NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

NASA’s Terra Satellites Sees Spill on May 24

Sunlight illuminated the lingering oil slick off the Mississippi Delta on May 24, 2010. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image the same day. Oil smoothes the ocean surface, making the Sun’s reflection brighter near the centerline of the path of the satellite, and reducing the scattering of sunlight in other places. As a result, the oil slick is brighter than the surrounding water in some places (image center) and darker than the surrounding water in others (image lower right). The tip of the Mississippi Delta is surrounded by muddy water that appears light tan. Bright white ribbons of oil streak across this sediment-laden water. Tendrils of oil extend to the north and east of the main body of the slick. A small, dark plume along the edge of the slick, not far from the original location of the Deepwater Horizon rig, indicates a possible controlled burn of oil on the ocean surface. To the west of the bird’s-foot part of the delta, dark patches in the water may also be oil, but detecting a manmade oil slick in coastal areas can be even more complicated than detecting it in the open ocean. When oil slicks are visible in satellite images, it is because they have changed how the water reflects light, either by making the Sun’s reflection brighter or by dampening the scattering of sunlight, which makes the oily area darker. In coastal areas, however, similar changes in reflectivity can occur from differences in salinity (fresh versus salt water) and from naturally produced oils from plants. Michon Scott NASA's Earth Observatory NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA

NASA Center for Climate Simulation Debuts 2

Bild: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Center for Climate Simulation Debuts

The NCCS media day was attended by members of the media and NCCS partners from industry and government. Dr. Phil Webster (right, center) addresses the audience.

To learn more go to: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/climate-sim-center.html

Credit: NASA/GSFC/Pat Izzo

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.

NASA Center for Climate Simulation Debuts 3

Bild: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Center for Climate Simulation Debuts
The cornerstone of the NASA Center for Climate Simulation is its 15-screen visualization wall. Dr. Phil Webster (left) presents a variety of visuals on the wall.
To learn more go to: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/climate-sim-center.html
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Pat Izzo
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.

Global Hawk, NASA’s New Remote-Controlled Plane

At NASA’s Dryden Research Center in California, a group of engineers, scientists, and aviation technicians have set up camp in a noisy, chilly hangar on Edwards Air Force base. For the past two weeks, they have been working to mount equipment—from HD video cameras to ozone sensors—onto NASA’s Global Hawk, a remote-controlled airplane that can fly for up to 30 hours at altitudes up to 65,000 feet. The team is gearing up for the Global Hawk Pacific campaign, a series of four or five scientific research flights that will take the Global Hawk over the Pacific Ocean and Arctic regions. The 44-foot-long aircraft, with its comically large nose and 116-foot wingspan is pictured in the photograph above, banking for landing over Rogers Dry Lake in California at the end of a test flight on October 23, 2009. The long wings carry the plane’s fuel, and the bulbous nose is one of the payload bays, which house the science instruments. For the Global Hawk Pacific campaign, the robotic aircraft will carry ten science instruments that will sample the chemical composition of air in the troposphere (the atmospheric layer closest to Earth) and the stratosphere (the layer above the troposphere). The mission will also observe clouds and aerosol particles in the troposphere. The primary purpose of the mission is to collect observations that can be used to check the accuracy of simultaneous observations collected by NASA’s Aura satellite. Co-lead scientist Paul Newman from Goddard Space Flight Center is writing about the ground-breaking mission for the Earth Observatory’s Notes from the Field blog. NASA Photograph by Carla Thomas.
Bild: NASA Goddard Photo and Video

Stephen Hawking NASA 50th

Dr. Stephen Hawking, a professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge, delivers a speech entitled "Why we should go into space" during a lecture that is part of a series honoring NASA's 50th Anniversary, Monday, April 21, 2008, at George Washington University's Morton Auditorium in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Paul E. Alers)
Bild: nasa hq photo

Earth and International Space Station (NASA, 04/17/10)

Backdropped by Earth's horizon and the blackness of space, the International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an STS-131 crew member on space shuttle Discovery after the station and shuttle began their post-undocking relative separation. Undocking of the two spacecraft occurred at 7:52 a.m. (CDT) on April 17, 2010. Image/caption credit: NASA
Bild: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Earth Observatory

NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz