Lighthouse Atoll, Belize

The Lighthouse Atoll in the Belize Barrier Reef is featured in this image acquired on 29 March 2011 by Japan’s ALOS satellite. In the upper-central part of the image, an underwater sinkhole known as the Great Blue Hole appears as a dark blue circle. Surrounded by the shallow waters of the coral reef, the Great Blue Hole measures over 300 m in diameter and about 123 m deep. Formed when the sea level was much lower, rain and chemical weathering eroded the exposed terrain. Water later filled the hole and covered the area when the sea level rose at the end of the ice age.

Also visible in the image are two coral islands – green with vegetation – called cayes. The larger to the west is Long Caye, and the smaller Half Moon Caye is to the east.

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

Photo credit: JAXA, ESA

Location of the April 20, 2013 Sichuan Earthquake

A powerful magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck Sichuan Province in southwest China on April 20, 2013, killing scores and injuring thousands, according to BBC News. Villages and roads near the epicenter were left in ruins, hampering rescue efforts. The earthquake occurred along the same fault that ruptured in 2008, killing tens of thousands and leaving some 5,000,000 people homeless. This perspective image from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft, acquired in 2003, highlights the epicenter of the new earthquake. Vegetation is displayed in red; clouds and snow are in white.

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

Democratic Republic of Congo

An area in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo is pictured in this image taken on 26 June 2011 by the French SPOT-4 satellite. Most of the lighter green areas are deforested, while the darker green are areas of dense – and possibly natural – vegetation. The lines cutting through the image are roads, many with structures built along them. Clusters of purple dots are larger settlements. A river snakes through the upper part of the image and below it there appears to be a square in light green. Judging by the precision of the outline, we can deduce that this is a patch of land that was either intentionally spared from deforestation or has been reforested.

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

Photo credit: CNES/Spot Image/ESA

Note: The ESA has recently started to provide their best photographs in TIF format only. I personally converted this image to JPG format so that I could share it on this blog.

The Brazil-Bolivia Border

The river-delineated border between western Brazil's Acre province (upper left), and northwestern Bolivia's Pando Department (lower right), demarcates a remarkable difference in land use and development practices. Brazil has opened up this part of the rain forest to farming and settlement, producing the herringbone pattern of forest cutting. This part of Bolivia, on the other hand, preserves its native rain forest, untouched by development. The image was acquired July 2, 2008, covers an area of 42 by 45 km, and is located at 10.3 degrees south latitude, 67.2 degrees west longitude.

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

PROBA Vegetation

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Soon to be launched aboard the second VEGA flight from Kourou, PROBA V, V for Vegetation, is part of a series of small satellites made by ESA to demonstrate new technologies on orbit.

But this satellite - of only one cubic meter - will be an operational tool to monitor vegetation on Earth.

This video explains the mission of this innovative satellite mostly made in Belgium.

Video credit: ESA

Location of April 9 Iranian Earthquake

On April 9, 2013 at 11:52 GMT, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit southwestern Iran's Bushehr province near the town of Kaki. Preliminary information is that several villages have been destroyed and many people have died, as reported by BBC News. This perspective view of the region was acquired November 17, 2012, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft. The location of the earthquake's epicenter is marked with a yellow star. Vegetation is displayed in red; the vertical exaggeration of the topography is 2X. The image is centered near 28.5 degrees north latitude, 51.6 degrees east longitude.

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

Failaka Island

Kuwait's Failaka Island is located 50 km southeast of the spot where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers empty into the Persian Gulf. For thousands of years the island has been a strategic prize to control the lucrative trade that passed up and down the Persian Gulf.

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

Severe Flooding in La Plata, Argentina

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft captured this view of severe flooding in La Plata, Argentina, on April 4, 2013. Torrential rains and record flash flooding has killed more than 50 and left thousands homeless, according to news reports. La Plata is located 20 miles (50 kilometers) from Buenos Aires. In the image, flooded areas east and west of the city appear in dark blue. A heavy sediment load gives the Rio Plata its yellow-brown color. The image covers an area of 15.8 by 16.7 miles (25.5 by 27 kilometers) and is located at 34.8 degrees south latitude, 58 degrees west longitude.

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

Galeras Volcano, Colombia

This false-color image of Colombia's Galeras Volcano, was acquired by UAVSAR on March 13, 2013. A highly active volcano, Galeras features a breached caldera and an active cone that produces numerous small to moderate explosive eruptions. It is located immediately west of the city of Pasto. UAVSAR will precisely fly the same flight path over the volcano in 2014. By comparing these camera-like images taken at different times, interferograms are generated that reveal changes in Earth's surface caused by volcanic deformation.

UAVSAR is part of NASA's ongoing effort to apply space-based technologies, ground-based techniques and complex computer models to advance our understanding of Earth deformation processes, such as those caused by earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides. UAVSAR is also serving as a flying test bed to evaluate the tools and technologies for future space-based radars, such as those planned for a NASA Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mission currently in formulation. That mission will study hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides, as well as global environmental change.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Napo River in Ecuador and Peru

On March 17, 2013, NASA’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) acquired synthetic aperture radar data over the Napo River in Ecuador and Peru. The image colors indicate the likelihood of inundation (flooding) beneath the forest canopy, which is difficult to determine using traditional optical sensors. Red and yellow shades indicate a high likelihood of standing water with emergent vegetation, blue and green shades are areas less likely to be inundated, and black indicates the open water areas of the Napo River. These data, which have already been transmitted to a field team working along the Napo River, will be used to guide field measurements during a second observation by UAVSAR on March 31, 2013. The image is a 8.7-mile-wide by 5.6-mile-long (14-kilometer-wide by 9-kilometer-long) segment of an image measuring more than 124 miles (200 kilometers) long. North is toward the upper right. The resolution is 20 feet (6 meters). UAVSAR data like these are helping scientists assess the effectiveness of using synthetic aperture radar data to study the inundation dynamics of this and similar rivers around the world.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Note: For more information, see NASA Flies Radar South on Wide-Ranging Expedition; also, PIA16942: NASA Sends Unmanned Aircraft To Study Volcanoes and Wetlands.

Samarra, Iraq

Radarsat-2 entropy image and archaeological map over the octagonal city plan of part of ancient Samarra, located about 130 km north of Baghdad, Iraq. These results were found by Nicole Dore using the remote sensing technique Polarimetric SAR in a collaboration between Italy’s La Sapienza and France’s Rennes 1 universities.

Image credit: Satellite image: VigiSAT; Map: A. Northedge, 2007 The Historical Topography of Samarra. Samarra studies I.

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge

The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (also called the Pearl Bridge), has the longest central span of any suspension bridge in the world, at 1991 meters. Located in Japan, and completed in 1998, it connects the city of Kobe with Iwaja on Awaji Island by crossing the busy Akashi Strait. The ASTER image was acquired December 8, 2009, covers an area of 15 by 18 km, and is located at 34.6 degrees north latitude, 135 degrees east longitude.

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

Disaster Management from Space

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Floods are usually accompanied by cloudy skies making it difficult to monitor them from space. Using radar technology, the new GMES Sentinel-1 satellite is able to 'see' through clouds and rainfall to map emergency-stricken regions.

Video credit: ESA/DLR

Shark Bay, Australia

Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve is located in the Shark Bay World Heritage Site in Western Australia. It is one of the very few places in the world where living stromatolites can be found. These are the first living examples of structures built by cyanobacteria. These bacteria are direct descendants of the oldest form of photosynthetic life on earth, dating back 3,500 million years (Wikipedia). The image was acquired December 30, 2010, covers an area of 34 x 46 km, and is located at 26.4 degrees south latitude, 114.1 degrees east longitude.

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

Japan Earthquake Sensed by GOCE

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New studies have revealed that the massive earthquake that hit Japan on 11 March 2011 was also felt in space by ESA’s GOCE satellite. The massive earthquake sent ripples of sound – called infrasound – upwards through the atmosphere. These sound waves caused changes in air density that were detected by ESA’s GOCE gravity satellite as it crossed the wavefront.

Read full article: GOCE the First Seismometer in Orbit.

Video credit: ESA/IRAP/CNES/TU Delft/HTG/Planetary Visions

Japanese Earthquake Sensed from Space

The animation shows how the massive earthquake that hit Japan in 2011 caused ripples in the atmosphere. As sound waves from the earthquake traveled upwards, they caused changes in air density that were detected by ESA’s GOCE gravity satellite as it crossed the wavefront.

Video credit: ESA/IRAP/CNES/TU Delft/HTG/Planetary Visions

SMOS Reveals Thin Sea Ice

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Sea-ice thickness measured by SMOS in the Arctic and Antarctic. Arctic sea ice is significantly thinner in February 2012 than in February 2011. This year, the Arctic experienced a record low of sea-ice extent since satellite measurements began in the 1970s.

Video credit: Planetary Visions

Wasco, California

Wasco, California advertises itself as the "Rose Capital of the World," producing 55% of the rose bushes sold in the United States. Located in the central San Joaquin Valley, Wasco attracted rose producers in the 1960s, when southern California fields were sold for housing developments. Today, over 8000 acres are devoted to cultivation of existing and new varieties of roses, shipped to every state in the US and all over the world. The image covers an area of 10.4 x 15.8 km, was acquired July 10, 2011, and is located near 35.6 degrees north latitude, 119.3 degrees west longitude.

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

Plosky Tolbachik Volcano Eruption

For the first time in 35 years, the Plosky Tolbachik volcano in Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula erupted on November 27, 2012, sending clouds of ash to the height of more than 9,800 feet (3,000 meters). In this daytime image acquired February 14, 2013, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft, the snowy winter landscape reveals the still-active lava flows.

A combination of the ASTER thermal infrared channels from the two images acquired during the day and also the previous night highlights the hot rocks in red colors. Steam and ash clouds rising to the north and northeast hide part of the flows, though the thermal infrared channels penetrate the thinner clouds. The image covers an area of 16.7 by 17.8 miles (27 by 28.6 kilometers) and is located at 55.7 degrees north latitude, 160.2 degrees east longitude.

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

Balearic Islands

Majorca, Mallorca and Ibiza as seen from the ISS by ESA astronaut André Kuipers during his mission to the orbital outpost, PromISSe.

Photo credit: ESA/NASA