NASA: It is Happening now - Esta sucediendo ahora - Australia - Fires around Darwin - Incredible image - 08.22.13
Posted by Ricardo Marcenaro | Posted in NASA: It is Happening now - Esta sucediendo ahora - Australia - Fires around Darwin - Incredible image - 08.22.13 | Posted on 0:37
acquired August 5, 2013
download large image (498 KB, JPEG, 1440x2164)
One of the first things astronauts
noticed when they rode into space in the 1960s was the smoke plumes.
Fires, volcanoes, and pollution were all reaching high into the
atmosphere and stretching much farther than the human imagination had
fathomed. Five decades later, the views are not as novel but still
spectacular. And they are useful reminders of how events in one place on
the planet can have effects far from the source.
Astronaut Karen Nyberg shot this photograph on August 5, 2013, while
looking west across the Timor Sea from the International Space Station
(ISS). (North is to the right in the image.) Note how the smoke near
Darwin is blown by southeasterly winds (pushing it to the northwest),
while the winds over Melville Island are mostly blowing to the southwest
(influenced by the interaction of land and sea breezes and other local
effects). Nyberg also shot a photo of the same area while looking straight down.
According to Australian fire researcher Peter Jacklyn, many of the
fires on Melville Island were likely prescribed burns, designed to clear
brush and dry fuel to prevent more serious wildfire as the weather
warms. The fires near Darwin, however, were probably wildfires, given
that most prescribed burning in the area is usually done earlier in the
year.
Australia’s Northern Territory is in the midst of the dry season,
notes Jacklyn, a scientist at the Centre for Bushfires Research at
Darwin University. The season lasts from roughly May to September, and
rainfall barely exceeds 10 millimeters (0.4 inches) for the month in
August. Though the region sits well within the tropics, the relative
afternoon humidity hovers around 30 to 40 percent in August, with
maximum temperatures in the low 30s Celsius (85 to 95 Fahrenheit).
Fire researchers mostly rely on nadir, or straight-down, satellite
views of fires because the images can be overlaid on traditional maps
for the sake of studying hot spots and burn scars. But oblique views
like the photo from Nyberg can be useful for studying plume structures.
They are also incredibly useful, Jacklyn notes, for “communicating to
people the impact and prevalence of fires.”
Further Reading
- Charles Darwin University (2013) North Australasian Fire Information. Accessed August 20, 2013.
- Geoscience Australia (2013) Sentinel. Accessed August 20, 2013.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2003, March 12) From Space to the Outback.
Astronaut photograph ISS036-E-29323
was acquired on August 5, 2013, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a
50 millimeter 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 36 crew. It has enhanced to improve contrast. 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 Michael Carlowicz.
- Instrument:
- ISS - 35mm Camera
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Mis blogs son una casa abierta a todas las culturas, religiones y países. Se un seguidor si quieres, con esta acción usted está construyendo una nueva cultura de la tolerancia, la mente y el corazón abiertos para la paz, el amor y el respeto humano.
Mis blogs son una casa abierta a todas las culturas, religiones y países. Se un seguidor si quieres, con esta acción usted está construyendo una nueva cultura de la tolerancia, la mente y el corazón abiertos para la paz, el amor y el respeto humano.
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