From NASA Earth Observatory’s Image of the Day — my favorites for November 2012:

A Changed Coastline in New Jersey — These images show why building (or rebuilding) on a barrier island is not a really good idea. These two aerial photos show a view of Mantoloking, New Jersey before and after “Superstorm” Sandy in October, 2012.

Kilomanjaro’s Shrinking Ice Fields — For whatever reason, the Snows of Kilomanjaro are shrinking.

The EO site explains:

Despite Mount Kilimanjaro’s location in the tropics, the dry and cold air at the top of the mountain has sustained large quantities of ice for more than 10,000 years. At points, ice has completely surrounded the crater. Studies of ice core samples show that Kilimanjaro’s ice has persisted through multiple warm spells, droughts, and periods of abrupt climate change.

But trends beginning more than a century ago suggest Kilimanjaro’s peaks may soon be ice-free. Between 1912 and 2011, the mass of ice on the summit decreased by more than 85 percent. Researchers say it’s no longer a question of whether the ice will disappear but when. Estimates vary, but several scientists predict it will be gone by 2060.

Rising air temperatures due to global warming could be contributing to the ice loss, but a number of other factors are just as important, if not more so. An increasingly dry regional atmosphere, for example, is starving the mountain of the fresh snow needed to sustain the ice fields. Drier air is also reducing cloud cover and allowing more solar energy to warm the ice surfaces.

Ashfall from the Karymsky Volcano — It seems that there is always a volcano erupting somewhere in Kamchatka.

Bylot Island in Winter and Summer — Bylot Island is in the Canadian Arctic. The winter shot, with the sun very low in the sky, has elongated shadows which accent the topography.

Grace and Peace