ISS Image: Lightning Above the Middle East

This image of lightning over Kuwait was taken by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station on Dec. 12, 2013.

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

This stunning image of a lightning strike over Kuwait was captured last December by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and released today (March 24) by NASA's Earth Observatory.

The ISS recently installed Firesation, a new instrument to help study the physics and composition of such bolts in detail on a daily basis.

Firesation being readied

Lightning bolts flash across Earth's atmosphere as often as 50 times per second, which adds up to about 4.3 million times a day and 1.5 billion times a year, NASA officials wrote in an image description.

Some of those strikes emit gamma radiation, a type of radiation more commonly associated with exploding stars and nuclear fusion, in bursts known as terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs).

The GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM), an instrument aboard NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, was recently fine-tuned to better catch TGFs, and this allowed scientists to discover that TGFs also emit radio waves.

The scientists will use the new lightning imagery and data from the ISS to try to understand what triggers lightning during storms in general, and what causes these rarer bursts of TGFs

Doug Rowland

"The fact that TGFs exist at all is amazing," Doug Rowland, a space physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center involved in this new lighting research, said in a statement.

"The electron and gamma-ray energies in TGFs are usually the domain of nuclear explosions, solar flares, and supernovas."

"What a surprise to find them shooting out of the cold upper atmosphere of our own planet."

Researchers think these TGFs may be related to enigmatic red bursts of lightning called red sprites, which travel upward from thunderstorms and can take on ornate shapes that look like jellyfish.

Red sprites are just one of several types of lightning that researchers are still studying to understand their origin and structure.

In fact, lightning, in general, is a mysterious phenomenon, with scientists still not sure exactly how lightning forms.

The working hypothesis suggests it forms when an updraft of warm air reaches a height where the temperature is just above freezing; at this point, ice crystals and frozen particles interact with each other to produce an electric charge separation; when that separation becomes great enough an electrical breakdown occurs i.e. a lightning flash.

NASA LandSat Images: The Syrian Desert appears Greener

In this series of four Landsat images, the agricultural fields are about one kilometer across. 

Healthy vegetation appears bright green while dry vegetation appears orange. 

Barren soil is a dark pink, and urban areas, like the town of Tubarjal at the top of each image, have a purple hue. Credit: NASA/GSFC.

Saudi Arabia is drilling for a resource possibly more precious than oil.

Over the last 24 years, it has tapped hidden reserves of water to grow wheat and other crops in the Syrian Desert. This time series of data shows images acquired by three different Landsat satellites operated by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.

The green fields that dot the desert draw on water that in part was trapped during the last Ice Age. In addition to rainwater that fell over several hundred thousand years, this fossil water filled aquifers that are now buried deep under the desert's shifting sands.

Saudi Arabia reaches these underground rivers and lakes by drilling through the desert floor, directly irrigating the fields with a circular sprinkler system. This technique is called center-pivot irrigation.

Because rainfall in this area is now only a few centimeters (about one inch) each year, water here is a non-renewable resource. Although no one knows how much water is beneath the desert, hydrologists estimate it will only be economical to pump water for about 50 years.

In this series of four Landsat images, the agricultural fields are about one kilometer (.62 miles) across.

The images were created using reflected light from the short wave-infrared, near-infrared, and green portions of the electromagnetic spectrum (bands 7, 4, and 2 from Landsat 4 and 5 TM and Landsat 7 ETM+ sensors). Using this combination of wavelengths, healthy vegetation appears bright green while dry vegetation appears orange.

Barren soil is a dark pink, and urban areas, like the town of Tubarjal at the top of each image, have a purple hue.

Landsat 4 launched in 1982 and provided scientific data for 11 years until 1993. NASA launched Landsat 5 in 1984 and it ran a record-breaking 28 years, sending back what was likely its last data in 2011. Landsat 7 is still up and running; it was launched in 1999.

The data from these and other Landsat satellites has been instrumental in increasing our understanding of forest health, storm damage, agricultural trends, urban growth, and many other ongoing changes to our land.

NASA and the U.S. Department of the Interior through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) jointly manage Landsat, and the USGS preserves a 40-year archive of Landsat images that is freely available data over the Internet.

The next Landsat satellite, now known as the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) and later to be called Landsat 8, is scheduled for launch in January 2013.

NASA ISS Image: Saudi Arabia southern desert

NASA Landsat-7 Image: Saudi Arabia and Yemen

Description: White pinpricks of cloud cast ebony shadows on the Rub' al Khali, or Empty Quarter, near the border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

The lines of wind-sculpted sand are characteristic of immense sand deserts, or sand seas, and the Rub' al Khali is the largest desert of this type in the world.

A highland ridge is just high enough to disturb the flow of the lines. In the center of that interruption lies the Saudi Arabian town of Sharurah.

Credit: USGS/NASA/Landsat 7

To learn more about the Landsat satellite go to: landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/

NASA ISS Image: Harrat Khaybar, Saudi Arabia

Harrat Khaybar, Saudi Arabia lies in the western half of the Arabian peninsula and contains not only large expanses of sand and gravel, but also extensive lava fields known as haraat (harrat for a named field).

According to scientists, the volcanic field was formed by eruptions along a long north-south linear vent system over the past 5 million years; the most recent recorded eruption took place between 600-700 A.D.

The presence of tuff cones -- formed by eruption of lava in the presence of water together with other volcanic features indicative of water -- in the Harrat Khaybar suggest that the local climate was much wetter during some periods of volcanic activity.

Today, however, the regional climate is hyperarid -- little to no yearly precipitation -- leading to an almost total lack of vegetation.

The image was taken by the Expedition 16 crew aboard the Inernational Space Station in March 2008.

Image Credit: NASA

NASA: Partners with Saudi Arabia for Moon Exloration and Exploitation

NASA Partners with Saudi Arabia on Moon and Asteroid Research WASHINGTON -- NASA and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) have signed a joint statement that allows for collaboration in lunar and asteroid science research.

The partnership recognizes the Saudi Lunar and Near-Earth Object Science Center as an affiliate partner with the NASA Lunar Science Institute at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

"This collaboration is within the scope of the Memorandum of Understanding on Science and Technology signed between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America last year and later ratified by the Council of Ministers," said H.H. Dr. Turki Bin Saud Bin Mohammed Al-Saud, vice president for Research Institutes, KACST.

"The international interest in lunar science and, more recently, near Earth objects led to the establishment of the Saudi Lunar and Near Earth Object Science Center as a focal point for lunar science and NEO studies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, we are looking forward to our expanding collaboration with NASA for the benefit of both countries."

"NASA's Lunar Science Institute exists to conduct cutting-edge lunar science and train the next generation of lunar scientists and explorers," said Greg Schmidt, institute deputy director at Ames.

"Our international partnerships are critical for meeting these objectives, and we are very excited by the important science, training and education that our new Saudi colleagues bring to the NASA Lunar Science Institute."

"This is an important advance in our growing program of bilateral science and technology cooperation," said U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia James Smith. "It will help realize President Obama's goal, expressed in his June 4 speech to the Muslim world, of increasing our cooperation on science and technology, which we believe closely corresponds to King Abdullah's vision."

The Saudi science center's proposal brings technical and engineering expertise to advance the broad goals of lunar science at the institute. Specific areas of lunar study of both scientific and cultural importance include radar and infrared imaging, laser ranging and imaging, and topographical studies.

The center's studies in near-Earth object science also offer important contributions to an area of importance to NASA.

"The Saudi Lunar and Near Earth Object Science Center's primary mission is to direct all lunar and near Earth object related research within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," said Dr. Haithem Altwaijry, deputy director of the National Satellite Technology Program at KACST.

"It will reach out to students in addition to researchers and present fertile ground for scientific research."

"NASA welcomes international cooperation for mutual benefit with organizations large and small in all regions of the world," said Michael O'Brien, assistant administrator for external relations at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Our continuing discussions with Saudi Arabian officials may lead to future joint scientific collaboration in other areas of mutual interest."