On the surface of the Earth hurricanes bring destruction and oftentimes death with a ferocity unlike any other type of weather. Viewed from above however hurricanes seem almost tranquil and in some ways beautiful as is seen in new video of Hurricane Isaac from the International Space Station. Check out the stunning video as well as amazing photos of previous hurricanes as seen from space.
We returned home from a weekend of camping to the news that Neil Armstrong has passed away and I am surprised by the lack of news coverage of the loss of this great American hero. His name will forever be mentioned in the annals of history along with other great explorers like Columbus, Polo, Lewis & Clark, Cook and Hillary.
On his return from the moon he could have had anything he wanted – politics, fame, riches. Instead he chose to return to his native Ohio and teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
Clearly Armstrong was a great man who believed he was serving a greater good, his nation. He did not go to the moon for himself or for fame or glory.
I shed a tear tonight for Neil Armstrong, one of our nation’s greatest quiet heroes.
May he rest in peace and may one day our nation find the will to continue on the path which he and so many of his predecessors put us on.
Landing on Mars has proven over the years to be an extremely difficult task with few space probes seeing success. NASA’s Curiosity rover beat the odds completing its 352 million mile journey with a perfect landing early Monday morning.
The probe was launched on November 26 and as it neared its touchdown on the Red Planet, NASA had been discussing the “7 minutes of terror” involved in inserting the probe into the Martian atmosphere and successfully landing. The craft used an amazing array of equipment to land including a sky crane and a supersonic parachute.
The image above was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in a perfectly choreographed event designed to capture just an image. The photo shows Curiosity dangling under its massive parachute as it descends to the surface.
For more on NASA’s Curiosity rover mission click here.
From NASA:
Curiosity Spotted on Parachute by Orbiter
NASA’s Curiosity rover and its parachute were spotted by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as Curiosity descended to the surface on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured this image of Curiosity while the orbiter was listening to transmissions from the rover. Curiosity and its parachute are in the center of the white box; the inset image is a cutout of the rover stretched to avoid saturation. The rover is descending toward the etched plains just north of the sand dunes that fringe “Mt. Sharp.” From the perspective of the orbiter, the parachute and Curiosity are flying at an angle relative to the surface, so the landing site does not appear directly below the rover.
The parachute appears fully inflated and performing perfectly. Details in the parachute, such as the band gap at the edges and the central hole, are clearly seen. The cords connecting the parachute to the back shell cannot be seen, although they were seen in the image of NASA’s Phoenix lander descending, perhaps due to the difference in lighting angles. The bright spot on the back shell containing Curiosity might be a specular reflection off of a shiny area. Curiosity was released from the back shell sometime after this image was acquired.
This view is one product from an observation made by HiRISE targeted to the expected location of Curiosity about one minute prior to landing. It was captured in HiRISE CCD RED1, near the eastern edge of the swath width (there is a RED0 at the very edge). This means that the rover was a bit further east or downrange than predicted.
The image scale is 13.2 inches (33.6 centimeters) per pixel .
HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the orbiter’s HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
The coronal mass ejection (CME) that resulted from the solar flare on Thursday has begun hitting the Earth. Satellite and terrestrial stations began picking up the increase in geomagnetic activity at around 1:00pm MDT Saturday.
The solar flare was a significant one as is the CME however it is not expected to be powerful enough to have any ill effects on earth. More significant events can affect satellites and even bring down power grids.
Here on Earth the most notable effect will be an increase in aurora activity. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear the CME is strong enough to push the aurora down to Colorado but areas across the northern latitudes of the contiguous United States may be treated to a show.
Aurora forecasts:
Related:
The video below from NASA combines various wavelength views from the Solar Dynamic Observatory’s (SDO) AIA instrument.
The Waldo Canyon Fire near Colorado Springs became a raging inferno and one of the most disastrous in Colorado history. New satellite imagery released by NASA shows the massive area burned by the blaze and provides perspective as to just how close it came to the state’s second largest city.
Officials are hoping to announce 100% containment of the fire later today. The blaze has burned 18,247 acres, the 11th largest in Colorado history. More notably however the blaze claimed two lives and destroyed 346 homes making it the most destructive wildfire in the state’s history.
NASA’s Terra satellite flew over the burn area on July 4th and false color imaging provides a clear view of the burn area of the fire. One can easily see where the fire entered the Mountain Shadows neighborhood and how close it came to the Air Force Academy and more populous areas of Colorado Springs.
Related stories from Examiner.com
From NASA:
The Waldo Canyon Fire was first reported on June 23, 2012, burning in Pike National Forest, three miles (5 kilometers) west of Colorado Springs. Fueled by extremely dry conditions and strong winds, it had burned 18,247 acres (74 square kilometers) by July 5. The blaze severely damaged or destroyed 346 homes, making it the most destructive fire in Colorado history. Mountain Shadows, a neighborhood northwest of the Colorado Springs city center, experienced some of the most severe damage. According to an analysis conducted by the Denver Post, the combined value of the homes that burned to the ground in the neighborhood was at least $110 million.
The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on the Terra satellite acquired this view of the burn scar on July 4, 2012, when the fire was still burning but was 90 percent contained. Vegetation-covered land is red in the false-color image, which includes both visible and infrared light. Patches of unburned forest are bright red, in contrast with areas where flecks of light brown indicate some burning. The darkest brown areas are the most severely burned. Buildings, roads, and other developed areas appear light gray and white. The bright red patches of vegetation near Colorado Springs are golf courses, parks, or other irrigated land.
Colorado’s deadly and destructive wildfire season continues with as many as a dozen blazes burning in recent days. Smoke from the fires has blanketed parts of the state in recent weeks and new NASA satellite imagery shows the smoke plumes from some of the blazes. Read the rest of this story and view the images on Examiner.com.
When NASA launched the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project, or NPP, in October, it ushered in a new generation of climate and weather satellites. The school bus size spacecraft is now securely in polar orbit making 14 passes over the Earth each day.
The five main instruments are critical to enhancing not only short term weather forecasting but also in aiding long term climate modeling. NASA has performing an initial checkout of the craft and its instruments, a process which will take several more weeks before it begins its regular science mission.
This week NASA released an astounding ‘blue marble’ image captured by its Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). The image is a composite from multiple orbits of the spacecraft on January 4, 2012 showing much of North and Central America.
If you can get yourself out of bed early in the morning on Saturday, December 10, 2011 you will be treated to the last total lunar eclipse for nearly three years. For viewers in Thornton and along the Colorado Front Range, the event will be relatively quick but punctuated by a setting moon with the Rocky Mountains in the foreground.
Saturday morning the moon will be passing through the lower half of the Earth’s shadow just before it sets in the west at 7:12am MST Saturday. The low hanging moon will appear much larger than normal bringing what NASA calls a ‘super-sized’ eclipse.
Because the moon will be low on the western horizon, finding a good spot to watch it will be critical. In Thornton, visitors to our Facebook page have suggested near the Thornton Civic Center, Brittany Hill or near the water towers at 112th Ave and I-25. Some higher locations along Colorado Blvd north of 136th Ave might be good places as well.
The December 10th eclipse will begin around 5:46am MST as the first part of Earth’s shadow encroaches on the moon. Totality will be achieved at 7:06am MST.
For watchers along the Colorado Front Range, the low moon with the Rocky Mountains to the west will render some extraordinary images. There is however a catch.
The tall mountains on our western horizon are going to limit the time we are able to see the moon and the eclipse. In the Denver area, we won’t actually be able to see the total eclipse as the moon will have disappeared behind the mountains by then.
It is estimated metro area residents will be able to watch the show until about 6:50am at which point the moon will be below the horizon. Clear skies are in the forecast so clouds should not be a concern.
NASA says that astronomers and psychologists don’t know why the human brain sees the moon as larger when it is low on the horizon. “In fact, a low Moon is no wider than any other Moon (cameras prove it) but the human brain insists otherwise. To observers in the western USA, therefore, the eclipse will appear super-sized,” NASA said.
The celestial show should be worth getting out of bed a bit early to see, even if residents of Colorado won’t get to see the entire show.
Atmospheric scientist Richard Keen of the University of Colorado told NASA, “I expect this eclipse to be bright orange, or even copper-colored, with a possible hint of turquoise at the edge.”
Keen explains that the Earth’s stratosphere is currently relatively free of volcanic dust and other particulates. This should allow for a very bright event.
Tomorrow’s eclipse will be the last total lunar eclipse until April 14, 2014. A second will occur that year on October 8th. In 2015 there will also be two; one on April 4th and another on September 27th.
If you get any pictures of the eclipse, be sure to head over to our Facebook page and share them or email them to us at info@thorntonweather.com and we will post them.
NASA’s Earth Observatory releases some of the most stunning views of the planet taken by satellites and astronauts. It’s ‘Image of the Day’ today is a stunning one showing the Earth’s atmosphere with a crescent moon hovering above.
Taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on July 31, 2011, the image clearly shows the layers of our life giving atmosphere. The moon appears extraordinarily close thanks to the camera’s perspective.
From NASA:
The limb of the Earth is a work of awesome beauty and a gift to science. When observed from space, the palette of gaseous layers of atmosphere reminds us of the fragility and tenuousness of the cocoon that shelters life from cold, harsh space. That same view also allows scientists to detect the gases and particles that make up our the different layers of our atmosphere. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured a bit of both in this digital photograph from July 31, 2011. They threw in the Moon as an extra gift.
Closest to Earth’s surface, the orange-red glow reveals Earth’s troposphere—the lowest, densest layer of the atmosphere, and the one we live within. A brown transitional layer is the upper edge of the troposphere, known as the tropopause. A milky white and gray layer sits above that, likely a slice of the stratosphere with perhaps some noctilucent clouds thrown in. The upper reaches of the atmosphere—the mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere—fade from shades of blue to the blackness of space.
The different colors occur because the dominant gases and particles in each layer act like prisms filtering out certain colors of light. Instruments carried on satellites and on craft such as the space shuttle have allowed scientists to decipher characteristics of the ozone layer and the climate-altering effects of aerosols.
A thin crescent of the Moon is illuminated by the Sun below the horizon of the Earth. Though the Moon is more than 384,400 kilometers (238,855 miles) away, the perspective from the camera makes it appear to be a part of our atmosphere.
Astronaut photograph ISS028-E-020072 was acquired on July 31, 2011, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 400 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 28 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.
Speeding above the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour and an altitude of 250 miles, astronauts aboard the International Space Station have arguably one of the best views of our planet. A German videographer has compiled many images taken by the orbiting outpost into an extraordinary video.
Among the highlights of the video are views of the aurora borealis over the United States, the aurora australis on the other side of the globe near Australia, as well as various nighttime and daytime views of other continents. One pass covers the United States from southern California to the Hudson Bay and overflies Colorado and the Mile High City in the blink of an eye.
Shooting locations in order of appearance:
1. Aurora Borealis Pass over the United States at Night
2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at Night
3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia
4. Aurora Australis south of Australia
5. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night
6. Aurora Australis from the Southern to the Northern Pacific Ocean
7. Halfway around the World
8. Night Pass over Central Africa and the Middle East
9. Evening Pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East
10. Pass over Canada and Central United States at Night
11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay
12. Islands in the Philippine Sea at Night
13. Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam
14. Views of the Mideast at Night
15. Night Pass over Mediterranean Sea
16. Aurora Borealis and the United States at Night
17. Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean
18. Eastern Europe to Southeastern Asia at Night