A few nice earth image images I found:
Cumulonimbus Cloud Over Africa (NASA, International Space Station Science, 02/05/08)
Image by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
Editor's Note: Due to popular demand, I'm going to start uploading high-rez versions of the Earth images, unless Flickr Pro gets too full. :)
Cumulonimbus Cloud over Africa is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 16 crewmember on the International Space Station. Deemed by many meteorologists as one of the most impressive of cloud formations, cumulonimbus (from the Latin for "puffy" and "dark") clouds form due to vigorous convection of warm and moist unstable air. Surface air warmed by the Sun-heated ground surface rises, and if sufficient atmospheric moisture is present, water droplets will condense as the air mass encounters cooler air at higher altitudes. The air mass itself also expands and cools as it rises due to decreasing atmospheric pressure, a process known as adiabatic cooling. This type of convection is common in tropical latitudes year-round and during the summer season at higher latitudes. As water in the rising air mass condenses and changes from a gaseous to a liquid state, it releases energy to its surroundings, further heating the surrounding air and leading to more convection and rising of the cloud mass to higher altitudes. This leads to the characteristic vertical "towers" associated with cumulonimbus clouds, an excellent example of which is visible in this image (right). If enough moisture is present to condense and continue heating the cloud mass through several convective cycles, a tower can rise to altitudes of approximately 10 kilometers at high latitudes to 20 kilometers in the tropics -- before encountering a region of the atmosphere known as the tropopause. The tropopause is characterized by a strong temperature inversion where the atmosphere is dryer and no longer cools with altitude. This halts further vertical motion of the cloud mass, and causes flattening and spreading of the cloud tops into an anvil-shaped cloud as illustrated by this oblique photograph. The view direction is at an angle from the vertical, rather than straight "down" towards the Earth's surface. The image, photographed while the International Space Station was passing over western Africa near the Senegal-Mali border, shows a fully-formed anvil cloud with numerous smaller cumulonimbus towers rising near it. The high energetics of these storm systems typically make them hazardous due to associated heavy precipitation, lightning, high wind speeds and possible tornadoes.
Image credit: NASA
Read full caption:
spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-16/html/...
More about the Crew Earth Observation experiment aboard the International Space Station:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/CE...
More about space station science:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/index.html
There's a new Flickr group about Space Station Science. Please feel welcome to join! www.flickr.com/groups/stationscience/
You can also get Twitter updates whenever there's a new image:
www.twitter.com/nasa1fan
Wildfires Near El Paso-Las Cruces (NASA, International Space Station, 06/02/12)
Image by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
Editor's note: Hello Flickr friends! This image is another view of the Southwest wildfires: www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/7180693363/in/photostream.
This digital image from the Expedition 31 crew aboard the International Space Station is one of a series from a mounted, automated, and nighttime session of a still camera when viewed in sequence shows the flame-ring associated with wild fires in the Southwest slip by in the upper right while the lights of the El Paso-Las Cruces rise from bottom center. A Russian spacecraft is docked to the station.
Image credit: NASA/JSC
Original image:
spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-31/html/...
More about space station research:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html
There's a Flickr group about Space Station Research. Please feel welcome to join! www.flickr.com/groups/stationscience/
View more than 400 photos like this in the "NASA Earth Images" Flickr photoset:
www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/
_____________________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
NASA Infrared Image Clearly Shows Sandy's Center
Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared imagery of Hurricane Sandy on Sat. Oct 27 at 2:23 p.m. EDT that showed some strong thunderstorms (purple) and the extent of Sandy's reach (blue) from the Carolinas into the Ohio Valley and eastern Canada. The thunderstorms in the purple areas were reaching high into the troposphere where cloud top temperatures are as cold as -63 Fahrenheit (-52 Celsius). Sandy's center is clearly identifiable as the circular purple area off shore.
Image Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen/ Text Credit: NASA Rob Gutro
For the latest info from NASA on Hurricane Sandy go to: 1.usa.gov/Ti5SgS
NASA image use policy.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Find us on Instagram
