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Hurricane Irene

NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite captured this image (left) of Hurricane Irene on August 25, 2011. The Atlantic’s first hurricane of the season, Irene made landfall near Cape Lookout, North Carolina, on August 27. The storm brought heavy rains and flooding as it traveled north into New England. The color-coded image (right) shows rainfall totals along the storm track from August 22 to 28.

GOES image courtesy of NOAA & Rainfall image courtesy of Jesse Allen, using near-real-time data provided by the TRMM Science Data and Information System at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Tsunami Reaches Antarctica

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck Japan, triggering extremely destructive tsunami waves that not only slammed into the country, but also traveled 13,600 kilometers (8,000 miles) south to the Antarctic coast. Scientists observed several large icebergs break off the Sulzberger Ice Shelf five days later. The waves were only 30 centimeters (a foot) high when they reached the shelf, but the consistency of the waves may have created enough stress to cause the ice to flex and break. These before and after images were acquired by the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar aboard the European Space Agency’s Envisat satellite.

Images courtesy of the European Space Agency

Europe at Night

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph over northwestern Europe on August 10, 2011. In this nighttime view, the lights allow us to see how people are distributed.

Photograph courtesy of ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, JSC

Nabro Volcano

Located in the East African nation of Eritrea, the Nabro volcano began erupting on June 12, 2011. Plumes of ash and gas, drifting as far as the Middle East, have displaced residents living near the volcano and disrupted flights in the region. This false-color image was created using data collected by the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite on June 29. Bright red indicates hot areas, such as the hot ash in the center of Nabro’s caldera and portions of the active lava flow. A blue-tinged plume of ash drifts to the south. Land to the west and south of the volcano are blackened by ash.

Image created by Robert Simmon/NASA, using EO-1 ALI data

Wallow Fire

The Wallow fire is the largest fire ever recorded in Arizona. Started on May 29, 2011, the wildfire has consumed more than 527,000 acres (820 square miles). The visible (left) and false-color (right) images were created using data collected by the Landsat 5 satellite on June 15. In the false-color image, burned land is red, unburned forest is green, sparsely vegetated land is pink, active fires are bright orange, and smoke appears as a light blue haze.

Images created by Jesse Allen/NASA, using Landsat 5 data provided by the United States Geological Survey

Tuscaloosa Tornado Track

On April 27, 2011, a massive tornado tore a path of destruction across Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed, leaving widespread debris. The GeoEye-1 satellite captured these before and after images.

Images courtesy of GeoEye

Minami Sanriku Cho, Japan

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck Japan, triggering extremely destructive tsunami waves that slammed into the country minutes later. GeoEye’s IKONOS satellite captured these images over Minami Sanriku Cho before and after the quake. Large areas have been flooded, swept away, or reduced to rubble.

Images courtesy of GeoEye

Mississippi Tornado Track

In April 2010, seven tornadoes struck the state of Mississippi. The strongest tore a 240-kilometer (150-mile) path through the landscape to become one of the longest tornado tracks on record.

Data collected by the Landsat 5 satellite’s Thematic Mapper instrument was used to relate these false-color images over Mississippi’s Issaquena and Yazoo counties. The storm track (gray) cuts through the healthy vegetation (red) of the surrounding forests.

The close-ups (bottom) provide detailed views of the damage incurred near (A) Eagle Lake and (B) Yazoo City.

Imagery Processed by: David Wilkinson and Michael Crosby, Mississippi State University Reprinted with permission from the American Society for Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing

Cat Island, Bahamas

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of Cat Island on March 10, 2011. The island is one of 29 that form the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. Prior to 1925, it was known as San Salvador and may be where Christopher Columbus first made landfall in the Americas. The shallows (bright blue) surrounding the island stand out from the deeper ocean waters (dark blue).

Image courtesy of ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Lab, NASA/JSC

Weather or Not

List of Major Artifacts

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