When Music and Climate Change Meet During a recent event that highlighted the intersection of art and science, NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt offered an intriguing pitch (see 5:15 in the video above) for a climate change symphony that would use music to tell the story of Earth’s long and varied geologic history. “There are trends in the tides […]
The Road to Antarctica Begins in Kansas
By Lora Koenig The last week of September was a busy one for the SEAT radar team. Ludo, Clem and I spent the week at the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS), an NSF Science and Technology Center, at the University of Kansas preparing the radars and the radar sled for shipment to […]
What are you doing to celebrate?
It’s Earth Science Week. What are you doing to celebrate? Our colleagues within NASA and at other institutions have organized a series of educational and outreach activities this week that showcase our science and the people behind it. Some highlights include: + A webcast with NASA’s chief scientist, Waleed Abdalati, from 1-2 p.m. Eastern Time […]
Sunset at the ALaMO
A new color all-sky camera has opened its eyes at the ALaMO, or Automated Lunar and Meteor Observatory, at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Watch its inaugural video below, showing sunset fade into evening at the Marshall Center on Oct. 5, 2011. The time-lapse video spans about 2:28 hours, and the Moon is …
Crafting the Blue Marble
One of the best surprises of my life was turning on my brand-new iPhone—before it had even been activated—glancing down at the screen, and seeing an image I had made. Apple chose the NASA Blue Marble for the default welcome screen and wallpaper, and I had no idea beforehand. Here’s how I did it.
A Spectacular Double-Shot
A wide field meteor camera at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center recorded this spectacular meteor breaking up in Earth’s atmosphere on Sept. 30, 2011, 8:37 p.m. EDT. Also visible is a star-like object moving slowly toward the upper middle of the field of view — the upper stage of the Zenit booster that launched the …
How Much Does It Snow In Antarctica?
By Lora Koenig Hello! My name is Lora Koenig and I would like to welcome you to our Satellite Era Accumulation Traverse blog. I know that is a mouthful so we will call it the SEAT blog. So have a SEAT, grab a hot drink, and enjoy the blog. From now until mid-January, my colleagues […]
Odds & Ends: Volcanoes
During every minute of the day, every day, a volcano is erupting somewhere on Earth. Actually, it’s more like a dozen. Or two. Satellites capture much of this activity, and we try to highlight as many eruptions as possible, but for one reason or another (like clouds) some of them fall through the cracks. Here […]
Where are the stars?
Vishnu, an Earth Observatory reader, posed a great question after viewing “The Six-Million Mile View of Earth and Moon“: “I’ve never seen a photo like that. Was the background beyond Earth ‘photoshopped’ to remove background stars, or is that angle so narrow and the background space so coincidentally ’empty’ that no visible stars are there […]
News Roundup: Arctic Sea Ice Minimum, a Climate Marathon, and More
Floods Devastate Pakistan For the second straight year, torrential monsoon-driven rains have swamped portions of Pakistan. The AFP reports that more than 200 people have been killed and thousands have fled their homes. Researchers associated with the MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite recently posted an eye-opening set of images that shows the condition of the swollen Indus […]