NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, records what’s happening on the surface of the Earth every day or two. That means recording dust storms, hurricanes, typhoons—and, as was the case this week, a thick layer of smoke over California.
Two days ago, Chile’s Calbuco volcano erupted for the first time in over four decades. It spewed an ash cloud nearly 10ten miles high, resulting in evacuations within a 12-mile radius around the volcano. Here’s what the action looked like from space.
This natural-color image of sea ice off East Antarctica's Princess Astrid Coast was acquired April 5 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. Via NASA, here's a bit more about what's depicted in this striking photograph:
If last month's weather seemed a bit off to you, you're right. Depending on which half of North America you dwell, February was characterized by either bitter cold and winter storms, or unusually warm temperatures. This new map from NASA shows just how anomalous — and divided — our current winter has been.
Peat fires in Sumatra have been burning for weeks, producing thick clouds of haze and smoke. Deliberately set to clear land for palm oil, the fires have damaged air quality to the point where the local government has declared a state of emergency.
Behold a double rainbow from space! Well, technically, it's called glory, but it just looks like a double rainbow from the top. The optical phenomenon was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA's Terra satellite, orbiting over Baja California.
This is really bad. NASA has published an image of the pollution haze taking all over the North China Plain. Yes, it's so bad that you can see it taking over thousands of square miles from space.
This photo was taken from space, but it's not a galaxy or a nebula. It's a massive phytoplankton bloom off the coast of South Africa, just when the Atlantic and the Indian oceans meet.
The US has entered the 34th day of a crippling heat wave, with no sign of relief in sight. According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), July's broiling temperatures affected close to 200 million Americans, and set 2,755 daily-high records across the country — including at least one record in every state.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center used satellite data to stitch together detailed scans of every square kilometer of the planet. And now, they just released an animated version of our spinning globe.
