Blogs

Besides acquiring photo-like images of the surface of Earth, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites can detect the anomalously high temperatures associated with actively burning fires. Using this “hotspot” data, John Nelson of IDV Solutions made a map of major fires in the contiguous 48 United States from 2001 […]

Embenchime River    66.34 N   100.63 E   11:30 p.m. Siberia, 11:30 a.m. EDT 78°F High   52°F Low      Partially cloudy Dr. Ranson reports: I am tired tonight.  Actually, I think everyone is tired, because it was a very long and intense day. The day started early.  Really early.  As in, today’s work started late last night. As […]

Sab Kim Jet Propulsion Laboratory Updates on the vegetation conditions are provided here, monitored by the crop structure team. There were localized thunderstorms on July 15th, which gave 8 mm rainfall according to the local weather data. I happened to be in the field(!) and believe the campaign fields received much more. Some fields outside […]

Embenchime River    66.57 N  99.28 E 79°F High  45°F Low 10:15 p.m. Siberia   10:15 a.m. EDT Dr. Ranson reports: Tonight, I’m calling in from my tent.  I’m not going to bed – I’ve turned it into an office, because it makes it easier to work on the computer and the data terminal if I’m shaded […]

Embenchime River 9:35 p.m. Siberia  9:35 a.m. EST 74°F High  46°F  Low           Sunny Dr. Ranson reports: Today we chugged down the river.  We’re heading towards the junction of the Embenchime and the Kochechum Rivers.  Just before we get there, we have a series of plots we really want to measure. That confluence is still a […]

Congratulations to Yiannis Raftopoulos for being the first to correctly identify that our second satellite puzzler was a view of Dudinka, a port city along the Yenisei River in northern Siberia. Raftopoulos submitted his answer just 15 hours and 51 minutes after we posted the image—not quite as fast as Alexandre Manthieu was at solving our […]

Embenchime River 9:30 p.m. Siberia,  9:30 a.m. EDT 65°F High   54°F low       Rain Dr.  Ranson reports: We’re at the end of another long journey on the Embenchime.  We’ve covered 38 kilometers in a straight line – with the twists and turns, of the river, multiply that by about 1 ½ – so it’s more like […]

Embenchime River 10:45 p.m. Siberia  10:45 a.m. EDT 71°F High  42°F Low     Steady rain. Dr. Ranson reports Tonight I’m calling from my tent.  I’m in my sleeping bag already too.  I like it here, because it’s dry. Outside, it is raining, and everything is wet. I hear rain dripping on the tent, and all around.  […]

Embenchime River      66° 2 min N  97° 49 min E 11:30 p.m. Siberia    11:30 a.m. EDT 71°F High 44°F low      Sunny Dr. Ranson reports: We fought the river again today, but in the end, we have been successful.  We’re now tucked away in camps – the one we wanted to reach yesterday.   Again, our trip […]

Embenchime River  66.15 N  97.57 E 73°F High 40°F Low        Periods of rain and strong wind 11:50 p.m. Siberia  11:50 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time From Dr. Ranson: It is near midnight, and we just got off the river.   I helped get us situated and safe, but then left the others so I could check in. […]