NASA Shuttle Image: Socorro Island in Gulf of Mexico

A cloud wake appears on the downwind side of Isla Socorro, Mexico - 2/12/2000

Image courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center

NASA Earth Observatory: Atlantic Heat Source for Hurricane Irene

As Hurricane Irene rumbles through the Atlantic Ocean, it needs fuel to sustain itself.

Warm water is the main fuel, and there is plenty of it right now, as there usually is this time of year.

The map above shows sea surface temperatures (SST) in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea on August 23, 2011.

The measurements come from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) on NASA’s Aqua satellite and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on both the Terra and Aqua satellites.

The satellites measure the temperature of the top millimeter of the ocean.

Waters typically need to be above 27.8 degrees Celsius (82 Fahrenheit) to properly fuel tropical storms with warm, moist air. Red, orange, and yellow colors depict waters above the 27.8 degree mark.

The warmer the water, the more intense the storm can grow, if upper level wind patterns cooperate. In the map above, such waters dominate the Gulf of Mexico and tropical Atlantic in late August 2011.

They also run up the southeastern coast of the United States, following the Gulf Stream to Cape Hatteras before giving way to slightly cooler waters (shades of blue) in the Middle and North Atlantic.

As of 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on August 24, 2011, the NOAA National Hurricane Center reported Irene had maximum sustained winds of 195 kilometers (120 miles) per hour and was located at 23.1 degrees North and 74.7 degrees West, about 45 kilometers (30 miles) east-southeast of Long Island in the Bahamas.

The forecasted path had the hurricane sweeping over nearly all Bahaman islands, then turning toward the North Carolina coast and eventually New England. Forecasts are updated roughly every six hours.

Irene is the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, and potentially the first to make landfall in the United States in several years.


Further Reading

1. National Hurricane Center. (2011, August 24). Hurricane Irene. National Weather Service. Accessed August 24, 2011.
2. NASA Earth Observatory. (n.d.). Global Maps: Sea Surface Temperature. Accessed August 24, 2011.

Hurricane Season in the Gulf

Picture yourself sitting in space watching 2009's Atlantic Ocean hurricane season in fast-forward. That's what the latest animation from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows viewers.

The movie is being made available on-line as both agencies prepare for the 2010 Atlantic Ocean hurricane season, which begins on June 1 and runs through November 30.

NASA technology and satellite data coupled with data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operated satellites, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) were combined to create a six minute animation of all of 2009's Atlantic tropical cyclones.

The movie displays the infrared cloud imagery from the geosynchronous weather satellites, principally NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-12. The original cloud imagery was remapped and enhanced to display cloud top texture.


"The GOES cloud images were overlaid on a true-color background map previously created from the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite," said Dr. Dennis Chesters, GOES Project Scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheres at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

The movie, which can be found on NASA's Hurricane Web page (www.nasa.gov/hurricane), or on the NASA GOES web page, is television production-quality. These are large, high-resolution, colorful animations, made for use or editing by professional documentary producers or for anyone interested in hurricanes.

The 2009 Atlantic hurricane season consisted of eleven tropical depressions, and nine of them developed into named tropical storms. Three of those strengthened into hurricanes, and of those three, two were major hurricanes (Category three or greater). In this movie, you can see all of those storms and their movements from birth to death.

One of the most significant storms was Hurricane Bill. Bill was the season's strongest hurricane and an unusually large storm with maximum sustained winds of 135 mph. Hurricane Bill caused moderate coastal damage across the eastern United States before brushing Nova Scotia and making landfall in Newfoundland.

NASA Earth Observations: Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico

Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico : Natural Hazards

On May 24, 2010, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this false-color, high-resolution view of the very tip of the Mississippi River Delta.

Ribbons and patches of oil that have leaked from the Deepwater Horizon well offshore are silver against the light blue color of the adjacent water. Vegetation is red.

In the sunglint region of a satellite image—where the mirror-like reflection of the Sun gets blurred into a wide, bright strip—any differences in the texture of the water surface are enhanced.

Oil smoothes the water, making it a better “mirror.” Oil-covered waters are very bright in this image, but, depending on the viewing conditions (time of day, satellite viewing angle, slick location), oil-covered water may look darker rather than brighter.

The relative brightness of the oil from place to place is not necessarily an indication of the amount of oil. Any oil located near the precise spot where the Sun’s reflection would appear if the surface of the Gulf were perfectly smooth and calm is going to look very bright in these images.

The cause of the dark patch of water in the upper left quadrant of the image is unknown. It may indicate the use of chemical dispersants, skimmers, or booms, or it may be the result of natural differences in turbidity, salinity, or organic matter in the coastal waters.

NASA Captures Night Infrared View of Gulf Oil Disaster

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft captured this nighttime image of the growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on May 7, 2010.

On April 20, an explosion destroyed the Deepwater Horizon oil platform operating in the Gulf 80 kilometers (50 miles) offshore, resulting in substantial loss of life and releasing 5,000 barrels of oil per day into the water.

The huge oil slick was being carried towards the Mississippi River Delta, and small amounts of oil had reached the Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi shores by May 3.

This thermal image from ASTER covers an area measuring 60 by 240 kilometers (37 by 147 miles), most of it over the Gulf of Mexico.

The coldest surfaces appear dark, and the warmest appear white. The city of Pascagoula, Miss., is visible in the upper right corner; at night the land is colder (darker) than the Gulf waters. Offshore islands below Pascagoula also appear dark compared to the surrounding ocean.

The black dots and patches over the Gulf waters are small clouds, particularly in the southern half of the image. The thickest parts of the oil spill appear as dark grey, filamentous masses in the southern part of the image, extending off the bottom. Other dark-light swirl patterns are water currents where different temperature water masses are visible.

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: Loop Current and the Gulf Stream

This Envisat image shows the Straits of Florida, the area where the Loop Current flows eastward out of the Gulf of Mexico (visible west of Florida) before joining the Gulf Stream and flowing along the eastern coastlines of the US and Newfoundland.

This image was acquired by Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) on 1 April 2010 at a resolution of 300 m.

click here for more info on this issue .

Credits: ESA

NASA Earth Observatory MODIS image: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

The oil slick, which resulted from the accident at the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, lingered near the Mississippi Delta on May 1, 2010.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image the same day.

The oil slick appears as a tangle of dull gray on the ocean surface, made visible to the satellite sensor by the Sun’s reflection on the ocean surface. Most of the oil slick occurs southeast of the Mississippi Delta.

An April 20 explosion at the rig led to a leak of crude oil at the sea floor, roughly 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the ocean surface, where intense pressure impedes most mitigation efforts.

The New York Times reported that bad weather further hampered cleanup efforts as Gulf Coast communities braced for arrival of the oil along the shore. As much as 210,000 gallons (790,000 liters) of crude oil a day were leaking into the Gulf at the beginning of May, and that amount might increase.

ESA ENVISAT ASAR Image: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

In this radar image, acquired from Envisat's Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) on 2 May 2010 03:45 UTC (Saturday night local time), the oil spill is visible due east of the Delta National Wildlife Refuge extending into the Gulf of Mexico.

The white dots are oil rigs and ships. Radar is especially suited for detecting oil spills because it works day and night, can see through clouds (unlike optical sensors) and is particularly sensitive to the smoother water surface caused by the oil.

Credits: ESA

NASA MODIS Images of Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

On April 29, the MODIS image on the Terra satellite captured a wide-view natural-color image of the oil slick (outlined in white) just off the Louisiana coast.

The oil slick appears as dull gray interlocking comma shapes, one opaque and the other nearly transparent.

Sunglint -- the mirror-like reflection of the sun off the water -- enhances the oil slick’s visibility.

The northwestern tip of the oil slick almost touches the Mississippi Delta. Credit: NASA/Earth Observatory/Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the University of Wisconsin’s Space Science and Engineering Center MODIS Direct Broadcast system.

NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites are helping the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) keep tabs on the extent of the recent Gulf oil spill with satellite images from time to time. NOAA is the lead agency on oil spills and uses airplane fly-overs to assess oil spill extent.

A semisubmersible drilling platform called the Deepwater Horizon located about 50 miles southeast of the Mississippi Delta experienced a fire and explosion at approximately 11 p.m. CDT on April 20. Subsequently, oil began spilling out into the Gulf of Mexico and efforts to contain the spill continue today. NASA's Terra and Aqua satellite imagery has captured the spill in between cloudy days.

NOAA used data from the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument from the Terra satellite on April 26, 27 and 29 to capture the extent of the oil spill, which measured 600-square-miles. The MODIS instrument flies aboard both the Terra and Aqua satellites.

Dry Tortugas National Park in the Gulf of Mexico

Tony Arruza / CORBIS

Boondocks, USA
Located 70 miles from Key West in the Gulf of Mexico, Dry Tortugas National Park is a collection of seven tiny islands that can be reached only by boat or plane, making it the country's most remote national park. Besides a stunning amount of marine life (it's home to the third-largest barrier reef system outside of Australia and Belize), the park boasts an impressive military and nautical history. The 163-year-old stronghold of Fort Jefferson was once used to house prisoners during the Civil War, and a 17th-century Spanish galleon uncovered by divers in 1989.