By Eric Lindstrom We knew when we left Woods Hole yesterday that we had two hurricanes (Leslie and Michael) standing between us and our study site, far southeast of Woods Hole in the mid-Atlantic. How Captain Adam of the Knorr chooses to deal with this over the next days is a study in weather and […]
Off to sea!
By Eric Lindstrom We had a whirlwind of preparations after the Labor Day Weekend. All the gear was loaded on the ship and lashed down. The scientific party (22 people) arrived and set up in various spaces around the ship. Bill Ingalls, a NASA Headquarters photographer, captured many great shots of the Knorr and the […]
Another kind of image of the day
Every day we bring you a different view of Earth, as only NASA can see it…from high above, and usually from space. One of our colleagues has also been working since 2000 to bring you breathtaking views of Earth…albeit, from a perspective that’s a bit closer to the ground. Together with a few professional helpers […]
Once in a Blue Moon
Image credit: NASA/MSFCOn Aug. 31, if the night sky is clear, you will be able to see the second full moon of the month, which is called a “blue moon.”You may have heard the expression, “once in a blue moon,” meaning “almost never,” because having 13 full moons in a calendar year — instead of …
Earth Indicator: 4 million
This week’s Earth Indicator is 4 million…as in 4 million square kilometers. It’s a number that scientists studying sea ice never thought they would see. Every year, the sea ice at the top of our planet shrinks and grows with the seasons. But because ocean water lags behind the atmosphere in warming up and cooling […]
SPURS supporters beyond the R/V Knorr
By Eric Lindstrom The SPURS experiment involves not only sea-going oceanographers but modelers, and of course, remote sensing scientists using satellite data. As part of the daily posts from R/V Knorr I will go into more detail on the role of the models and satellite data in the overall scientific enterprise. I will profile the […]
Q & A: The Midwest Drought with Richard Seager
NASA Earth Observatory writer Adam Voiland spoke with Columbia University climatologist Richard Seager about the widespread drought currently affecting North America. The current dry spell has been called a “flash drought.” Has it really come on that quickly or as a surprise? No, I wouldn’t say it has been a surprise to those of […]
What will happen aboard the R/V Knorr?
By Eric Lindstrom As I mentioned in my previous post, our cruise will depart from Woods Hole, MA on September 6. Roughly, it will take eight days for our ship, R/V Knorr, to transit from Woods Hole to the SPURS central mooring site at 25N, 38W, the saltiest spot in the subtropical North Atlantic. Then […]
August Puzzler Answer
Read our recent Image of the Day to find out more about the Yanqi Basin, the answer to August’s puzzler. Congratulations to Yiannis Raftopoulos for being the first to identify the location. We posted the mystery image on Monday at 6:17 p.m. and on our social media accounts on Tuesday morning. Within minutes of appearing […]
Ocean Salinity Viewed from Sea and Space
By Eric Lindstrom On September 6, a bunch of NASA-funded scientists, and me among them, will depart on an expedition across the North Atlantic Ocean to study salt concentration levels of seawater. But why do we want to spend six weeks at sea measuring ocean saltiness? Hopefully, over the coming months you will come to […]