Archive for June, 2010

Churning in the Gulf of Mexico, the first named storm became a Hurricane on Tuesday and is expected to make landfall in Mexico on Thursday. NASA’s Aqua satellite took this image yesterday, giving us a better view of the havoc the US has been fortunate to miss out on. There had been some concern about the storm wrecking additional havoc to the Gulf states of the United States after 70 days of dealing with Oil from the Deepwater Horizon Spill. Fortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case, but being the first hurricane to form in June since 1995 and a forecast for an active hurricane season it does seem time is possibly against the cleanup effort.

Hurricane Alex spanned the Gulf of Mexico, from Yucatán Peninsula to the Louisiana coast, on June 29, 2010. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image the same day. Thick, opaque clouds spiral outward from the center of the storm, and cloud cover stretches the entire north-south length of the Gulf. Clouds skirt New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta.

According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC), Hurricane Alex is not forecast to travel in the direction of the Mississippi Delta or the oil slick. Instead, according to a June 30 bulletin, the storm was headed toward the northwest at roughly 7 miles (11 kilometers) per hour, in the direction of northern Mexico.

As of 10:00 a.m. Central Daylight Time on June 30, 2010. Alex was forecast to strengthen later that day, according to the NHC, and to bring substantial rainfall—6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimeters) over northeastern Mexico, and up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) in isolated spots. A Category 1 hurricane, Alex had maximum sustained winds of 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour. The NHC reported that hurricane-force winds extended from the storm center outward up to 60 miles (100 kilometers), and tropical-storm-force winds extended outward up to 200 miles (320 kilometers).

Amazing Phytoplankton bloom imaged off Iceland on the 24th by NASA’s Aqua satellite with the US instrument Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer.

Shades of green and blue blend in subtle swirls in this photo-like image taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on June 24, 2010. Made of millions of microscopic, plant-like organisms called phytoplankton, this splash of color is part of the annual North Atlantic phytoplankton bloom. Every year, a massive phytoplankton bloom spreads across the North Atlantic, moving from south to north and peaking in the late spring. This image shows a manifestation of the North Atlantic bloom west of Iceland.

View of Endeavour crater, NASA Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity’s eventual destination as it continues to trek across the red planet. Image taken from the rovers panoramic camera on sol 2280 (June 23, 2010). Opportunity continues to be in good health, with no problems facing it while its sister Spirit has yet to wake up from hibernation as the Martian Winter comes to a close. As of June 22nd, Oppy has traveled a total of 13.18 miles (21.21 km), not too shabby.

New images of the oil slick in the gulf of Mexico, as imaged by two of NASA’s satellites. Earth Observing-1 and Terra.

Acquired June 26, 2010
Satellite: Earth Observing-1
Instrument: Advanced Land Imager

As of June 27, 2010, the entire gulf-facing beachfront of several barrier islands in eastern Mississippi (offshore of Pascagoula) had received a designation of at least “lightly oiled” by the interagency Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Team that is responding to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. A few small stretches of Petit Bois Island had been labeled heavily or moderately oiled.

This high-resolution image shows Petit Bois Island (top right) and the eastern end of Horn Island (top left) on June 26. In general, oil-covered waters are silvery and cleaner waters are blue-gray. This pattern is especially consistent farther from the islands. The intensely bright patches of water directly offshore of the barrier islands, however, may be from a combination of factors, including sediment and organic material, coastal currents and surf, and oil.

The islands provide a sense of scale for the ribbons of oil swirling into the area from the south. Petit Bois Island is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) long. It is one of seven barrier islands that, along with some mainland areas of Mississippi and Florida, make up the Gulf Islands National Seashore. According to the National Park Service Gulf Islands National Seashore Website, all the islands remained open to the public as of June 28, 2010, and clean-up crews were on hand to respond to any oil coming ashore.

Acquired June 27, 2010
Satellite: Terra
Instrument: Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

The possibility of detecting oil slicks in photo-like satellite images depends on the slick being located in the sunglint region—the wide, washed-out strip where the mirror-like reflection of the Sun off the water is diffused by waves and currents. When the oil is located in that relatively narrow region of the scene, it can strongly influence how the water reflects light. Oil-covered water may look dramatically brighter or darker than adjacent, oil-free water.

In this image from Sunday, June 27, 2010, eastern areas of the slick are more visible than western areas, even though analysis from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicates heavy concentrations of oil in the vicinity of the leaking well, which is about 75 kilometers (47 miles) southeast of the Mississippi Delta (beyond the left edge of the image). Ribbons of silvery-gray oil swirl in the waters off Alabama and Florida, while farther west—closer to the source of the leak—the reflection seems to be dominated by muddy water in the Mississippi River Delta.

Although the oil extent does change from day to day, the big difference in the appearance of oil in this image versus the previous day’s image is the location of the oil in relation to the sunglint region. In this view from June 27, the sunglint fell across an area farther east than it did in the image from June 26, and so the oil is more visible there.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has just completed a full year in orbit as of Yesterday. In that time the orbiter has taken many many images and expanded our understanding of the closest celestial object to our planet. On June 12th though, the orbiter snapped a mosaic of images during a calibration sequence of our own planet. So enjoy the view from the Moon.

Due to open this October on the 28th, Ferrari World is the largest indoor park with an F-1 Track. The theme park is located on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, which is the second largest city and capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Credit: DigitalGlobe

Newly released image as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope an amazing with further details below. Enjoy.

A spectacular new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image — one of the largest ever released of a star-forming region — highlights N11, part of a complex network of gas clouds and star clusters within our neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. This region of energetic star formation is one of the most active in the nearby Universe.

The Large Magellanic Cloud contains many bright bubbles of glowing gas. One of the largest and most spectacular has the name LHA 120-N 11, from its listing in a catalogue compiled by the American astronomer and astronaut Karl Henize in 1956, and is informally known as N11. Close up, the billowing pink clouds of glowing gas make N11 resemble a puffy swirl of fairground candy floss. From further away, its distinctive overall shape led some observers to nickname it the Bean Nebula. The dramatic and colourful features visible in the nebula are the telltale signs of star formation. N11 is a well-studied region that extends over 1000 light-years. It is the second largest star-forming region within the Large Magellanic Cloud and has produced some of the most massive stars known.

It is the process of star formation that gives N11 its distinctive look. Three successive generations of stars, each of which formed further away from the centre of the nebula than the last, have created shells of gas and dust. These shells were blown away from the newborn stars in the turmoil of their energetic birth and early life, creating the ring shapes so prominent in this image.

Read More, original press release.

Move over Topeka, Kansas, the city of Longmont, Colorado has gone to greater lengths to attract the attention of the search giant Google with this love letter imaged from space. Hometown company DigitalGlobe‘s WorldView-2 satellite took this image on June 18th at the request of the “Longmont Loves Google” organizers who set this up. All of this of course has to do with the wooing of Google so the community can make themselves more eligible to receive the speedy Google Fiber internet service that cities across the United States are vying for. At the very least it should certainly set them apart from the others, and its worth noting that DigitalGlobe provides a lot of the high-resolution imagery you find in Google Earth.

“Longmont Loves Google”, Longmont, Colorado-June 18, 2010: At the request of the Longmont “Longmont Loves Google” organizers, DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 satellite collected this cloud-free image of Longmont, Colorado at 12:27pm on June 18, 2010-from 480 miles above the Earth. The organizers used about 100 cars and hundreds of people to create their message captured by DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 satellite.

NASA’s Terra satellite continues to monitor the situation in the Gulf of Mexico, taking this image of the oil slick on June 19th from its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer.

On Saturday, June 19, 2010, oil spread northeast from the leaking Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil appears as a maze of silvery-gray ribbons in this photo-like image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

The location of the leaking well is marked with a white dot. North of the well, a spot of black may be smoke; reports from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say that oil and gas continue to be captured and burned as part of the emergency response efforts.

Ruining a whole lot of folks summers, along with livelihoods is the still ever presence oil sick covering the Gulf of Mexico. This latest picture was taken from the same satellite as took the image in the post below or NASA’s Terra satellite. Which has been zooming around earth, giving us a detailed picture of our planet for 10 years thus far.

Oil from the Deepwater Horizon rig was visible on the surface of Gulf of Mexico waters on June 18, 2010. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite took this picture the same day. The oil appears and meandering, interlocking patterns of varying shades of off white. The angle of the Sun plays a role in the oil slick’s visibility, as the oil is illuminated by sunglint.