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2012 : The Science Collection

VIIRS and OMPS Instruments Combine Dust and Aerosol Data

The world is currently in an active period for the production of atmospheric aerosols, according to Colin Seftor, an atmospheric physicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who compiled these images. Seftor works for Science Systems and Applications, Inc. This image is a combination of a VIIRS RGB image with OMPS aerosol index (AI) data for September 15, 2012. → [web view] [hi-resolution]

The OMPS AI shows dust from the Sahara over northern Africa that is being blown over the Atlantic (with yellow, less opaque colors representing less dust and pink, more opaque colors representing more dust). Dust can also be seen over Saudi Arabia and parts of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. However, the aerosol index signal over the Western U.S. is due to dense smoke from wildfires, while smoke from agricultural biomass burning is visible over both South American and southern Africa. The sun glint in the middle of each swath shows the pattern of the satellite's view in orbit.

The second image from September 17, 2012 shows the smoke over the U.S. moving over the Midwest and stretching all the way to the Mid-Atlantic, with additional smoke appearing over Australia due to many wildfires burning there. → [web view] [hi-resolution]

Tropical Storm Isaac: Early on August 28, 2012, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi-NPP satellite captured this nighttime view of Tropical Storm Isaac and the cities near the Gulf Coast of the United States. The image was acquired just after local midnight by the VIIRS "day-night band," which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses light intensification to enable the detection of dim signals. In this case, the clouds of Isaac were lit by moonlight.; [go to feature]

Smoke Plume Images from Russian and African Fires: Powerful fires currently scorching parts of Russia and Africa sent up plumes of smoke into the atmosphere, images captured on Aug. 2, 2012, by Suomi-NPP. The satellite's Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite (OMPS) tracks the lofted smoke aerosols from the fires as winds move the plumes across the globe. The four images show the merging of smoke from forest fires burning in central and eastern Russia over a four-day period. High temperatures and lightning are believed to be the cause of these fires.; [go to feature]

The Lights of London: Billions of people will see London through many different filters and lenses during the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. None of those views will look quite like this one from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite.; + go to feature

Western U.S. High Mountain Blazes: Two of the most destructive fires in the history of Colorado and New Mexico have both now been contained. These image comparisons show how the Little Bear Fire and the High Park Fire grew over a 24-hour time period from June 9 to June 10. The red contours on the images represent areas of heat showing active fires. Taken by the VIIRS instrument, these images provide active fire data as emergency response teams continue to fight the fires.; + go to feature

CERES Shortwave Radiation: The doors are open on NASA's Suomi NPP satellite and the newest version of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument is scanning Earth for the first time, helping to assure continued availability of measurements of the energy leaving the Earth-atmosphere system.; + go to feature

Power Outages in Washington, DC Area: These before and after images from show the power outages in the clear skies over Washington, DC and Baltimore that occurred as a result of a rare, fast-moving thunderstorm system on Friday, June 29th.; + go to feature

Smoky Mountain West: Along the Rocky Mountain range, there has been a dearth of snow cover, insect stress in the forests, and a hot spring that has turned into a hot summer. This OMPS map depicts the relative concentration of aerosols in the skies, from many dangerous fires raging across the continental United States .; + go to feature

OMPS Continues More Than 30 Years of Ozone Data: This shows the thickness of the Earth's ozone layer on January 27th from 1982 to 2012. This atmospheric layer protects Earth from dangerous levels of solar ultraviolet radiation.; + go to feature

Infrared Sounder on Suomi NPP Starts its Mission: The Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) is designed to give scientists more refined information about Earth's atmosphere and improve weather forecasts and our understanding of climate, has started sending its data back to Earth.; + go to feature

'First Light' Taken by CERES Instrument: This longwave image shows heat energy radiated from Earth . The CERES results help scientists to determine the Earth's energy balance, providing a long-term record of this crucial environmental parameter that will be consistent with those of its predecessors.; + go to feature

Tropical Cyclone Funso: Suomi NPP's VIIRS instrument provides various looks of Tropical Cyclone Funso.; + go to feature

NPP's 'Blue Marble': A 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from Suomi NPP's VIIRS instrument . This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on January 4, 2012.; + go to feature

Southeastern United States: The Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) produced these 'true-color', color scaled, and gray scaled variations. This was taken on January 19, 2012, the first day the full complement of VIIRS' 22 channels were active.; + go to feature

Hurricane Kenneth: True color image of Hurricane Kenneth over the northeastern Pacific Ocean on 22 November 2011. True color imagery is created using the red (0.672 痠), green (0.555 痠) and blue (0.488 痠) M-bands on VIIRS, all at 750-m resolution.
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Smog Comparisons: True color image over northeastern India, Nepal and Tibet. Note the large amount of smog/pollution over India relative to Tibet, and how the mountains keep it all
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One granule from the new "day-night band.": This image is from the middle of the night on 11 January, so the clouds you're seeing are purely due to light reflected from the moon back to the satellite. Also visible are the city lights from parts of south Florida and lightning flashes atop the convection in the Gulf of Mexico.
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NASA Official: Jim Gleason
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2012 : The Science Collection

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