Satellite Imagery

A sense of perspective is unavoidable from 22,000 miles out. Looking down at Earth from that distance — almost three times farther than the diameter of the planet itself — allows a view of the globe as a massive organic system, pulsing with continuous movement. Below, images from the Himawari-8 weather satellite's first official day paint a living portrait of the western Pacific, with Typhoons Chan-hom and Nangka spinning slowly westward. 

Source: New York Times

Mars Crater (Great background image!)

This new image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows an impact crater about 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter that appeared at some time between July 2010 and May 2012.

Space rocks hitting Mars excavate fresh craters at a pace of more than 200 per year, but few new Mars scars pack as much visual punch as one seen in a NASA image released today.

The image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a crater about 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter at the center of a radial burst painting the surface with a pattern of bright and dark tones.

The scar appeared at some time between imaging of this location by the orbiter’s Context Camera in July 2010 and again in May 2012. Based on apparent changes between those before-and-after images at lower resolution, researchers used HiRISE to acquire this new image on November 19, 2013. The impact that excavated this crater threw some material as far as 9.3 miles (15 kilometers).

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the Context Camera.

For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been studying Mars from orbit since 2006, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mro.

Source: Guy Webster, Jet Propulsion Laboratory; NASA SciTechDaily

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Calbuco Thermal Infrared

I think this is one of the cooler images I've collected (even though it didn't get very many instagram likes). From April 27th Landsat 8 6-5-4 false color composite on the left and band 10 on the right. Band 10 is one of the Thermal Infrared bands, so the lighter areas show more heat and darker show less. Even smoke from a volcano gets relatively cool once in the atmosphere.

Pretty cool, right?

Chile Volcano Time Series

Taken from Aqua and Terra Satellites this gif shows the Chile volcano from 4/24-4/27

Calbuco Volcano Chile Imagery

Terra image morning of 4-24-15
Trail of ash is spread out over 100 miles

Aqua image afternoon of  4-24-15

Google Earth Image of Calbuco pre-eruption

The Calbuco volcano in southern Chile has erupted twice in the space of a few hours - having lain dormant for decades.

Footage from the area shows a huge column of lava and ash being sent several kilometres into the air.

The authorities have declared a red alert and evacuated more than 4,000 people within a 20km (12 mile) radius.

The Calbuco volcano is one of the most active in Chile, but its eruption took officials in the area by surprise.

Alejandro Verges, an emergency director for the region, said Calbuco had not been under any special form of observation.

Source:http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/82521000/jpg/_82521685_026883262-1.jpg

Lidar Massachusetts

I have created several more Lidar maps but this time they are all based in Massachusetts. The Lidar data itself was not as high resolution as the Utah data since they are a few years older but they are fun to look at. What a difference a few years make as newer sensors and methods are used. My favorites are probably the Boston Harbor Islands and Provincetown maps. Enjoy!

If you would like to know more about LiDAR, click here

Sources: Mass GIS; NOAA

Lake Superior Ice Jam

I was listening to a report on NPR yesterday about ice jamming up a shipping route on Lake Superior. Every year when ice forms on the lake, icebreakers are needed to create shipping lanes for the passing container ships. The lanes around Whitefish Bay (in focus below with a 6-5-4 false color composite) have become completely covered due to drifting ice from earlier storms that compacted all the ice on the eastern part of Lake Superior. Some of the ice was reported to be eight feet thick as pieces piled on top of one another forming bigger chunks.  

The shipping lanes are being navigated through and cleared by a team of US and Canadian vessels. In this image you can faintly see the shipping lane which runs about 37 miles through Whitefish Bay alone.

Source: NPR, USGS, Google Earth Engine