Wildfires follow a simple but dangerous equation: Hotter, dryer conditions + more people in the world = a greater likelihood of ferocious wildfires threatening lives and property. Fires in the western United States are burning earlier, longer and with more intensity, as shown by a decades-long record from ground surveys and NASA satellites. How much of […]
ISS Daily Summary Report – 08/07/12
New Status: Advanced Colloids Experiment (ACE)-1: FE-6 Nyberg mixed the 6th of 10 wells for the ACE-1 experiment. ACE-1 is the first in a series of microscopic imaging investigations of materials which contain small colloidal particles which have the specific characteristic of remaining evenly dispersed and distributed within the material. This investigation takes advantage of …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 08/06/13
New Status: H-II Transfer Vehicle 4 (HTV4) Status: Yesterday HTV4 telemetry indicated that the Reaction Control System (RCS)-A latching valve was closed unexpectedly. Ground teams tested the latching valve today and determined that both the latch and RCS-A are working nominally. They concluded that the anomaly was a transient in the switch that detects the …
The “Perfect” Palette (Subtleties of Color, Part 2 of 6)
Despite the near-ubiquity of the rainbow palette—which distorts patterns in the underlying data—the basics of using color to represent numerical data are well-established.
Introduction (Subtleties of Color, Part 1 of 6)
The purpose of data visualization—any data visualization—is to illuminate data. To show patterns and relationships that are otherwise hidden in an impenetrable mass of numbers.
ISS Daily Summary Report – 08/05/13
New Status: H-II Transfer Vehicle 4 (HTV4) Status: HTV4 launched successfully Saturday August 3rd at 2:48 PM CDT from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. Capture and berthing are planned for Friday August 9th at 6:30 AM CDT. Over the weekend, Reaction Control System (RCS) and Main Engines thruster testing and leak checks were performed on both …
Sun, Moon, and Two Planets Rising Over Earth’s Limb
NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg took this photograph of moonrise and sunrise over Earth’s limb on August 4, 2013. In a tweet, Nyberg noted that she also saw Jupiter and Mercury as she looked out from the International Space Station, but the glare of the Sun’s light hid them in her photo. When astronomer and Slate blogger Phil Plait […]
ISS Daily Summary Report – 08/02/13
New Status: InSPACE-3 Operations: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Nyberg performed her first two test sessions of InSPACE-3 today. InSPACE-3 obtains data on fluids containing ellipsoid-shaped particles that change the physical properties of the fluids in response to magnetic fields. InSPACE-3 collects and records data on fluids containing ellipsoid-shaped particles that change the physical properties of the …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 08/01/13
New Status: Multi-Purpose Small Payload Rack (MSPR) Combustion Chamber (CC) Communication Cable Checkout: Flight Engineer (FE)-3 Cassidy successfully performed activation and checkout of the MSPR CC Communication Cable. Following this activity, ground specialists initiated steps to verify the video quality downlinked from the G1 camcorder. Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions (InSPACE)-3 …
Perseids Already Lighting Up The Night
Here is a video of a bright Perseid seen by our all-sky camera located at PARI (NC) in the early morning hours of July 30. Several Perseids have already been detected and they are not set to peak for over a week! The nights of August 11-12 and 12-13 will be the best time to observe, …