NASA Aqua MODIS Tracking Super Typhoon Vongfong

Super Typhoon Vongfong pictured from the ISS by NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman.

The MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured this visible image of Super Typhoon Vongfong on Oct. 9 at 04:25 UTC (12:25 a.m. EDT as it moved north through the Philippine Sea. 

Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Super Typhoon Vongfong as it tracked through the Philippine Sea on Oct. 9.

The MODIS instrument aboard Aqua captured visible and infrared images of the now Category 4 Super Typhoon.

Two instruments aboard NASA's Aqua satellite provided visible and infrared data on the Super Typhoon: The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument, respectively.

MODIS captured a visible image of Super Typhoon Vongfong on Oct. 9 at 04:25 UTC (12:25 a.m. EDT) that showed two concentric eyewalls with the inner eye diameter at 26 nautical miles.

Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that the eye remains symmetrical with sharp outlines - typical of very intense cyclones.

The AIRS data showed the overall cloud top temperatures had warmed a little since yesterday, Oct. 8, indicating that the uplift in the storm may be weakening.

AIRS also showed a thick band of powerful thunderstorms surrounded Vongfong's eye.

Vongfong weakened to a Category 4 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson scale on Thursday, October 9, with maximum sustained winds near 130 knots (149.6 mph/240.8 kph), down from a Category 5 typhoon on Oct. 8.

Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center predict slow weakening over the next several days.

A colorised satellite photo shows Super Typhoon Vongfong spinning in the western Pacific Ocean.

Credit Photo: NASA /NOAA /CIRA /RAMMB

Vongfong was centered near 20.6 north and 129.5 east, about 384 nautical miles south-southeast of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan.

It is moving to the north-northwest at 7 knots (8 mph/12.9 kph) and generating 44 foot (13.4 meter) high seas. For warnings and watches, visit the Japan Meteorological Agency website.

Vongfong is forecast to continue moving north through the Philippine Sea and is expected to pass just to the east of Kadena Air Base, then track over Amami Oshima before making landfall in Kyushu and moving over the other three big islands of Japan.

Residents of all of these islands should prepare for typhoon conditions beginning on October 10.

The AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared data on Super Typhoon Vongfong and showed powerful thunderstorms (purple) circled the center in a wide band on Oct. 9, 2014. 

Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen

NASA MODIS: The Shrinking of the Aral Sea 2001 - 2014

The Aral Sea in 2001

Although irrigation made the desert bloom, it devastated the Aral Sea.

This series of images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite documents the changes.

At the start of the series in 2000, the lake was already a fraction of its 1960 extent (black line).

The Northern Aral Sea (sometimes called the Small Aral Sea) had separated from the Southern (Large) Aral Sea.

The Southern Aral Sea had split into eastern and western lobes that remained tenuously connected at both ends.

The Aral Sea in 2014

Read the full story and view the full series of images taken by MODIS from 2001 to 2014, here.

NASA Terra MODIS Image captures Great Lakes in the Fall

A few days after autumn showed up on the calendar in the Northern Hemisphere, it showed up on the landscape of North America. 

Image Credit: Jeff Schmaltz at NASA GSFC. Caption by Mike Carlowicz

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this view of fall colors around the Great Lakes on Sept. 26, 2014.

The changing of leaf colour in temperate forests involves several causes and reactions, but the dominant factors are sunlight and heat.

Since temperatures tend to drop sooner and sunlight fades faster at higher latitudes, the progression of fall colour changes tends to move from north to south across North America from mid-September through mid-November.

In late summer and autumn, tree and plant leaves produce less chlorophyll, the green pigment that harvests sunlight for plants to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugars.

The subsidence of chlorophyll allows other chemical compounds in the leaves, particularly carotenoids and flavonoids, to emerge from the green shadow of summer.

These compounds do not decay as fast as chlorophyll, so they shine through in yellows, oranges, and reds as the green fades.

Another set of chemicals, anthocyanins, are associated with the storage of sugars and give the leaves of some species deep purple and red hues.

MODIS Witnesses Deforestation in Borneo: Agricultural fires rage

The skies over Indonesian Borneo is filled with the smoke from hundreds of fires set deliberately to clear indigenous forest areas for subsistence farmland and illegal logging. 

A shroud of thick, gray smoke hangs over the area when the Aqua satellite captured this image on Sept. 25, 2014. 

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the Aqua satellite detected dozens of fires (locations outlined in red) across the entire region from Central Borneo to South Borneo and even on East Laut Island. 

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team.

The skies over Indonesian Borneo are filled with the smoke from hundreds of fires set deliberately to clear indigenous forest areas for subsistence farmland and illegal logging.

A shroud of thick, gray smoke hung over the area when the Aqua satellite captured this image on September 25, 2014.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the Aqua satellite detected dozens of fires (locations outlined in red) across the entire region from Central Borneo to South Borneo and even on East Laut Island.

Widespread burning in lowland forests on Borneo is an annual, man-made occurrence.

People use fires to manage and create agricultural lands, including large palm tree plantations that supply palm oil for biodiesel fuel; others are set accidentally during illegal exploitation and logging.

Lowland tropical forests are underlain by a swampy layer of peat that can be up to 20 meters (66 feet) thick.

During the rainy season, when the peat is waterlogged, leaves and other organic matter in the soil don't decay; when the peat dries out, it becomes flammable.

Burning peat generates huge amounts of smoke as is evident in this satellite image. These fires contribute significantly to annual greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition, the smoke released by any type of fire (forest, brush, crop, structure, tires, waste or wood burning) is a mixture of particles and chemicals produced by incomplete burning of carbon-containing materials.

All smoke contains carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter (PM or soot).

Smoke can contain many different chemicals, including aldehydes, acid gases, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), benzene, toluene, styrene, metals and dioxins.

Human's exposure to adverse air quality and smoke should be limited as it can cause severe respiratory ailments.

NASA OCO-2 data to lead scientists forward into the past

Scientists will use measurements from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 to track atmospheric carbon dioxide to sources such as these wildfires in Siberia, whose smoke plumes quickly carry the greenhouse gas worldwide. 

The fires were imaged on May 18 by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer instrument on the Terra satellite.

Credit: NASA/LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, which launched on July 2, will soon be providing about 100,000 high-quality measurements each day of carbon dioxide concentrations from around the globe.

Atmospheric scientists are excited about that but to understand the processes that control the amount of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, they need to know more than just where carbon dioxide is now.

They need to know where it has been. It takes more than great data to figure that out.

"In a sense, you're trying to go backward in time and space," said David Baker, a scientist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

"You're reversing the flow of the winds to determine when and where the input of carbon at the Earth's surface had to be to give you the measurements you see now."

Harry Potter used a magical time turner to travel to the past. Atmospheric scientists use a type of computer model called a chemical transport model.

It combines the atmospheric processes found in a climate model with additional information on important chemical compounds, including their reactions, their sources on Earth's surface and the processes that remove them from the air, known as sinks.

Baker used the example of a forest fire to explain how a chemical transport model works. "Where the fire is, at that point in time, you get a pulse of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the burning carbon in wood.

The model's winds blow it along, and mixing processes dilute it through the atmosphere. It gradually gets mixed into a wider and wider plume that eventually gets blown around the world."

Some models can be run backward in time, from a point in the plume back to the fire, in other words, to search for the sources of airborne carbon dioxide.

The reactions and processes that must be modeled are so complex that researchers often cycle their chemical transport models backward and forward through the same time period dozens of times, adjusting the model as each set of results reveals new clues.

"You basically start crawling toward a solution," Baker said. "You may not be crawling straight toward the best answer, but you course-correct along the way."

Read the full article here

NASA MODIS Image: Phytoplankton Bloom Off the Coast of Iceland

A spring bloom of phytoplankton lingered in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Iceland in early June, 2014.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-colour image on June 5.

At that time, swirling jewel tones of a vast bloom were visible between banks of white clouds.

According to the Icelandic Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture, phytoplankton blooms around Iceland usually occur in early spring and fall.

The spring bloom is driven by longer daylight and the warming of surface layers. This leads to stratification of the waters, and allows the phytoplankton to stay in the surface layer and reproduce.

By summer the huge numbers of phytoplankton in the blooms decreases nutrients, and the numbers of the organisms begins to plummet.

Image Credit: NASA/Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC

El Hierro Volcano research improves algorithms used by EO satellites

Image taken by the satellite WorldView-2 in October 2011. 

The bright green waters indicate high concentrations of volcanic material flowing from the brown zone, which is where the volcano is located. 

On the right, the ‘diffuse attenuation coefficient’ has been applied, this is an indicator of the water roughness level. 

The areas shaded in black are clouds. 

Credit: Institute of Oceanography and Global Change (ULPGC)

Information provided by satellites on the amount of chlorophyll-A and the roughness of the sea following the eruption of the underwater volcano off the island of El Hierro (Spain) did not coincide with the actual data collected in situ by vessels carrying out oceanographic studies.

The models have been corrected by researchers at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, who have for the first time processed very high resolution images of this kind of natural phenomenon captured from space.

The image of the Canary Islands which won the prize this year of NASA's Earth Observatory was captured by one it its satellites, 'Terra', with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) instrument.

This sensor also travels in the US space agency's satellite 'Aqua' as well as alongside the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) in the European Space Agency's satellite Envisat, and they have helped to understand the evolution of the underwater volcano which emerged in 2011 beneath the waters surrounding the island El Hierro, in the Canary Islands.

However, the information supplied by MODIS and MERIS was incorrect with regard to certain marine parameters, according to measurements taken in situ by oceanographic research vessels of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO).

This has now been confirmed by researchers of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) in a study published by the 'International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation'.

"The algorithms used with the data from the NASA and ESA satellites made mistakes when determining the concentration of chlorophyll-A (a variable that indicates the biological productivity in marine ecosystems) as it showed concentrations that were greater than actual ones as measured by the research ships," explained Francisco Eugenio, co-author of the study and researcher at the Institute of Oceanography and Global Change at the ULPGC, to SINC.

Members of this institute have developed new mathematical algorithms that correct the incongruities detected with chlorophyll-A as well as what is known as the 'diffuse attenuation coefficient' - an indicator of the sea turbulence in terms of dissolved material.

This parameter had also been over-estimated when applied to the data from the satellites.

"In any case, the images processed from these remote sensors have proven to be a very powerful tool for monitoring effects associated with underwater volcanic activity, such as the change of colour of the water, the presence of floating matter and volcanic plumes," Eugenio underlined.

The researcher also pointed out that, for the first time, very high resolution images have been obtained to follow this kind of geological phenomenon.

These are the images obtained from the private satellite Worldview-2, which has a pan-chromatic resolution of 46 centimetres -in black and white- and 1.85 metres in 8 multi-spectral bands. New algorithms have also been used with these.

In the case of these images, as with the low-resolution images obtained from MODIS and MERIS, the researchers have been able to work out the chronology of the atmospheric, oceanographic and biological parameters in the ocean since the volcano erupted three years ago at a depth of 300 metres below the ocean surface.

This data has been supplemented with the samples retrieved from all round the island in the project called 'Vulcano', which was most recently conducted last March.

For its part, the IEO's underwater robot Lirupos 2000 has also captured the growth of the underwater volcano's structure and the rapid rate at which the marine ecosystem is recolonizing the area.

"Currently, the volcano's main crater is at the same depth as it was in October 2013, which is 88 metres below the ocean surface," explains Eugenio.

He goes on to confirm: "The waters around El Hierro are fine, and, with the exception of a small area within a 200-metre radius around the main crater, no physical or chemical anomalies have been detected at any point around the periphery of the island, from the ocean surface to depths of 1,200 metres."

More information: F. Eugenio, J. Martin, J. Marcello, E. Fraile-Nuez, "Environmental monitoring of El Hierro Island submarine volcano, by combining low and high resolution satellite imagery," International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, Volume 29, June 2014, Pages 53-66, ISSN 0303-2434, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2013.12.009.

Volcanic Plume Over Southern Atlantic Ocean Revealed Through False-Colour Imagery

Image Credit: Jeff Schmaltz /MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC

The South Sandwich Islands, in the far southern Atlantic Ocean, are often shrouded with thick cloud, making it difficult to view the region from space.

Sometimes, however, the use of false-colour imagery can be used to reveal events that would otherwise be obscured under cloud cover.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite flew over the South Sandwich Islands on April 19, 2014 and acquired this false-colour image of the cloudy scene.

This false-colour image uses a combination of non-visible (middle infrared and infrared) and visible (red) light captured in bands 7, 2, and 1, respectively, to distinguish clouds from snow and ice.

Here the ice-covered islands appear bright turquoise, the clouds light turquoise and the water in the ocean appears deep black.

Because the volcanic plume is a moist mixture of gas and ash, it reflects all three forms of light relatively well, so it appears nearly white.

In the north of this image, a thin plume of white rises from the volcano on Zavodovski island, the northernmost of the South Sandwich Islands and streams to the northeast.

Further south, a wider white plume can be seen blowing across the Atlantic Ocean.

This plume rises from the Mount Michael volcano, which is a young and frequently active stratovolcano located on Saunders Island, near the center of the South Sandwich Island chain.

The white plume from Mount Michael forms a chain of swirling eddies as it blows to the northeast.

To the south, similar eddies can be seen behind three other islands. These are known as Von Kármán vortices.

These vortices can form nearly anywhere that fluid flow is disturbed by an object. Because the atmosphere behaves like a fluid, when streaming air hits a blunt object, such as a mountain peak, the wind is forced around the object.

The disturbance in the flow of the wind propagates downstream in a double row of vortices that alternate their direction of rotation, much like the eddies seen behind a pier in a river as water rushes past.

NOAA GOES-East Image: Captures weather system that spawned tornadoes

This NOAA GOES-East satellite image from Monday, Apr. 28, 2014 at 13:01 UTC/9:01 a.m. EDT shows the same storm system that generated the severe weather outbreak yesterday, has moved to the east. 

Credit: NASA /NOAA GOES Project

NASA has just released an animation of visible and infrared satellite data from NOAA's GOES-East satellite that shows the development and movement of the weather system that spawned tornadoes affecting seven central and southern U.S. states on April 27-28, 2014.

NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared data on the system that revealed powerful storms, high into the troposphere.

This storm system generated reports of tornadoes from Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Coupled with local weather observations, soundings, and computer models, data from satellites like NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-East or GOES-13) gives forecasters information about developing weather situations.

In real-time, the NOAA's GOES-East satellite data in animated form showed forecasters how the area of severe weather was developing and moving.

NOAA's GOES-East satellite sits in a fixed orbit in space capturing visible and infrared imagery of weather over the eastern U.S. and Atlantic Ocean.

The GOES-East satellite is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

NASA/NOAA's GOES Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. created the animation of GOES-East satellite data that covered the period during the tornado outbreak.

The GOES-East animation of visible and infrared imagery runs 31 seconds. The animation begins on April 27 at 00:15 UTC (April 26 at 8:15 p.m. EDT) and runs through April 28 at 14:15 UTC/10:15 a.m. EDT.

By 14:45 UTC/10:45 a.m. EDT on April 27 the animation shows the squall line of thunderstorms developing.


This animation of NOAA's GOES-East satellite data shows the development and movement of the weather system that spawned tornadoes affecting seven central and southern U.S. states on April 27-28, 2014. 

Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project

To create the video and imagery, NASA/NOAA's GOES Project takes the cloud data from NOAA's GOES-East satellite and overlays it on a true-color image of land and ocean created by data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites.

Together, those data created the entire picture of the storm system and show its movement.

A NASA satellite also captured an image of the storm, collecting infrared data on it as it passed overhead on April 27.

At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. a false-colored image was created of the storm system using data gathered by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite on April 27 at 18:59 UTC (1:59 p.m. CDT).

The AIRS image showed very cold cloud top temperatures indicating that the thunderstorms had strong uplift that pushed cloud tops to the top of the troposphere.

Some of those thunderstorms had cloud tops as cold as 200 kelvin (-99.6 F/-73.1C). Temperatures drop to just under 220 degrees kelvin at the top of the troposphere (and where the tropopause begins).

This false-colored infrared image from the AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite shows the cold cloud top temperatures associated with the severe thunderstorms that brought severe weather to seven states on Apr. 27. 

Credit: NASA/JPL, Ed Olsen

NASA MODIS: Agricultural fires across Sierra Leone

Credit: NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team.

Marked in red, hundreds of land use fires burn in the fields across Sierra Leone.

Most fires in this region are deliberately set for a variety of reasons, including slash and burn agriculture.

When a plot of land becomes exhausted, farmers shift cultivation to another plot where they cut the trees and brush at the beginning of the dry season in January and February.

Once the dead plant material has dried, they set fire to it. Such fires peak in March and April right before farming season begins.

From space, MODIS detects thermal anomalies, including fires, flares, and volcanoes.

Each MODIS "fire pixel" or fire detection covers one square kilometer, which means that one or more fire is burning in the corresponding one-square kilometer area on the ground.

There are hundreds of fire pixels evident in this image, so there are at least that many distinct fires burning in this scene.

MODIS tends to undercount fires because it can't detect fires through smoke or clouds, nor does it see small cool fires, a fire type common to land use fires.

Where there is fire, there is also smoke, affecting air quality. Smoke contains soot and other particulates that pose a threat to human health and affect regional climate. Burning also releases greenhouse gases.

This natural-colour satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite on March 24, 2014.

Sun's energy influences 1,000 years of natural climate variability

This is a composite created from three images received from MODIS instruments carried on NASA's Terra and Aqua polar orbiting satellites. 

The images were received at the Dundee Satellite Receiving Station at 1151, 1205 and 1342 UTC on 7th Jan. 2010. 

Credit: NASA

Changes in the sun's energy output may have led to marked natural climate change in Europe over the last 1000 years, according to researchers at Cardiff University.

Scientists studied seafloor sediments to determine how the temperature of the North Atlantic and its localised atmospheric circulation had altered.

Warm surface waters flowing across the North Atlantic, an extension of the Gulf Stream, and warm westerly winds are responsible for the relatively mild climate of Europe, especially in winter.

Slight changes in the transport of heat associated with these systems can led to regional climate variability, and the study findings matched historic accounts of climate change, including the notoriously severe winters of the 16th and 18th centuries which pre-date global industrialisation.

The study found that changes in the Sun's activity can have a considerable impact on the ocean-atmospheric dynamics in the North Atlantic, with potential effects on regional climate.

Predictions suggest a prolonged period of low sun activity over the next few decades, but any associated natural temperature changes will be much smaller than those created by human carbon dioxide emissions, say researchers.

The study, led by Cardiff University scientists, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Bern, is published today in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Paola Moffa-Sanchez

Dr Paola Moffa-Sanchez, lead author from Cardiff University School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, explained: "We used seafloor sediments taken from south of Iceland to study changes in the warm surface ocean current."

"This was done by analysing the chemical composition of fossilised microorganisms that had once lived in the surface of the ocean."

"These measurements were then used to reconstruct the seawater temperature and the salinity of this key ocean current over the past 1000 years."

The results of these analyses revealed large and abrupt temperature and salinity changes in the north-flowing warm current on time-scales of several decades to centuries.

Cold ocean conditions were found to match periods of low solar energy output, corresponding to intervals of low sunspot activity observed on the surface of the sun.

Using a physics-based climate model, the authors were able to test the response of the ocean to changes in the solar output and found similar results to the data.

Ian Hall

"By using the climate model it was also possible to explore how the changes in solar output affected the surface circulation of the Atlantic Ocean," said Prof Ian Hall, a co-author of the study.

"The circulation of the surface of the Atlantic Ocean is typically tightly linked to changes in the wind patterns."

"Analysis of the atmosphere component in the climate model revealed that during periods of solar minima there was a high-pressure system located west of the British Isles."

"This feature is often referred to as atmospheric blocking, and it is called this because it blocks the warm westerly winds diverting them and allowing cold Arctic air to flow south bringing harsh winters to Europe, such as those recently experienced in 2010 and 2013."

The study concludes that although the temperature changes expected from future solar activity are much smaller than the warming from human carbon dioxide emissions, regional climate variability associated with the effects of solar output on the ocean and atmosphere should be taken into account when making future climate projections.

More information: Solar forcing of North Atlantic surface temperature and salinity over the past millennium, Nature Geoscience, DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2094

NASA Terra Aqua MODIS: UK scientists reveal Amazon rainforest satellite imaging problem - Video

US Scientists have been puzzled by the apparent ‘greening up’ of the Amazon forest during its annual dry season.

However, Swansea University scientists, in research carried out in conjunction with NASA, have found that the Amazon is not as green in the dry season as researchers previously thought, because a trick of the light skews the satellite images.

The research is published in the latest issue of the scientific journal Nature; doi:10.1038/nature13006

This natural-colour satellite image shows the importance of correcting for sun-sensor geometry. 

On the left side, sunlight is backscattered by the Amazon rainforest, creating the appearance of brighter green leaves in some areas. 

To the right, sunglint makes the dark waters of the Amazon River and surrounding flooded wetlands appear silver or white compared to the darker forest. 

 Credit: NASA's Earth Observatory

The finding of the research yeam will help scientists develop a more accurate picture of changes in the Amazon, which is more important now than ever, given the enormous role the Amazon plays in regulating carbon dioxide, and influencing climate change.

NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites make daily observations over the huge expanse of Amazon forests.

The research team were investigating why previous satellite images seemed to show that the forests became greener during the dry season each year from June to October.

More greenery indicates productive, thriving vegetation, which would not be expected at a time of limited rainfall.

The new research shows that:

• The apparent greening of the Amazon in the dry season is an illusion. The forest does not become greener at all.
• It just looks that way due to a combination of shadowing within the forest canopy and the way that satellite sensors observe the Amazon during the dry season, which can create false “hot spots” in images.

Dr Jackie Rosette

‌Swansea researchers, working with NASA, developed a mathematical model which predicts how a forest will be seen from space, and how leaf area can be measured.

One of the Swansea team, Dr Jackie Rosette, spent 2 years at Goddard Space Flight Center, working closely with NASA colleagues.

Blue colours represent areas in Amazon forests where sensors and models can overestimate the green-up of vegetation; white represents areas that lack forest cover. 

The map is based on a model that extends the sun-sensor correction to all pixels in the southern Amazon. 

Credit: Doug Morton and NASA's Earth Observatory

Professor Peter North from the Department of Geography at Swansea University, one of the authors of the research paper, said:

"The Amazon is so vast that it’s only from space that we can properly observe it, so it’s very important that the satellite data gives us as accurate a picture as possible.

Our model has helped to identify the flaws in the previous interpretation. As a result, we can be much more confident that what we are seeing is a real pattern across the Amazon, not a trick of the light.

Having an accurate picture of the Amazon is essential if we are to understand its key role in shaping the climate."

Aboard the NASA satellites are sensors called MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) which measure the amount of infrared light reflected from the Amazon.

Scientists use the ratio of red and near-infrared light as a measure of vegetation.

Doug Morton, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center said.

"We think we have uncovered the mechanism for the appearance of seasonal greening of Amazon forests – shadowing within the canopy that changes the amount of near-infrared light observed by MODIS"

The research implies that the previous hypothesis of increased productivity during dry seasons is likely to be false, and Amazon productivity may be more limited by water availability than sunlight.

This is critical for predicting the response of the Amazon to future climate change.

Spanish MODIS Astronomers observe record-breaking lunar impact in Mare Nubium

An image of the flash resulting from the impact of a large meteorite on the lunar surface on 11 September 2013, obtained with the ESO MIDAS observatory. 

Credit: J. Madiedo / MIDAS

A meteorite with the mass of a small car crashed into the Moon last September, according to Spanish astronomers.

The impact, the biggest seen to date, produced a bright flash and would have been easy to spot from the Earth.

The scientists publish their description of the event in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The Moon lacks the atmosphere that prevents small rocks from space from reaching the surface of the Earth.

The result is very visible – vast numbers of craters large and small cover the whole of our nearest neighbour and record 4.5 billion years of collisions that span the history of the Solar system.

Although there is almost no chance of a very large object striking the Moon or planets, collisions with smaller objects are very common even today.

The odds of seeing one of these by chance are pretty poor, so scientists have set up networks of telescopes that can detect them automatically.

Jose M. Madiedo

On 11 September 2013, Prof Jose M. Madiedo was operating two telescopes in the south of Spain that were searching for these impact events.

At 2007 GMT he witnessed an unusually long and bright flash in Mare Nubium, an ancient lava-filled basin with a darker appearance than its surroundings.

The flash was the result of a rock crashing into the lunar surface and was briefly almost as bright as the familiar Pole Star, meaning that anyone on Earth who was lucky enough to be looking at the Moon at that moment would have been able to see it.

In the video recording made by Prof Madiedo, an afterglow remained visible for a further eight seconds.



The October event is the longest and brightest confirmed impact flash ever observed on the Moon. Prof Madiedo recalls how impressed he was: "At that moment I realised that I had seen a very rare and extraordinary event."

The Spanish telescopes are part of the Moon Impacts Detection and Analysis System (MIDAS) system that monitors the lunar surface.

Jose L. Ortiz

This project is being undertaken by Prof Jose Maria Madiedo, from the University of Huelva (UHU), and by Dr Jose L. Ortiz, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC) and continues a pioneering program that detected sporadic lunar impact flashes for the first time.

Since these impacts take place at huge speeds, the rocks become molten and are vapourised at the impact site instantaneously, and this produces a thermal glow that can be detected from our planet as short-duration flashes through telescopes.

Generally, these flashes last just a fraction of a second but the flash detected on 11 September was much more intense and longer than anything observed before.

More Information: “A large lunar impact blast on 2013 September 11”, José M. Madiedo, José L. Ortiz, Nicolás Morales and Jesús Cabrera-Caño, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Oxford University Press, in press. A copy of the paper is available from mnras.oxfordjournals.org

NASA MODIS Image: US Great Lakes Frozen

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite captured this image on Feb. 19, 2014. 

Credit: NASA

A deep freeze has settled in over the Great Lakes this winter and a new image released by NASA shows the astonishing extent of the ice cover as seen from space.

NASA's Aqua satellite captured this image of the lakes on the early afternoon of Feb. 19, 2014.

At the time, 80.3 percent of the five lakes were covered in ice, according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Earlier this month, ice cover over the Great Lakes hit 88 percent for the first time since 1994.

Typically at its peak, the average ice cover is just over 50 percent, and it only occasionally passes 80 percent, according to NASA's Earth Observatory.

A false colour image of the frigid Great Lakes on Feb. 19, 2014. 

Credit: NASA

Cold temperatures that have persisted in the region are largely responsible for this year's thick layer of ice, but cryospheric scientist Nathan Kurtz, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, told the Earth Observatory that "secondary factors like clouds, snow and wind also play a role."

And some lakes are more frozen than others.

Nathan Kurtz

While the ice cover over Lake Erie, Lake Superior and Lake Huron is approaching 100 percent, Lake Ontario is only around 20 percent frozen and Lake Michigan is about 60 percent covered, according to the latest update from GLERL.

NASA researchers also put together a false-colour image combining shortwave infrared, near infrared and red wavelengths to pick out ice from other elements that look white in visible-wavelength images like snow, water and clouds. In this image, ice appears pale blue, and the thicker it is the brighter it looks.

Open water, meanwhile, is shown in navy, snow is blue-green and clouds appear either white or blue-green, according the Earth Observatory.

NASA MODIS: Temperature Feedback magnifying climate warming in Arctic

Mosaic of images of the Arctic by MODIS. Credit: NASA

A team of researchers with the Max Planck Institute in Germany, has found that temperature feedback in the Arctic is causing more warming in that region than sea ice albedo feedback.

In their paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the team describes how plugging data into a computer simulation revealed a "layered cake" atmosphere that traps heat over the polar cap.

Scientists have known for several years that temperatures in the Arctic are rising faster (due to global warming) than for the rest of the planet—for the most part, most climatologists have attributed this to sea ice albedo—a feedback system where a small rise in temperature leads to melting of ice and snow.

Less ice and snow means less heat is reflected back into space, which means more warming occurs, and so on. In this new effort, the researchers suggest that while sea ice albedo is causing temperatures to rise, it's second to temperature feedback in overall impact.

To gain a better perspective on why Arctic temperatures are increasing so much, the researchers turned to highly sophisticated and data intensive climate computer models.

Their model showed a cap of cold layered air hovering over the Arctic, holding in the heat. The researchers believe their simulation accurately portrays what actually exists in the real Arctic.

Normally, they explain, changing weather patterns (such as thunderstorms) in other parts of the world keep atmospheric air churning, which in turn allows heat closer to the ground to be moved higher, allowing some of it to escape into space.

Things are very different in the Arctic—there is very little churning, which means that warm air close to ground (just one to two kilometers thick) remains where it is, trapped by a heavy layered atmosphere.

The simulation also helps to explain why Arctic warming is more pronounced in the winter than during other seasons—even less mixing of the air in the atmosphere occurs because the air is so cold.

The team reports that their simulations show that the temperature feedback that occurs in the Arctic is causing more average temperature increase than sea ice albedo, the second most critical factor in causing warming.

They have not used their findings to try to predict what sort of overall impact increasing Arctic temperatures might have on the rest of the planet, however, if the polar cap will melt completely, or if it does, when it might occur.

More information: Arctic amplification dominated by temperature feedbacks in contemporary climate models, Nature Geoscience (2014) DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2071

Volcanic Smog and Sunglint in the Vanuatu Archipelago

The Vanuatu Archipelago is a collection of volcanic islands about 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) northeast of Australia. 

Two of the islands, Gaua and Ambrym, frequently vent sulphurous gases.

On Jan. 7, 2014 NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Vanuatu, allowing the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard to capture this true-color image. 

A broad plume of volcanic 'vog' and ash rises from Ambrym and spreads across the South Pacific. 

Vog is a combination of “volcanic” and “smog”, and is formed when gases from a volcano react with sunlight, oxygen and moisture.

The vog appears as a light blue-gray plume which arcs from the volcanic island both to the northwest and to the northeast. 

In the northeast, the vog crosses a mirror-like swath of silver-gray which runs from north to south. 

That swath is not volcanic in origin, but is an artifact called “sunglint” – the reflection of the sun off the ocean in a satellite image.

Image Credit: NASA /Jeff Schmaltz /MODIS Rapid Response Team

NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP VIIRS satellite sensor: More precise hurricane forecasts

Tropical Storm Flossie imagery in July 2013 from Suomi NPP’s VIIRS Day-Night band revealing that the storm shifted more to the north, sparing the big island of Hawaii from a direct hit, but bringing the islands of Oahu, Molokai and Maui into a tropical storm warning area. 

Credit: NOAA

The ability to use satellites to locate a storm that could evolve into a severe storm or hurricane will likely become more accurate for this year's Atlantic hurricane season beginning June 1.

By then, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA), weather forecasters will be able to further improve the use of sensors aboard the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite (Suomi NPP).

U.S. Polar Environmental satellites such as Suomi NPP provide complete global coverage twice daily, while NOAA/NASA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites offer imagery over a fixed area.

To improve the ability to better find and track hurricanes, NOAA scientists are finding ways to incorporate data from Suomi NPP's Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, VIIRS sensor, that allows observations of Earth's atmosphere and surface during nighttime hours and offers enhanced capability to see through clouds.

VIIRS provides many advances over previous operational imagers and advances compared to its research predecessor, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) currently operating on NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites.

It is these advances in polar imagery that will give forecasters a new tool to improve their predictions.

Similarly, the radar on board the NASA/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite has the capability to see through and distinguish between precipitating cumulus and the cirrus clouds which TRMM's infrared sensor also detects.

The next-generation of these sensors is set to launch from Japan next month aboard the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite.

The information to track storms comes from satellites surface stations, weather balloons, radar and aircraft.

Most current satellites provide important information during day and night, although observations in the visible part of the spectrum are limited at night.

That is where VIIRS has an advantage. The VIIRS day-night band is sensitive enough to provide storm information even under limited moonlight conditions, a major advancement for storm analysis.

The Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) sensor aboard Suomi NPP also provides temperature and water vapour measurements with greater accuracy than similar microwave instruments onboard earlier satellites.

In relatively clear areas away from the storm center and in the eye of intense storms, the Cross-track Infrared Sensor (CrIS), also on Suomi NPP, enhances ATMS temperature and moisture information by providing measurements with even greater vertical and horizontal resolution.

Installation of the CrIS instrument. Credit: Ball Aerospace

NASA's Aqua Sees Massive US Winter Storm

On January 2, 2014, NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the United States multiple times, allowing the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board to capture this true-colour image of a massive winter storm moving up the eastern seaboard. 

Another image taken the same day by the GOES-13 satellite shows moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and cold air from Canada moving across the U.S. (Shown below)

Very cold temperatures and dangerous wind chills are moving in behind the system. 

The next storm is forming, and will bring blizzard conditions to the northern Plains Friday Night into Saturday. 

Extreme wind chills to -55 F are possible in the northern Plains this weekend. 

Credit: NASA/NOAA

NASA AQUA MODIS Image: Totten Glazier melt rate linked to Sea Ice conditions

This image shows the Totten Glacier ice shelf in East Antarctica (the wrinkled white area at top left) on Sept. 25, 2013. 

Two large open-water polynyas appear on the sea ice below and to the right of the shelf, as well as several smaller ones. 

The open-water areas are bright black. 

The stippled diagonal line from lower left to upper right is the outer edge of the sea ice, with cloud cover to the right of that line. 

The image is from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite. 

Credit: NASA.

A new NASA-led study has discovered an intriguing link between sea ice conditions and the melting rate of Totten Glacier, the glacier in East Antarctica that discharges the most ice into the ocean.

The discovery, involving cold, extra salty water - brine - that forms within openings in sea ice, adds to our understanding of how ice sheets interact with the ocean, and may improve our ability to forecast and prepare for future sea level rise.

"I was curious why Totten was changing so fast when the glacier just next to it wasn't changing much," said Ala Khazender of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., lead author of the new study, published online Dec. 5 in the journal Nature Communications.

Combining satellite observations with ocean numerical modeling, Khazender and his colleagues developed a hypothesis that reductions in the volume of brine would increase Totten's thinning and melting.

Additional research supported that hypothesis.

Ice loss seen in Antarctica is generally attributed to the well-documented rise in temperature of the surrounding ocean, but scientists are still puzzling out the mechanisms behind the regional variations that they are observing.

The new study highlights the key role of processes occurring on small geographic scales in determining how global climate change can affect the stability of ice sheets.

Satellite observations from NASA's ICESat-1, which measures how much ice surfaces are rising or falling over time, revealed that Totten Glacier was thinning rapidly.

It currently discharges enough ice into the surrounding ocean to fill Lake Erie in just over a week.

The nearby Moscow University Glacier and its floating ice shelf were showing little change. Why the difference?

"We were convinced that the answer must be in the ocean," Khazender said.

The ocean around Antarctica is warmer than both the continent's icy surface and the polar air. Ice shelves (the floating front edges of glaciers that extend tens to hundreds of miles offshore) melt more because of contact with ocean water below them than they do because of sunlight.

Melting at the undersides of ice shelves is part of Antarctica's natural water cycle, but when glaciers start melting unusually quickly, it's a sign that something is off balance.

Khazender and his team of colleagues from JPL; UCLA; the University of California, Irvine; and Utrecht University in the Netherlands combined ICESat remote sensing observations from 2003 to 2008 with ocean numerical computer models to seek insights into the interaction between the ice shelves and their ocean basin.

More information: For more information on ICESat, visit: icesat.gsfc.nasa.gov/ .For more information on the ECCO2 ocean modeling and data synthesis project, visit: ecco2.jpl.nasa.gov/