It should be noted that the Earth Science Photos archives began in 1999, therefore, they are "highlights" for 1978 - 1998.

2002 Images

2002 Earthpics: Please note that images are chronicled by date - most recent listed first. Eastern Snowfall December 2002 The snow storm that crossed the middle and eastern United States on December 4 and 5 left a footprint across the country which was visible to SeaWiFS as it flew overhead today. Credit: SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE 05 December 2002     Volcanic Eruption Rocks Ecuador   04 November 2002     Satellite Captures Two-Hundred Mile Ash and Smoke Plume from Mt. Etna     29 October 2002     Hurricane Kenna Makes for Mexico Aboard the Terra satellite, MODIS captured this true-color image of then-category-5-strength Hurricane Kenna threatening the Pacific coast of Mexico late Thursday, October 24th. The storm made landfall with category 4 strength Friday morning, October 25th. Forecasters expect the storm to dump rain on southeast Texas over the weekend. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory; data provided by the MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC. 25 October 2002     Upwelling Brings Colorful Life to California Coast 16 October 2002     Hurricane Kenna Makes for Mexico Aboard the Terra satellite, MODIS captured this true-color image of then-category-5-strength Hurricane Kenna threatening the Pacific coast of Mexico late Thursday, October 24th. The storm made landfall with category 4 strength Friday morning, October 25th. Forecasters expect the storm to dump rain on southeast Texas over the weekend. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory; data provided by the MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC. 25 October 2002     Dust Storm Down Under SeaWiFS captured this view of what appears to be a large dust storm blowing across eastern Australia on October 23. Smoke plumes from fires in the region are also visible. Credit: Provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE. 23 October 2002     Hurricane Lili Hurricane Lili is churning up the Gulf of Mexico and has reached a category four. Forecasters predict it will strengthen overnight. Two satellites caught different views of Lili. Terra's MODIS instrument took the image on top and NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) on board the Orbview 2 satellite caught the bottom image of Lili. Both images were taken Wednesday, October 2, 2002. For more images, click on the title link above to go to the Top Photo page. Image credit: (top) MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC (bottom) NASA/Orbimage. 02 October 2002     Hurricane Lili Hurricane Lili is churning up the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to reach a category two in the next 24 hours. NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) caught this image of Lili Tuesday, October 1, 2002 around 1:40 pm. Click on title link above to go to the Top Photo page for more images of the hurricane. 01 October 2002     Tropical Storm Isidore Tropical Storm Isidore blew ashore early Thursday morning packing winds just below hurricane strength. At 11 am (EST) Isidore's center was 60 miles north-northeast of New Orleans and just west of Poplarville, Mississippi. It was moving north-northeast at 17 mph. In this animation (2.8 MB - click on image for animation) yellow represents 0.5 inches of rain per hour, green shows 1.0 inches of rain per hour, and red is 2.0 or more inches of rain per hour. Image/animation courtesy: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. 26 September 2002     Sept. 11, 2001 From Space   Various satellites took images around New York and the northeast coast September 11 & 12, 2001. 09 September 2002     Hurricane Isadore   With maximum sustained winds approaching 125 mph (205 km/hr), Hurricane Isidore is just skirting the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. The eye is clearly visible in this image and has an approximate diameter of 20 nautical miles. This image was captured by the MODIS instrument onboard the Terra satellite on September 23, 2002.Click on image to enlarge. Click here for high resolution image. Image courtesy MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.     Hurricane Isadore With maximum sustained winds close to 105 mph (165 km/hr), Hurricane Isidore is wreaking havoc on the island nation of Cuba. Terra MODIS data captured by direct broadcast at Louisiana State University and processed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by Liam Gumley, Space Science and Engineering Center. Click on image to enlarge. Click here for high resolution image.     Tropical Storm Gustav   Tropical Storm Gustav has been moving northward up the Atlantic Coast of the United States since September 9, 2002. The storm can be seen off the coast of North Carolina and Virginia in this true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from September 10, 2002.     NASA Scientific Balloon Sets World Record 26 August 2002     Latest Oregon Fire Image In southwestern Oregon and northern California, the Biscuit Fire had grown to 435,654 acres as of August 17, 2002. The fire is still only 35 percent contained. This image shows the large blaze releasing thick smoke, which is drifting southward along the Pacific Coast. To the right of the smoke plume, the fire’s large burn scar spears brown against surrounding green vegetation. This image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team/August 18, 2002     Latest on the Oregon Fires   In southwestern Oregon, almost 200,000 acres are burning in the Klamath Mountains. Thousands of residents in towns in the Illinois River Valley region are under 30-minute evacuation notices. This image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team/July 31, 2002.     Hurricane Douglas South of Baja California   Image courtesy MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. 24 July 2002     Fires Scorch Oregon Continuing hot, dry weather is challenging firefighters in the West. This Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from July 30, 2002, shows heavy smoke billowing from multiple large wildfires in central and southwestern Oregon (upper left). Image credit: MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA-GSFC. 30 July 2002     McNalley Fire in Sequoia National Forest In the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, a large fire has sprung up in the Sequoia National Forest about 12 miles north of the town of Kernville. This Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from July 22, 2002, shows the fire (red outline) creating a large smoke plume that is streaming northward from the blaze. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. 22 July 2002     Super Typhoon Halong off East Coast of Taiwan On July 14, 2002, Super Typhoon Halong was east of Taiwan (left edge) in the western Pacific Ocean. At the time this image was taken the storm was a Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 115 knots (132 miles per hour), but as recently as July 12, winds were at 135 knots (155 miles per hour). Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. 14 July 2002     Super Typhoon Fengshen   With sustained winds at 145 knots (167 miles per hour), Super Typhoon Fengshen reached Category 5 hurricane status—the most severe hurricane status—on Friday, July 19, 2002. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. For more information and higher resolution pictures, click here. 19 July 2002     Super Typhoon Halong off East Coast of Taiwan On July 14, 2002, Super Typhoon Halong was east of Taiwan (left edge) in the western Pacific Ocean. At the time this image was taken the storm was a Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 115 knots (132 miles per hour), but as recently as July 12, winds were at 135 knots (155 miles per hour). Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. 14 July 2002     Texas Floods Seen by MODIS As much as two feet of rain fell on southeastern Texas flooding three major river systems along the Gulf of Mexico. NASA's Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Terra satellite caught these images before and after the early July rain. For more information, click the link above. Images courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. 09 July 2002     Canadian Wildfire Smoke Blankets Eastern U.S. Smoke from multiple large wildfires in Québec is blanketing the southern portion of the Canadian province and extending southward over the Great Lakes and eastern United States. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. For more information, click here. 07 July 2002     The Evolution of the Rodeo-Chediski Fires This satellite time series tracks the growth the Rodeo-Chediski fire from June 19 to June 30, 2002. As of July 1, the fire has charred more than 450,000 acres. Click on link above to get to the Top Photo page to view all seven images and a movie of the fires over time. Terra MODIS images acquired by direct broadcast and processed at the Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison and the MODIS Land Rapid Response group.     Rodeo and Chediski Fires in Arizona In the last week, large fires roared to life in east-central Arizona on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation northeast of Phoenix. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite was captured on Friday, June 21, 2002, and shows the massive smoke plumes created by the fires. 21 June 2002 First Hurricane of the Season As of Thursday morning, May 30, 2002, Hurricane Alma was a Category 2 hurricane, with sustained winds up to 110 miles per hour and gusts up to 135 miles per hour. Located in the eastern Pacific Ocean several hundred miles west of central Mexico and south of Baja California, the storm is tracking northward at about 9 miles per hour, and is forecast to weaken as it moves north over cooler ocean waters. Alma is the eastern Pacific's first named storm of the season. This image was captured by MODIS on Wednesday, May 29, 2002. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.     Fires and Heavy Smoke in Alaska Unusually hot and dry for this time of year, Alaska is experiencing several large, intense wildfires as a result. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) from May 26, 2002, shows heavy smoke choking the air for several hundred miles around Fairbanks. Though hidden by smoke in this image, Fairbanks is located just to the south of (and centered roughly between) the two large clusters of fires (red dots) at upper right. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.     Flooding in the Midwest   These images of before and after the flooding at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers were captured by MODIS on April 25 and May 18, 2002.         New NASA Satellite Zooms in on Tornado Swath   For high resolution image, click here.     MODIS Captures Florida, Bahamas and Cuba in stunning detail Click on image to go to MODIS Land Rapid Response System Image Gallery enlarged image. Red pixels on enlarged image show where fires are currently. 14 March 2002     Changing Antarctica as Viewed by NASA's Terra Satellite 11 April 2002     Mysterious Black Water Blankets Florida Bay A large mass of as yet unidentified black water has swept through Florida Bay and according to reports, is now breaking up into smaller pockets aggregated along the north side of the 126-mile long Florida Keys. SeaWiFS true color images acquired on January 9, February 4 and March 28, 2002 document the development, spread and eventual decline of the large 'black water' event that took place in Florida Bay which scientists are still puzzling over. For more on this story, click here for a link to the Scientific Visualization Studio Fla. blackwater page with high resolution images. 08 April 2002     MODIS Spots Multiple Fires Burning in Central America As can be seen in this true-color scene acquired on April 2, 2002, many fires dot the landscape across portions of Central America (red pixels indicate active fires). This image spans from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula across Guatemala and into El Salvador and Honduras. Click on image to enlarge. Click here for more information on this image and on MODIS. 02 April 2002     MODIS Captures Florida, Bermuda and Cuba in stunning detail Click on image to go to MODIS Land Rapid Response System Image Gallery enlarged image. Red pixels on enlarged image show where fires are currently. 01 April 2002     MODIS Captures Florida, Bahamas and Cuba in stunning detail Click on image to go to MODIS Land Rapid Response System Image Gallery enlarged image. Red pixels on enlarged image show where fires are currently. 14 March 2002     SeaWiFS Sees U.S. East Coast 19 February 2002     Cyclone Dina This SeaWiFS image shows Tropical Cyclone Dina's location to the southeast of Madagascar on January 24, 2002. Mozambique is just visible in the upper left corner of the image. 24 January 2002 Hi resolution image     Australian Fires Rage On 04 January 2002     Eastern U.S. Snowfall The January 3rd snowfall in the mid-Atlantic States is clearly evident in today's SeaWiFS image of the area. Goddard Space Flight Center and the Washington, DC area are just barely north of the snow covered area which stretches from central eastern Alabama to southern Delaware. 03 January 2002 We are interested in what you think, so please send us your comments.