,400 km) long, is one of the largest rivers in the world. The Lena Delta Reserve is the most extensive protected wilderness area in Russia. It is an important refuge and breeding ground for many species of Siberian wildlife.

Courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory

Composite image over several days of hurricane Sandy from the...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 14:10:06 -0500

Composite image over several days of hurricane Sandy from the NASA Suomi satellite.

New animation from NOAA shows satellite imagery of...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 13:47:00 -0500

New animation from NOAA shows satellite imagery of Hurricane Sandy and how it followed the National Hurricane Center’s track issued at 11 a.m. EDT on Thursday, October 25 2012.

A 150-foot-deep meltwater channel carves its way through the...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 10:19:05 -0400

A 150-foot-deep meltwater channel carves its way through the Greenland Ice Sheet, a vivid sign of the glacial melting affecting the vast Arctic island.

Photographer James Balog’s assistant stands above the channel, whose black bottom is composed of cryoconite, made up of silt and soot blown from afar.

Photo courtesy of James Balog

Hurricane Sandy After Landfall (October 30, 2012) Hurricane...

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:21:00 -0400

Hurricane Sandy After Landfall (October 30, 2012)

Hurricane Sandy made landfall along the southern New Jersey coast on the evening of October 29, 2012, the U.S. National Hurricane Center reported.

As the storm came ashore, it continued to pack strong wings—roughly 85 miles (140 kilometers) per hour. Tide gauges recorded storm-surge heights of 12.4 feet (3.8 meters) at Kings Point, New York.

Courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite...

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:15:00 -0400

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 13 (GOES-13) captured this natural-color image of Hurricane Sandy at 1:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (17:45 Universal Time) on October 28, 2012.

Note how a line of clouds from a continental weather system runs south to north along the Appalachian Mountains, approaching from the west to meet the offshore storm.

Courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory

usagov: Image description: A satellite captured this image of...

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:06:25 -0400

usagov:

Image description: A satellite captured this image of Post-Tropical Sandy rolling inland on Tuesday, October 30 at 6:02 a.m. EDT. It lost its hurricane status on Monday and is now considered an extratropical cyclone.

Photo by NASA.

Iceland Aurora Source: RT @AGUSciPolicy: Stunning green #aurora...

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:18:13 -0400

Iceland Aurora

Source: RT @AGUSciPolicy: Stunning green #aurora glows bright over #Iceland bit.ly/OLVrG2

Swirls of sea ice in the fjords of Eastern Greenland Image:...

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 12:18:43 -0400

Swirls of sea ice in the fjords of Eastern Greenland

Image: NASA Earth Observatory

Aurora Borealis (October 8, 2012) Overnight on October 4-5,...

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 10:09:01 -0400

Aurora Borealis (October 8, 2012)

Overnight on October 4-5, 2012, a mass of energetic particles from the atmosphere of the Sun were flung out into space, a phenomenon known as a coronal mass ejection. Three days later, the storm from the Sun stirred up the magnetic field around Earth and produced gorgeous displays of northern lights.

The northern lights stretch across Canada’s Quebec and Ontario provinces in the image, and are part of the auroral oval that expanded to middle latitudes because of a geomagnetic storm.

Image and caption: NASA Earth Observatory

Atmospheric Aerosols, Dust, and Clouds (September 15,...

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 09:57:00 -0400

Atmospheric Aerosols, Dust, and Clouds (September 15, 2012)

Yellow, less opaque colors indicate less dust while pink, opaque colors indicate more dust. The aerosol index signal over the Western U.S. is due to dense smoke from wildfires, while smoke from agricultural biomass burning is visible over both South American and southern Africa.

Image: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Earthquakes by magnitude since 1898.

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:52:57 -0400

Earthquakes by magnitude since 1898.

Bottom-up view of tropical storms and hurricanes dating back to...

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:46:46 -0400

Bottom-up view of tropical storms and hurricanes dating back to 1851.

A river winds its way through volcanic ash and glaciers in...

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 15:10:08 -0400

A river winds its way through volcanic ash and glaciers in Iceland.

Photographer: Andre Ermolaev

Google Earth Tour - Ocean Acidification See how carbon dioxide...

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 14:55:00 -0400

Google Earth Tour - Ocean Acidification

See how carbon dioxide impacts ocean chemistry and learn why even small changes to ocean chemistry could have profound implications for marine life and future economic activities.

(Courtesy of Jenifer Austin Foulkes, Owen Gaffney, Dan Laffoley).

Learn more about ocean acidification from the NOAA website here.

Arctic Auroras Photograph by Ole C. Salomonsen,...

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:28:42 -0400

Arctic Auroras

Photograph by Ole C. Salomonsen, arcticlightphoto.no

Northern lights over dance the Lyngan Alps in a picture taken Tuesday night near Tromsø, Norway. The brilliant auroras were triggered by a coronal mass ejection, or CME, that hit our planet Tuesday morning. A CME is a cloud of superheated gas and charged particles hurled off the sun (via National Geographic).

Aurora Borealis, Svalbard Credit: Max Edin (National Geographic...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:16:00 -0400

Aurora Borealis, Svalbard

Credit: Max Edin (National Geographic Photo of the Day)

For more information on the Aurora Borealis, check out NASA’s webpage on auroral lights.

The Equinoxes and Solstices As Viewed From Space Credit: NASA...

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 14:46:16 -0400

The Equinoxes and Solstices As Viewed From Space

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

The four changes of the seasons, related to the position of sunlight on the planet, are captured in this view from Earth orbit.