2004 EARTH SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
| |
Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| EARTH SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS 2003 | G04-008 | 4/2/04 | 69:50 | These are selected media highlight from NASA's Earth Science Enterprise. Most of these stories contain excerpts of news releases (video files). The video aired on NASA TV in 2003. Where possible, we provided links, tape numbers, and contacts. The Earth Science Enterprise mission is to understand and protect our home planet by using our view from space to study the Earth system and improve prediction of Earth system change.
|
TAPE CONTENTS: |
| FIRES BELOW, EYES ABOVE: NASA HELPS FIRE MANAGERS KEEP AN EYE ON WHAT'S HOT - In the past few years NASA has developed and successfully launched a sophisticated fleet of Earth-observing satellites that have changed the face of wildfire management. Designed to gather revolutionary types of data about our home planet for research purposes, the onboard instruments also are able to monitor wildfires around the clock and around the globe. This constant flow of information allows fire managers to produce daily fire maps that illuminate what's on fire and who's at risk.
ITEM (1): Rapidfire: Daily Fire Detection - The MODIS Land Rapid Response system is an evolving technological tool to help manage active fire data in near real-time. Known as "RapidFire," the system is semi-autonomous, making both observations of and determinations about fires using data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument onboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. The sorted data is then processed and distributed to the U.S. Forest Service, the National Interagency Fire Center, the U.N. Global Fire Monitoring Center and other end users. The following image zooms into the Aspen fire outside of Tucson, Arizona, on June 20, 2003. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (2): Multi-Sensor Observations: Fires In The Western United States In 2002 - NASA satellites collect data on many environmental characteristics. For the study of wildfires, these data sets become infinitely more valuable when combined together. The following animation shows cloud circulation, rainfall patterns, aerosol index, and land cover patterns for the Western United States during the summer of 2002, highlighting the Hayman, Rodeo-Chediski, and Biscuit Fires. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (3): The Hayman Fire - Smoke In 3-D - In June 2002, the Hayman fire burned just north of Denver, Colorado, for nearly one month. Data from Terra's multi-angle spectroradiometer, called MISR, reveals the fire's giant smoke plume in 3-D. Combined with MODIS thermal and land cover data, fire managers can see that the Hayman fire burned mostly in evergreen and savannah regions. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (4): The Biscuit Fire - Burning Radiance - The Biscuit fire ravaged nearly 500,000 acres of evergreen needle-leaf forest over the course of two months in Southern Oregon. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on the Terra satellite is capable of generating not only elevation data, but also land surface temperatures, radiance, and reflectance. The following animation zooms into the Biscuit fire and ends with a visual representation of ASTER radiance data. Burned areas are dark purple, and active fires are bright purple. Courtesy: NASA/METI/ERSDAC
ITEM (5): Smart Satellites Get A Closer Look - NASA is testing new integration techniques with the EO-1 spacecraft and its cutting edge ALI instrument. It works like this: when MODIS spots an area on the ground that may indicate fire, advanced software puts out an alert. That message essentially instructs ALI to point itself towards the zone of interest and get a close-up. If the resulting picture from this orbital dance shows risk for fire, the system can alert experts and officials to take action on the ground. The whole process is automated making observations and analysis fast. A system like this has the potential to greatly accelerate notification of potential trouble spots before they can get out of hand. Courtesy: NASA
|
| A NEW SPIN ON HURRICANES: SATELLITES SENSE RECIPE FOR A NATURAL DISASTER - After the first of September, the Atlantic hurricane season peaks. At the turn of the last century, forecasters only had a vague idea of a hurricane's position from reports from ships at sea and island stations the storm recently passed. Until a hurricane hit, they couldn't even pinpoint its movements. These days, with the aid of multiple data sets from a fleet of Earth-observing satellites, scientists more readily understand and predict the formation, intensification, and movement of these super-storms.
ITEM (1): Take Warm Water, Stir - What makes a hurricane? First, warm water - at least 82 ' F. Orange and red indicate the necessary 82-degree or warmer water, sea surface temperatures (SSTs) from the Aqua satellite in May 2002. Add a disturbance, generally easterly waves off Africa, formed from winds from a clash between the hot Sahara Desert and the cooler Gulf of Guinea. These waves provide the initial energy and spin required for a hurricane to develop, seen Sept. 1-15, 2001, by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (operated by NOAA). Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (2): Mix Thoroughly, Bake - With the right mix of winds and sea surface temperatures, an ordinary cluster of tropical thunderstorms can explode into a tropical storm. Winds converge, forming the familiar circular pattern of clouds. Warm, rising air in the storms draws water vapor up from the ocean. The vapor condenses in clouds and releases heat, warming the eye, evaporating more surface water and feeding the hurricane's heat engine, continuing the cycle. Data from Hurricane Erin, September 10-15, 2001.Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (3): Future Of Forecasting (G02-017) - The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) aboard NASA's Aqua satellite furnishes 3-D views of temperature, humidity and clouds in the atmosphere. AIRS observes the temperatures of cloud tops via infrared energy and, with the help of two companion microwave-energy sensors, maps temperature and humidity inside and below clouds. This reveals a storm's inner structure, including its most intense regions. A high-resolution visible wavelength sensor adds information about the clouds' fine structure. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (4): Supertyphoon Pongsona - Here AIRS shows some of the internal temperature structure of Supertyphoon Pongsona just as it hit the island of Guam on December 8, 2002. Each colored surface represents a particular temperature, (red, warmest to yellow coldest). Normally, these so-called isotherms would be much smoother and nearly horizontal. Here, latent heat released causes upward bulges, seen as much as 50,000 feet above sea level, a rarely observed warm air cap above a hurricane only measurable with an instrument like AIRS. As we zoom in on the lower 30,000 feet, we can discern a dip in the center where cooler, drier air descends and forms the eye. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (5): Hurricane Isidore and AIRS - Data taken before and after U.S. landfall, September 12 and 28, 2002, from AIRS reveal the extent of flooding due to Isidore. The three images taken by the AIRS sounding system on Aqua show high and cold clouds in blue in the upper left image. The upper right image shows heavy rain cells in blue over Alabama and the lower left image shows swirling clouds in white and the water off the Gulf of Mexico in blue. The eye of the hurricane is common to all three images but it appears to have some clouds and does not show a clear view down to the Gulf's surface water. The dark blue and purple colors in the lower right image show the extent of flooding. Courtesy: NASA
|
| NASA LOOKS AT THE HEAT ENGINE DRIVING HURRICANE ISABEL - Scientists use space-based tools to look inside Hurricane Isabel and access the storms impact on the United States East Coast. Hurricanes act as heat engines, drawing energy up from warm tropical ocean waters to power the intense winds, powerful thunderstorms, and immense ocean surges. These tools help weather experts determine if a tropical cyclone is likely to strengthen or weaken and how much rain will fall on land.
ITEM (1): Warm Water Fuels Hurricane Isabel - In this visualization, Hurricane Fabian runs through a large patch of warm water, orange and red indicate 82 F and warmer, and leaves a blue cold trail behind. Cold trails can sometimes weaken tropical storms. However, Hurricane Isabel took a different path fueling up on warm water next to Fabian's cold trail, and leaving another cold trail behind. Aqua satellite's Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) provided sea surface temperatures for this animation. Data runs from August 22 to September 17, 2003. Courtesy: NASA/NASDA
ITEM (2): Checking Under Isabel's Hood - NASA and National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite looked under Isabel's hood and showed scientists the pistons that power the hurricane, giving them an idea of the intensity and rainfall distribution. TRMM allows scientists to create 3-D views of precipitation, height of the rain column, and warmth of the core inside powerful hurricanes. Red indicates rain rates in excess of 2 inches per hour. Green, excess of 1 inch per hour. Yellow excess of .5 inches of rain per hour. TRMM captured this image September 15, 2003.Courtesy: NASA/NASDA
ITEM (3): Eye of Hurricane Isabel - NASA satellites capture many different perspectives of Hurricane Isabel. Twice a day, every day, two satellites fly over the planet capturing highly detailed images of the Earth. This animated sequence shows eight days of high-resolution images of Hurricane Isabel taken from NASA's Aqua and Terra satellite using the MODIS instrument. The dates include September 8, 10,11,12, 14, 15, 16, and 17, 2003. Courtesy: NASA
|
| QUAKESIM: AN ADVANCED EARTHQUAKE MODELING SYSTEM (AVC-2003-210-1/1) - Advanced computer simulation tools now being developed by NASA and university researchers may soon give scientists new insights into the complex and mysterious physics of earthquakes and enable vastly improved earthquake forecasting.
ITEM (1): Southern California Integrated GPS Network Data Collection - NASA scientists gather data from a Global Positioning (GPS) site on Oat Mountain in the Santa Susana Mountains north of the San Fernando Valley in Southern California. The site is part of the Southern California Integrated GPS Network, a network of more than 250 GPS stations in 14 California counties and Mexico. The network allows scientists to monitor minute movements of Earth's plates, showing how faults interact. GPS measurements of crustal deformation in Earth's surface will be key inputs into the development of QuakeSim's simulation models. Courtesy: NASA JPL
ITEM (2): GeoFEST Simulation of Post-Northridge Quake Surface Deformation - Animation depicting 500 years of simulated deformation of Earth's surface following the 1994 Northridge earthquake, as generated by GeoFEST, a 2- and 3-D software tool. GeoFEST will generate computer simulations of stress and strain in Earth's crust and upper mantle in complex geological regions with many interacting fault systems. It will show how the ground deforms in response to a quake, how deformation changes over time following a quake and the net effects to the ground from a series of quakes. Courtesy: NASA JPL
ITEM (3): Virtual California Simulation of 1000 years of Surface Deformation - This animation depicts 1,000 years of simulated horizontal surface deformation in Southern California. It was generated by Virtual California, one of three major QuakeSim earthquake simulation tools. The tool simulates how California's hundreds of independent fault segments interact. Scientists use the tools to determine correlated patterns of activity that can be used to forecast seismic hazard, especially for quakes of magnitude 6 or greater. The earthquake fault data base used by the simulation is drawn as red lines on top of a Landsat image. Courtesy: NASA JPL
|
| SEASONS OF CHANGE: EVIDENCE OF ARCTIC WARMING GROWS - Experts have long regarded Earth's polar regions as early indicators for global climate change. But until the last few years, wide ranging, comprehensive research about overall polar conditions has been challenging to conduct. Now a more than 20-year record of space-based measurements has been analyzed by researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Based on their findings, evidence of a warming planet continues to grow.
ITEM (1): Changing Seasons, Changing Ice - Using data collected by a number of satellites from 1979 to 2003, we see in this sequence how scientists have been able to stitch together a careful record of sea ice in The Arctic. In 2002 scientists recorded the lowest concentration of sea ice ever. While temperature changes vary across the vast expanse of The Arctic, overall trends suggest that decreasing ice concentrations are due to a significant increase in ocean warming, from rising surface temperatures to the total number of annual "melt days".
Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (2): 1979 to 2003 Sea Ice Comparison - These two images show a comparison of Arctic sea ice concentrations between 1979 and 2003. 1979 marks the first year that data of this kind became available in any meaningful form. To date, 2003 is the second lowest concentration of sea ice on record. Experts recorded the lowest measured concentration of sea ice during 2002. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (3): Warmer and Cooler - Based on 20 years of data collected by infrared measurements, surface warming trends in the Arctic are eight times greater than trends over the past 100 years, suggesting a rapid acceleration in warming. According to this study, the sea ice melt season has increased by 10 to 17 days per decade. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (4): Pressure to Change - Taken in isolation, 1 year's worth of data does not tell us much. Just as we all know that some days of the year might be unusually hot or cold, we intuitively understand that dramatic events in isolation are simply anomalies. But many samples of data can imply change. Taken as collections of information, trends begin to emerge based on a pattern. In this sequence we see how 21 years of accumulated data indicate temperature trends in the Arctic. While the overall direction of the trend suggests warming for the region, there are many places where the average temperature is falling year over year. Courtesy: NASA
|
| EL NINO, THE USUAL SUSPECT? (G03-013) - 2003 was a very cold and snowy winter for the East. El Nino is the usual suspect for odd winter weather. However, the real culprit appears to be hovering over the Northern Atlantic and it's called the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO).
ITEM (1): The Real Suspect, North Atlantic Oscillation - The North Atlantic Oscillation could be the major contributor to the U.S. January arctic blast. The current phase of the NAO tends to produce more severe winter weather in the North and Eastern U.S. by allowing cold Arctic air to penetrate more easily from Canada into the eastern U.S. The Quik Scatterometer (QuikScat) satellite along with data from the National Weather Service shows circling wind anomalies over the North Atlantic drawing that cold air over the U.S. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (2): January 2003 Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies - The 2002-2003 El Nino is unlike the El Nino of 1997-1998. These images show that the warmest SST anomalies are concentrated in the central equatorial Pacific. During the 1997-1998 El Nino, the warmest SST anomalies were right up against the South American coast. Historically, El Nino's effects on United States weather are greatest when the warmest SST anomalies are near the coast of South America. Areas in red indicate warmer than normal temperatures and areas in blue show cooler than normal temperatures. The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) on board the Aqua satellite saw through the clouds to provide sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies associated with 2002-2003 El Nino. Courtesy: NASDA/NASA
|
| THE CASE OF SOOT AND RECEDING ICE (G03-069) - Black soot may contribute to melting glaciers and other ice on the planet and eventually a warmer Earth. Traveling potentially thousands of miles from its sources on air currents, this pollution eventually settles out of the air, onto land and into the oceans. On ice and snow, it darkens normally bright surfaces. Just as a white shirt keeps a person cooler in the summer than a black shirt, the vast stretches of polar ice covering much of the planet's top and bottom reflect large amounts of solar radiation falling on the planet's surface, helping regulate Earth's temperature. Soot lowers this albedo, or reflectivity, and the ice retains more heat, leading to increased melting.
ITEM (1): Bright White Reflects Light - This animation provides a close perspective of the relationship between ice and solar reflectivity. As glaciers, polar caps, and icebergs (shown here) melt, less sunlight gets reflected into space. Instead, the oceans and land absorb the light, thus raising the overall temperature and adding energy to a vicious circle (first case). Soot-darkened ice retains more light, contributing to the process (second case). As light is absorbed, the environment is heated, thus intensifying a feedback loop: a warmer planet yields more ice melting and thus an even warmer planet. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (2): Is The Ocean Rising? - The polar caps not only hold much of the planet's total fresh water but also help regulate the Earth's temperature. Soot-darkened ice has a lower albedo, or reflectivity, than clean ice, so it absorbs more light, leading to melted ice. Were the ice caps to appreciably recede, sunlight that otherwise would have been reflected back into space would get absorbed by the darker, denser mass of ocean and land beneath. The attending planetary conditions necessary to facilitate polar melting would likely have enormous effects on the environment. Courtesy: NASA
|
| ICESAT SHINES A LIGHT ON OUR WORLD (G03-041) - NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) is sending home spectacular 3-D views of Earth's clouds, polar ice sheets, mountains, forestlands and even fires, all to help scientists understand how our changing climate will affect life on Earth. The focus objective of the ICESat mission and its Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) instrument is to measure the surface elevations of the large ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland and how they are changing. The mission also addresses critical issues for the atmosphere and biosphere by detecting cloud and aerosol heights in the atmosphere, dust storms, pollution smoke from forest fires, and even tree heights.
ITEM (1): A Global Perspective - Criss-crossing the world below at nearly 17,000 miles per hour, ICESat is covering the Earth from space with unprecedented accuracy and detail. GLAS sends short pulses of green and infrared light though the sky 40 times a second, all over the globe, and collects the reflected laser light in a 1-meter telescope. Although the signature goal of ICESAT's mission is to observe ice near the poles, the satellite makes measurements continuously around the entire globe, providing important information about our planet's clouds, oceans, mountains, forests, and fields. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (2): A New Look: Antarctica in 3-D - ICESat's orbit was designed to maximize coverage over the great polar ice sheets, where ground tracks overlap to create an intricate grid of data points. The accumulation of these data points in the Southern Hemisphere results in a new three-dimensional elevation model of Antarctica in better detail than ever before. For the first time, scientists will be able to tell from space exactly whether amounts of ice and snow in the middle of ice sheets are rising or falling from previous years as the Earth's climate undergoes natural and human-induced changes. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (3): Three Antarctic Transects from ICESat - ICESat's first topographic profiles across the continent reveal the textured surfaces of Antarctic ice sheets in unprecedented detail. The following animations show three different transects of the Antarctic continent as seen by ICESat. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (4): A Continuous View of Clouds - ICESat is providing scientists with the most accurate measurements of the heights of clouds and critical observations of atmospheric particles called aerosol. The measurements help climate modelers, who reconstruct the past and project future climate. The influence of aerosol particles generated by human activity is considered the largest uncertainty for current global warming studies. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (5): Clouds Reflect Solar Energy - Cloud heights and the concentrations of aerosol particles are important to scientists in determining the amount of solar energy reflected and absorbed into the lower or upper atmosphere. The white clouds and light colored aerosols reflect energy back to space, while dark aerosols absorb energy and warm the air. Clouds also trap heat radiation that would be lost to space. If clouds are higher, more heat radiation is trapped. All of these factors add into an equation to determine whether or not the lower atmosphere is warming or cooling around the world. Courtesy: NASA
|
| PATAGONIA ICEFIELDS (SRTM) (AVC-2003-113-1/1) - A new study of the Patagonia Icefields in South America by NASA and Chile's Centro de Estudios Cientificos includes the icefields, the largest non-Antarctic ice masses in the Southern Hemisphere, are thinning at an accelerating pace.
Conventional topographic data from the 1970s and 1990s was compared with data from NASA's February 2000 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission to measure changes in the volumes of the 63 largest glaciers in the region over time. The researchers concluded the thinning rate of the Patagonia Icefields more than doubled during the period from 1995 through 2000 versus the period from 1975 to 2000. The researchers attribute the increased thinning to climate change and the unique dynamical response of the region's glaciers to it.
ITEM (1): Animation of Jorge Montt Glacier Thinning, Southern Patagonia - This animation depicts the thinning of Jorge Montt Glacier, in the northern part of the Southern Patagonia Icefield, South America. Ice thinning between 1975 and 2000 averaged 3.3 meters (10.8 feet) per year over the entire glacier, and reached 18 meters (59.1 feet) per year at the lowest elevations. The video begins with an image of the glacier configuration in 2000 using an overlay of Landsat Thematic Mapper data and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) topography. The overlay then dissolves into a color map of the present-day topography, then morphs back into the 1975 topography before returning to the 2000 topography and overlay. Courtesy: NASA JPL
ITEM (2): Tyndall Glacier, Southern Patagonia Icefield - Tyndall Glacier, located in the Southern Patagonia Icefield, has been the site of numerous field experiments conducted by researchers from the United States, Chile and Japan. Courtesy: Marcelo Arevalo, Centro de Estudio Cientificos, Valdivia, Chile
ITEM (3): Pioxi Glacier, Southern Patagonia Icefield - This photo shows one arm of the glacier calving (breaking off) into the Patagonia fjords. Glacial calving of icebergs into the Pacific Ocean or lakes is a common characteristic of the Patagonia Icefields, a factor that makes them particularly sensitive to climate change. Courtesy: Marcelo Arevalo, Centro de Estudio Cientificos, Valdivia, Chile
|
| SRTM DATA FOR SOUTH AMERICA (AVC-2003-113-1/1) - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has released a high-resolution topographic map of South America using data collected during the February 2000 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. The data greatly expands our topographic knowledge of this region and will have numerous scientific and commercial applications. The mission is a cooperative project between NASA, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, and the German and Italian space agencies.
ITEM (1): South America Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Map - Shuttle Radar Topography Mission shaded relief image of South America depicting height as color, with green at the lower elevations, rising through yellow and tan, to white at the highest elevations. The topography of the continent is dominated by spectacular Andes Mountains, which extend all along the Pacific Coast; and the very low relief Amazon River Basin, which drains much of northern South America into the world's largest river in terms of both watershed area and flow volume. Courtesy: NASA JPL
ITEM (2): Andes Mountains Flyover - This computer animation uses Shuttle Radar Topography Mission elevation data and a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer image mosaic to simulate a high-altitude flight along the Andes Mountains, which run the entire length of South America's west coast. Courtesy: NASA JPL
ITEM (3): Pando Province, Northern Bolivia - Unannotated and annotated visualization views of Pando Province, Bolivia, and adjacent parts of Brazil and Peru in South America's Amazon Basin, generated from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) elevation data. Most of this region is covered by tropical rainforest. SRTM data provide the first detailed 3-D look at the landforms of this region, and the Amazon Basin in its entirety, and will be particularly helpful in understanding the hydrologic patterns as environmental management becomes increasingly important. Courtesy: NASA JPL
|
| SRTM MAPS REVEAL DINOSAUR CRATER (AVC-2003-051-1/1) - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory releases a high-resolution topographic map of North America using data collected during the February 2000 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. SRTM is a cooperative between NASA, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency and German and Italian space agencies.
ITEM (1): Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, Shuttle Radar Topopgraphy Mission Map - Shuttle Radar Topography Mission shaded relief image of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, shows topographic indication of the Chicxulub impact crater, which many scientists believe was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs and most living species on Earth 65 million years ago. The outer boundary of the impact crater is visible as a semicircular trough 3 to 5 meters (10 to 15 feet) deep and 5 kilometers (3 miles) wide. Courtesy: NASA JPL
ITEM (2): SRTM/Landsat Comparison, Yucatan Penninsula, Mexico - Side-by-side topographic comparison of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and the Chiczulub impact crater. Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data generated the top picture. The image depicts height as color. The trough is shown in a darker green semicircular line near the crater's rim. The bottom picture depicts the same area as viewed by the Landsat satellite and maximizes contrast between different vegetation and land cover types. Native vegetation and cultivated land show as green, yellow and magenta and urban as white. The circular white area near the center is Merida, a city of about 720,000 population. The city is not visible in the SRTM map. Courtesy: NASA JPL
|
| FIRST EVIDENCE OF OZONE HOLE RECOVERY (G03-054) - After a relatively warm Antarctic winter in 2002, the thinning of the protective ozone layer over Antarctica, known as the ozone 'hole,' seems to be as severe as ever in 2003. Due to colder than average temperatures, the 'hole' stretches over an area as large as the North American continent, possibly reaching populated areas of South America and exposing them to ultraviolet rays normally absorbed by ozone.
ITEM (1): 2003 Antarctic Ozone 'Hole' - By mid-September 2003, the ozone thinning already extended over 28.2 million square kilometers (10.9 million square miles). The maximum area in 2000 reached 29.2 million square kilometers, the largest on record. Since winter temperatures dipped lower than usual, driving the chemical reactions that deplete ozone, this year's 'hole' (dark blue) was very large. This series shows the daily extent of the ozone 'hole,' regions. Data come from NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) on the Earth Probe satellite, from Aug. 1-Sept. 23, 2003. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (2): Calm, Cool Skies Spell Losses - This year, colder temperatures and calmer winds allowed chemical reactions that break down ozone to occur at about the same rates as the past few years. However, last year's unusually moderate Antarctic temperatures and highly variable upper atmospheric winds kept the ozone 'hole' relatively small, about 40% smaller in area than the record sizes seen in 2000, 2001, and this year. In 2002, the 'hole' also split into two parts for the first time since 1979, also due to unusual weather patterns. These comparisons pit the near-record size of this year's 'hole' against a) the small area of last year's hole, b) the split shape from last year, and c) the record-size hole from 2000. Data from TOMS-EP. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (3): Nearing The Road To Recovery? - Last year's unusual reduction in ozone losses proved just that - unusual. The ozone hole grew larger throughout the late 1980's and early 1990's, as shown in this time series of maximum areas from 1979 to 2002 (excluding 1995). This year the hole reached nearly the same size as 2000 and 2001, larger than the North American continent. While the manufacture and use of chlorofluorocarbons and halons (CFCs) that contribute to yearly ozone destruction have decreased, the chemicals will linger in the upper atmosphere for decades before the ozone layer will consistently recover. Courtesy: NASA
|
| GRACE GRAVITY MODEL (AVC-2003-141-1/1) - The joint NASA-German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment or GRACE, mission released its first science product: the most accurate map yet created of Earth gravity field. It will help us understand ocean circulation, which strongly influences weather and climate.
ITEM (1): Pre-GRACE Gravity Model - Prior to the gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment mission, Earth's gravity field was determined using measurements from different satellites with uneven data quality and incomplete global coverage. Consequently, the accuracy and resolution of the gravity field were limited. Only broad geophysical features of Earth's structure could be detected. Courtesy: NASA JPL/University of Texas' Center for Space Research
ITEM (2): Post-GRACE Gravity Model - The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment mission has provided much higher resolution gravity information than ever before possible, revealing much greater detail in Earth's Geophysical features. The data are global, of even quality and highly accurate. High-resolution features detected by the mission include the Tonga/Kermadec region (A zone where one tectonic plate slides under another) and the Himalayan/ Tibetan Plateau region (an area of uplift due to colliding plates).Courtesy: NASA JPL/University of Texas' Center for Space Research
|
| OCEAN SPONGING UP SOME WARMTH OVER NEXT 50 YEARS (G03-052) - NASA's improved global climate computer model, which simulates and projects how the Earth's climate will change, indicates that the oceans have been absorbing heat since 1951 and may continue to absorb more heat from the atmosphere over the next 50 years. This increasing ocean heat storage suggests that global surface temperatures may warm less than previous studies projected, while the ocean acts as a bigger heat sponge. Further, the additional ocean heating may likely change regional climate patterns.
ITEM (1): Global Views of Sea-Surface Temperature - The following images were captured by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument which is carried onboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. Like a sophisticated thermometer in space, MODIS is helping Earth scientists advance studies of how our world's oceans and atmosphere interact in ways that drive weather patterns and, over the long term, define our climate. In the following animations, the warmest waters are illustrated in white and yellow. Progressively cooler waters are shown in red, purple, blue, green, and black. Courtesy: NASA
|
| GLOBAL GARDEN GROWS GREENER (G03-037) - NASA's improved global climate computer model, which simulates and projects how the Earth's climate will change, indicates that the oceans have been absorbing heat since 1951 and may continue to absorb more heat from the atmosphere over the next 50 years. This increasing ocean heat storage suggests that global surface temperatures may warm less than previous studies projected, while the ocean acts as a bigger heat sponge. Further, the additional ocean heating may likely change regional climate patterns.
ITEM (1): Satellites are Seeing Green - Scientists studying the greening of our planet are using climate and satellite data to calculate the net primary production (NPP) of plants on Earth. The global NPP is the difference between the amount of CO2 absorbed during photosynthesis, and the amount of CO2 lost during respiration. NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) aboard the OrbView-2 satellite has been measuring this cycle since 1997. This colorful globe is a 3-year map of continuous data showing fluctuating areas of successful photosynthesis on land and in the oceans. Courtesy: NASA/ORBIMAGE
ITEM (2): A World-View of Photosynthesis - The following animation shows the same 3 years of continuous data (1997-2000) on a flat map of the Earth. The smooth migration of green areas over time is a reflection of seasonal changes in temperature and moisture. These green patches represent areas of the greatest plant productivity, which may be expanding and approaching new regions due to changes in the Earth's climate over the past 20 years. Courtesy: NASA/ORBIMAGE
|
| URBANIZATION AND CLIMATE: HOW CITIES IMPACT GLOBAL CHANGE (AGU 2003) (G03-067) - Satellites help scientists observe major urban areas and their environments around the world, as urbanization can impact processes related to clouds, rainfall, air quality, temperature, and climate. Urbanization may also impact global temperature records, cloud cover, and surface water run-off processes. Recent and future satellites rounding out NASA's Earth Observing System will provide an unprecedented capability to measure and link components of urban environments that may signify global change in weather, climate, water resources, air quality, or land use.
ITEM (1): Pollution Increases Summer Precipitation - In summer, weaker winds move the clouds more slowly. Heat absorbed by the city and pollution's interference with raindrop formation interact to cause the clouds to intensify before producing precipitation. The onset of rainfall from a cloud leads eventually to its demise by cooling off the air near the ground. The air pollution delays the onset of precipitation, so that the intense storm clouds can build higher and larger before they start precipitating and subsequently dissipating. Therefore, these larger and more intense thunderstorm clouds produce eventually heavier rainfall on the city and the downwind areas. First is the unpolluted, then the polluted case. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (2): Urban Rainfall Effect in Coastal Cities - Cities tend to be 1-10 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than surrounding areas. The added heat destabilizes and changes air circulation around cities. During the warmer months, the added heat creates wind circulations and rising air that produces new clouds or enhances existing ones. Under the right conditions, these clouds evolve into rain-producers or storms. Scientists suspect that converging air due to city surfaces of varying heights, like buildings, also promotes rising air needed to produce clouds and rainfall. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (3): Pollution Reduces Winter Precipitation - In winter, moist air flows off the ocean and rises over the hills downwind of a coastal city, dropping its rain and snow mainly as it ascends the hills. As pollution from the city is pushed into the clouds by the hills downwind of the city, it interferes with droplet formation in the clouds and makes them smaller, as observed by NASA's satellites. The smaller cloud droplets convert more slowly into precipitation. Instead of precipitating, much of the water in the clouds evaporates, reducing the net rainfall downwind of the urban area by up to 15% to 25% on a seasonal basis. First is the unpolluted, then the polluted case. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (4): Pollution Inhibits Precipitation Formation - Normal rainfall droplet creation involves water vapor condensing on particles in clouds. The droplets eventually coalesce together to form drops large enough to fall to Earth. However, as more and more pollution particles (aerosols) enter a rain cloud, the same amount of water becomes spread out. These smaller water droplets float with the air and are prevented from coalescing and growing large enough for a raindrop. Thus, the cloud yields less rainfall over the course of its lifetime compared to a clean (non-polluted) cloud of the same size. The split screen compares a normal rain producing cloud (left) with the lack of rain produced from a cloud full of aerosols from pollution. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (5): Urban Rainfall Shadows - Using the world's first space-based rain radar, scientists found that mean summer-monthly rainfall rates within 35 miles downwind of cities were, on average, about 28% greater than the upwind region (regions shown in blue). In some cities, the downwind area exhibited increases as high as 51%. The images depict the urban rain effect east of the I-35 corridor near Dallas, Texas (first image) and near the Atlanta/Birmingham region (second image).Courtesy: NASA
|
| LIGHTNING HAS A SURPRISING EFFECT ON POLLUTION (G03-023) - Surprising results show scientists that summertime lightning over the United States increases regional pollution 3 to 8 miles above Earth's surface by significant amounts. The lightning-created pollution surpasses those by human activities higher in the atmosphere, in contrast to the larger amounts of manmade urban air pollutants at low levels of the atmosphere. The finding suggests that pollution may lead to more lightning, which leads to more pollution and that during the summertime, a higher frequency of lightning opens the door for the development of more smog in the free troposphere.
ITEM (1): Optical Transient Detector Data Example - The Optical Transient Detector (OTD), aboard the Microlab satellite, is the world's first space-based sensor capable of detecting and locating lightning events in the daytime as well as during the nighttime with high detection efficiency. It was designed and built at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (2): Lightning B-Roll - Various scenes of ground-based lightning. Courtesy: NASA
|
| STUDY FINDS SPACE SHUTTLE EXHAUST CREATES NIGHT-SHINING CLOUDS (G03-027) - Observations of noctilucent clouds in the late 20th century have heightened the interest in this curious phenomenon. A new study funded jointly by NASA and the Naval Research Laboratory shows evidence that space shuttle water vapor exhaust can travel to the arctic where it freezes and forms into the Earth's highest clouds called noctilucent clouds. Noctilucent clouds form at an altitude of 51 miles (82 km) in the atmospheric layer directly below the thermosphere called the mesosphere.
ITEM (1): Shuttle Launches and Exhaust Plumes - Exhaust from the space shuttle's main engines is almost entirely water vapor. About 44 % of the water vapor released from the main engines gets injected in the thermosphere at altitudes of 67 to 71 miles (108 to 114 km). The study used the Naval Research Laboratory's Middle Atmosphere High Resolution Spectrograph Investigation (MAHRSI) launched on the shuttle for 8 days of observations in 1997. It allowed scientists to look back and follow the rapid transport of the shuttle's exhaust plume. The study found that this water vapor can be transported all the way to the Arctic in a little over a day. There is currently no explanation for why the water vapor moves so quickly. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (2): Noctilucent Cloud Animation - Because of their high altitude, near the edge of space, noctilucent clouds shine at night when the Sun's rays hit them from below while the lower atmosphere is bathed in darkness. They typically form in the cold, summer polar mesosphere and are made of water ice crystals. Courtesy: NASA
ITEM (3): Images of Noctilucent Clouds - The first recorded observation of noctilucent clouds appeared in Robert Leslie's paper published in the July 16, 1885 issue of the "British Journal Nature." Leslie notes observing these clouds in 1883. Those observations may have been related to the Krakatoa volcanic explosion in August, 1883. Originally, called "glowing clouds" they are normally seen during the summer in near the Earth's polar regions, yet they have been seen as far south as Utah. Finnish photographer Pekka Parviainen took the following images of noctilucent clouds. These noctilucent clouds, while similar in form to cirrus clouds, are at an altitude of approximately 51 miles, or 82 kilometers, and can be seen well after sunset. Courtesy: NASA
|
| SATELLITES FORM THE CORNERSTONE OF NASA'S EARTH SCIENCE RESEARCH PROGRAM.
a) Aqua
b) Earth Probe/Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer
c) Landsat-7
d) SeaWIFS on Orbview-2
e) Terra
f) GRACE
g) Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)
Courtesy: NASA
|