Norwegian Fringes

The animation, which is based on an interferogram generated with two radar images captured by Sentinel-1A in ‘Interferometric Wide-Swath’ mode on 11 and 23 August 2014, mainly shows topography around the northern coast of Norway. Although Sentinel-1A is still being commissioned, this new result demonstrates how useful it will be to map the shape of the land and monitor ground movement. Synthetic aperture radar interferometry – or InSAR – is a technique where two or more satellite radar images acquired over the same area are combined to map topography and detect surface changes. Small changes on the ground cause changes in the radar signal phase and lead to the rainbow-colored fringes of an ‘interferogram’. In this case, the animation denotes differences in topography.

Since the area around the Lyngen Alps is particularly prone to landslides, it is closely monitored. Large landslides that suddenly shift rock into the sea could potentially create tsunami-like waves. In 1810, such a wave destroyed a village, and, history shows that this kind of natural disaster occurs a couple of times every 100 years in Norway. InSAR is an important tool used by the Norwegian authorities to map rockslide hazards nationwide. The unprecedented coverage offered by the Sentinel-1 mission will significantly increase the value of InSAR data for this purpose.

Video credit: Copernicus data (2014)/ESA/Norut–SEOM Insarap study (video animation data: Norwegian Mapping Authority and NASA)

Note: For more information, see Norway Relief. For similar images, one featuring northwestern Italy and part of Corsica and the other featuring Mount Etna on the island of Sicily, see New Views From Sentinel-1A and Etna Slopes, respectively.

Meteor Crater, Arizona

Meteor Crater, located near Winslow, Arizona, as photographed from the International Space Station. Also known as the Barringer Meteorite Crater, the 1186 km-diameter crater is approximately 180 meters deep and is surrounded by a rim of smashed and jumbled boulders, some as big as houses. The structure visible on the north side of the Crater is the Visitor's Center. ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst shared this image on Twitter.

Image credit: ESA/NASA

Bauxite Mines Near Weipa, Queensland, Australia

The world's largest bauxite mine is found near Weipa, Queensland, Australia. The rich aluminum deposits were first recognized on the end of the Cape York Peninsula in 1955, and mining began in 1960. Weipa is just south of Duyfken Point, a location thought to be the first recorded point of European contact with the Australia continent by Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon in 1606. The image was acquired August 9, 2013, covers an area of 40.5 by 48 km, and is located at 12.5 degrees south, 141.9 degrees east.

Image credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Changes in the Greenland Ice Sheet

Using 14.3 million measurements collected by ESA’s CryoSat mission between January 2011 and January 2014, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany have discovered that the Greenland ice sheet is shrinking in volume by 375 cubic kilometers a year. The study, which was published in a paper published on 20 August 2014 in the European Geosciences Union’s Cryospherejournal, also showed that Antarctica is losing about 125 cubic kilometers a year. Read full article.

Image credit: Helm et al., The Cryosphere, 2014

Note: For more information, see Greenland Ice-Sheet Height.

Wildfires in the Dominican Republic

The spread of the forest fire in Valle Nuevo National Park near Costanza, Dominican Republic that started nearly two weeks ago was considerably contained by August 5, 2014, according to the Environment Ministry. An appeal by the Dominican government to the United States for assistance was answered with funds and equipment. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft captured this thermal infrared view of the region on August 5, 2014. Active hot spots of the fire are shown in yellow, healthy vegetation is depicted in red, and the burned areas are dark gray. The image is located at 18.8 degrees north, 70.7 degrees west, and covers an area of 12.1 by 12.7 miles (19.5 by 20.4 kilometers).

Image credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Silver Peak, Nevada Lithium Mine

The once-abandoned mining town of Silver Peak, Nevada began to thrive again when Foote Mineral Company began extracting lithium from brine below the floor of Clayton Valley in 1966. The Chemetall Foote Lithium Operation is currently the only operating source of lithium in the United States, used primarily in the manufacture of batteries. Last year, The University of Wyoming announced discovery of untapped underground lithium brine in the Rock Springs Uplift. Reserves could be more than 150 times greater than the Silver Peak deposit. The image was acquired 29 June 2013, covers an area of 13.2 by 14.2 km, and is located at 37.7 degrees north, 117.5 degrees east.

Image credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Yunnan, China Earthquake Epicenter

On August 3, 2014, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck in southern China's Yunnan province, toppling thousands of homes and causing numerous casualties. Hardest hit was Zhaotang City, located 18 miles (29 kilometers) east of the epicenter. This temblor was more damaging than a similar one two years earlier in the same region. The region where the quake occurred is shown in this perspective view from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft. It depicts vegetation in shades of red. The image looks toward the northwest and was acquired March 16, 2009. The star indicates the quake's epicenter location at 27.2 degrees north, 104.4 degrees east.

Image credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Sahara Irrigation

Amazing colors of the Sahara desert are captured in this photograph taken from onboard the International Space Station. ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst shared this image on Twitter with the comment: "Irrigation in the Sahara Desert looks like a challenging task from up here...".

Alexander Gerst is currently a member of the resident International Space Station Expedition 40 crew. He is spending five and a half months living and working on the ISS for his Blue Dot mission.

Photo credit: ESA/NASA

Rub’ al Khali Desert

Rolling sand dunes in the expansive Rub’ al Khali desert on the southern Arabian Peninsula are pictured in this radar image from the Sentinel-1A satellite.

Rub’ al Khali – also known at the ‘Empty Quarter’ – is part of the greater Arabian Desert. Its sand dunes reach up to 250 m in height and in some areas are interspersed with hardened flat plains, evident at this bottom half of this image. These plains are what is left of shallow lakes that existed thousands of years ago, formed by monsoon-like rains and runoff.

Today, the region is considered to be ‘hyper-arid’, with precipitation rarely exceeding 35 mm a year and regular high temperatures around 50°C.

Rub’ al Khali has experienced major desertification over the past 2000 years. Until about the year 300 AD, trade caravans crossed what is today an impassable wasteland.

In the upper part of this image, we can see a road snaking through the remote desert and leading to Kharkhir (not pictured), a Saudi village near the border with Yemen.

Sentinel-1 is a two-satellite radar mission for Europe’s Copernicus program. The first satellite of the pair, Sentinel-1A, was launched in April. The satellite is still being commissioned to prepare for routine operations.

This image is featured on the Earth from Space video program.

Image credit: ESA