The Cassini probe, in orbit around Saturn, has captured a new radar image showing a long river on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. From the European Space Agency: "The international Cassini mission has spotted what appears to be a miniature extraterrestrial version of the Nile River: a river valley on Saturn’s moon Titan that stretches more …
Category: Imagery
Earth at Night
NASA recently released Earth at Night, a global view of the planet at night, with city lights, oilfield flares, night time fishing fleets, and auroras. Google has created a wonderful viewer for this data, which can be found at its Earth at Night 2012 site. Grace and Peace
NASA Earth Observatory — Images from November 2012
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, …
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Thin ice and the importance of Quaternary geology
From NASA Earth Observatory: 2011 Sea Ice Minimum From the description (emphasis added): In September 2011, sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean declined to the second-lowest extent on record. Satellite data from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) showed that the summertime ice cover narrowly avoided a new record low. [...] …
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Earth Observatory images
A few NASA Earth Observatory images from the past few months: Mataiva Atoll, Tuamotu Archipelago, South Pacific Ocean, August 30, 2010 This image makes a great desktop background. The full-resolution image doesn't have labels. The Water Planet, October 2, 2010 Arthur C. Clarke once remarked, "How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is …
Earth Observatory goodies
Here are some more great images from NASA's Earth Observatory: Grace and Peace
Earth Observatory — recent images
Some recent images from NASA's Earth Observatory Image of the Day: Grace and Peace
Sarychev Peak eruption
From NASA's Earth Observatory: Sarychev Peak Eruption, Kuril Islands, Russia. From the Earth Observatory description: A fortuitous orbit of the International Space Station allowed the astronauts this striking view of Sarychev Volcano (Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan) in an early stage of eruption on June 12, 2009. [...] Ash from the multi-day eruption has been …
Drought and recovery
These images from the NASA Earth Observatory show areas of drought (brown = below average plant growth) and excess plant growth (green = above average plant growth). Northern Iraq is suffering a severe drought. Much of the country's grain is dependent on seasonal rainfall rather than irrigation: Grain-producing regions of Afghanistan, on the other hand, …
Solar evaporation ponds, Chile
From NASA's Earth Observatory: Solar Evaporation Ponds, Atacama Desert, Chile Grace and Peace
Aral Sea — environmental disaster
This is all that is left of what was the Earth's fourth largest lake only 50 years ago. From NASA's Earth Observatory: Dust Over the Aral Sea. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union started diverting most of the water from the rivers that fed the Aral Sea to irrigation, primarily for cotton. This led to …
Lake Eyre, Australia
I love this picture, as only a geologist who loves streams and sediments could. From NASA's Earth Observatory site: Rare Refill of Lake Eyre, Australia's Simpson Desert. From the EO description: Waves in central Australia’s Simpson Desert usually come in the form of sand dunes. In these images, they ripple in long vertical lines across …
Lake Powell images, 1999 to 2009
NASA's Earth Observatory has a series of images from 1999 to 2009 showing fluctuating water levels in Lake Powell in southeastern Utah. Lake Powell is formed by Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona. Earth Observatory has a "play" link to watch the images in played in order. From the description at …
Santa Barbara fires
From NASA's Earth Observatory: Jesusita Fire, California, near Santa Barbara, California, 5/8/2009. The red outline areas indicate hotspots, and represent the areas of active wildfires. Grace and Peace
NASA Earth Observatory turns 10 — vote for your favorites — final day of voting
Monday, April 27th is the last day to vote for your favorite image from NASA's Earth Observatory. Grace and Peace
NASA Earth Observatory turns 10 — vote for your favorites — final round
Out of over 3000 images that have appeared over the past ten years on the NASA Earth Observatory site, viewers have voted and narrowed it down to their favorite 50. From now until April 27th, viewers can vote for their favorite out of these 50, and the winning image will be announced on April 29th. …
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LIDAR image of Mima mounds
Mima mounds are small hills (about 2 m tall, about 10 m across) of unknown origin that occur in groups of hundreds or thousands in Washington State and other places. The most famous group of these mounds are at Mima Prairie near Olympia, Washington. I haven't been at this site, but I have been at …
NASA Earth Observatory turns 10 — vote for your favorites
The NASA Earth Observatory is ten years old (this is where I get many of the images I show on The GeoChristian). For most of that time, EO has featured a new image every day, for a total of over 3,000 fantastic images of the Earth (mostly). EO is asking for its viewers to vote …
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Snow — finally
Denver has had a warm, dry winter. This past week, we finally got our first good snowfall of the year (up to 17 inches or 43 cm). Most of the snow came on Thursday, with sub-zero wind chill factors. Friday was bright and sunny, and NASA's Terra satellite was kind enough to take this picture …
Eruption of underwater volcano, Tonga
Here's a video of an eruption of an underwater volcano near the South Pacific island of Tonga on March 19, 2009: News articles: London Times: Underwater volcano sends huge columns of ash into Pacific sky Honolulu Advertiser: 7.9 quake off Tonga could intensify volcano's eruption From NASA's Earth Observatory: Submarine Eruption in the Tonga Islands: …
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