Maryland 8:00 p.m. Rafael Rincon: I am calling from the Bay Bridge in Maryland, on my way to Goddard after a long day at Wallops. I’m almost there, after the final flight for the DBSAR on this campaign. It’s been a very long, but a very good day. The DBSAR worked beautifully, with no hiccups […]
Odds and Ends: Nabro Volcano and Texas Wildifres
Two more images that don’t quite fit on the main site: Nabro Volcano and the Riley Road Fire near Houston. Nabro VolcanoThis long-dormant Eritrean volcano began erupting in June, but it’s so remote (at least for western media and scientists) that there’s been no news from the area for months. Unfortunately it’s often been […]
Gates of Hell
Written by Jesse Allen, EO data visualizer… Recently while doing something work-related (yes, really!), I stumbled upon a fascinating story. I found the Gates of Hell. It turns out that they are in Turkmenistan. They were built — in a manner of speaking — by the former Soviet Union in 1971. In 1971, Turkmenistan was a […]
Planetary-scale Landscaping
Sometimes I’ll find a surprise in a satellite image. In this case, kilometer-tall letters that spell out “LUECKE” near Austin, TX (Near the Bastrop Fire): Although this could have just been a curiosity for passing pilots and astronauts, it turns out that Johnson Space Center scientists used the letters to estimate the maximum resolution of […]
Exploring the Everglades
Maryland 10:00 p.m. Rafael Rincon: Today was a really good day – things went really smoothly and we successfully acquired a lot of good data without any glitches. The flights today were over the Everglades and the Florida keys. It was very scenic, and I wanted to get some pictures out the window but I […]
Smooth Flying
Homestead, Florida 7:35 a.m. Rafael Rincon: Good morning! It’s early here, but we have been working already for a few hours. I’m standing outside the airplane, and we are getting ready to board for today’s flight. We made sure that everything is in place, and we are ready to go, as soon as they call […]
A Week of Woeful Weather
West River, Maryland 11:10 p.m. This is Joanne Howl, the writer for this blog. Normally I take a back seat, not speaking myself but sharing the stories that the science team brings to me each day. Today I wanted to take a moment to speak as myself. After a week layoff, the team is back […]
Reflections on 9/11
As the world reflects on the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, the Earth Observatory team has been struggling with what to say and do. Like so many other media outlets, we felt compelled to say something, to show something. Our data visualization team found this: a previously unpublished […]
Slip Slidin’ Away
Post from Paul Przyborski, EO programmer… For the past few weeks, we have quietly implemented a new way of viewing images on Earth Observatory. Some of you may have noticed that there is now a “view image comparison” button on some of our Natural Hazards images, as well as on this Image of the Day. You […]
Our New Telescope is Operational
Our new telescope in New Mexico — we call it MUT, or Multi-Use Telescope. It can see the explosion flashes caused by meteoroids hitting the moon, measure dust coming off comets, see meteors in the atmosphere, and track satellites/space junk. MUT also takes nice pictures! Test image with the MUT telescope we just set up in …