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Satellite eye on Earth

Satellite eye on Earth: February 2011 - in pictures

This article is more than 14 years old
Pollution over Bangladesh, severe winter storms and a heart-shaped coral atoll were among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last month
Wed 2 Mar 2011 10.21 EST
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Satellite Eye on Earth: AUSTRALIA/
A weather satellite image shows tropical cyclone Yasi in the Coral Sea approaching the coast of Australia on 1 February 2011Photograph: MTSAT/Japan Meteorological Agency
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Satellite Eye on Earth: Historic Winter Storm Moves Across the US
In a winter marked by severe storms, this storm of the first days of February stands out. Heavy snow, ice, freezing rain, and frigid wind battered about two thirds of the United States, made it a winter storm of historic proportions, said the National Weather Service. In the image the storm measures about 2,000km from west to east. According to news reports, one in three Americans were affected by the stormPhotograph: GSFC/NOAA/NASA
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Satellite Eye on Earth: Italian Peninsula
The diverse and picturesque contours of southern Italy, known for its boot-like shape, take centre stage in this Envisat image, acquired on 25 January 2011. This part of the Italian Peninsula is surrounded by the Tyrhennian (centre left), Ionian (bottom right) and Adriatic (top) Seas. The light green colour of the water along the Adriatic is caused by sediments being carried into the sea by rivers and then being distributed along the coast by currents. Stretching the entire length of the peninsula, the Apennine Mountains are visible under a dusting of snow. Mount Vesuvius is visible as a white circle inland from the Bay of Naples on the west coast, and the larger Mount Etna is visible in Sicily.Photograph: Envisat/ESA
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Satellite Eye on Earth: Brasilia at night
Whether seen at night or during the day, the capital city of Brazil is unmistakable from orbit. Brasilia is located on a plateau the Planalto Central in the west-central part of the country, and is widely considered to be one of the best examples of 20th century urban planning in the worldPhotograph: ISS/NASA
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Satellite Eye on Earth: The winter landscape of the Russian Far East
The winter landscape of the Russian far east on 28 January 2011. The snow cover etches the features of Kharbarovsk Krai in bright white and pale blues. The brightest white snow marks the area of heaviest cover, generally the tops and western slopes of mountains. The ice sheet which covers the Sea of Okhotsk is thickest just off the coast and to the south, then thins and eventually dissipates in open waters. In most years, the sea is frozen from October to March. This long freeze-up is enabled by the inflow of very large quantities of fresh water, which drops the salinity of the shallow, salty sea enough to raise the freezing point. For this reason, the freeze-up of the Sea of Okhotsk is notably longer and more complete than other waters at the same latitude, such as the Gulf of Alaska. The biggest contributor of fresh water to the Sea is the Amur River, seen as a frozen, bright icy-white waterway in the lower left corner of the imagePhotograph: MODIS/NASA
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Satellite Eye on Earth: Sea Ice Surrounds Shikotan
Ostrov Shikotan (or Shikotan-to) is a volcanic island at the southern end of the Kuril chain. Shikotan lies along the extreme southern edge of winter sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere. The island is surrounded by sea ice – swirling shapes of ghostly blue-grey. Although sea ice often forms around Shikotan, the extent varies widely from year to year, and even day to day. The ice in this image may have formed in a matter of several days, and it is prone to moving with currents. North of the western end of Shikotan, eddies have shaped the ice into rough circles. The eddies may result from opposing winds – winds from the north pushing the ice southward, and winds from the south-west pushing the ice toward the north-eastPhotograph: ALI/EO-1/NASA
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Satellite Eye on Earth: Dust storm across the Mediterranean Sea
A dust plume stretched across the Mediterranean Sea, from just west of the Nile Delta to just east of Kriti (Crete). The dust plume extends hundreds of kilometres across the ocean, mingling with clouds in the north. Source points for this plume are not apparent in this image, and skies over Egypt are largely clear. This plume was likely whirled aloft by dust storms occurring over Egypt and Libya in the preceding daysPhotograph: Terra/MODIS/NASA
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Satellite Eye on Earth: Ebon Atoll
Ebon Atoll, a coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean that is part of the Marshall Islands - located about 1000 km to the north-east of the Solomon IslandsPhotograph: ISS/ESA
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Satellite Eye on Earth: Horn of Africa
The deep blue waters of the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean form a stark contrast to the arid red and tan lands of the Horn of Africa, as east Africa was in the throes of a severe drought. The land is so dry that only small hints of green vegetation can be found and only in the normally green mountains of Ethiopia. World Vision announced that years of unrelenting drought have thrown the Horn of Africa into a humanitarian crisis threatening the lives of millions of families, including more than 6 million people in Kenya and Somalia. In the past two months, water prices in Somalia alone have increased as much as 300%. According to the UN-funded Somalia Water and Land Information Management programme, two thirds of Somalia received less than 75% of normal rainfall in this wet seasonPhotograph: Aqua/MODIS/NASA
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Satellite Eye on Earth: Flood waters lingered in Pakistan
Flood waters lingered in Pakistan in late February 2011, roughly seven months after devastating monsoon rains first struck the country. Although significantly lower than in October 2010, and even December 2010, water levels were noticeably higher in February 2011 than they had been a year earlier. These images show part of the Indus river on 21 February 2011. Roughly centred around the city of Sukkur is a large irrigation network of levees and canals designed to manage Pakistan’s typically scarce water resources. The 2010 monsoon floods overwhelmed this irrigation network in many places, and created a giant floodwater lake that terminated in Manchhar (or Manchar) lake. By late February 2011, water levels had receded considerably, but a multitude of water pockets remained, especially north-west of Sukkur. Water levels were also much higher, compared to a year before, near the city of SangharPhotograph: Terra/MODIS/NASA
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Satellite Eye on Earth: SP Crater, Northern Arizona
The San Francisco volcanic field lies not near the city of the same name but in northern Arizona. Covering 1,800 square miles, the volcanic field consists of volcanoes and lava flows, including SP Crater. SP Crater is a cinder cone, a conical structure made up of volcanic fragments, often glassy rocks containing bubbles of trapped gas. Cinder cones often form around or downwind from volcanic vents. When lava erupts from these structures, it frequently flows out of breaches on the side, and that appears to be the case at SP Crater. Like most volcanoes in this field, SP Crater is a basalt cinder cone. Basalt has low resistance to flow, so basalt lava flows tend to travel fairly far from the eruption source. Forming a paisley pattern, the dark volcanic rocks north of SP Crater result from lava flows. (This image has been rotated and north is at right.) The hardened lava extends some 6km from the cinder cone, and is about 30m thickPhotograph: ALI/EO-1/NASA
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Satellite Eye on Earth: Arkhangelsk (or Archangel in English) capital of Archangelsk Oblast, Russia
Arkhangelsk (or Archangel in English) is a city and the administrative capital of Archangelsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated on both banks of the Dvina river near where it flows into the White Sea. As early as 800 the area was known to the Vikings to have a settlement, that they raided around 1000. In the 12th century, the Novogordians established the Archangel Michael Monastery. For the next 400 years, conflict between Russia and Sweden for control of the White Sea and the Kola Peninsula led to shifting rulers for Arkhangelsk. Construction of a railway to Moscow in the late 1800s signalled a revival of the city's economyPhotograph: ASTER/JPL/Nasa
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Satellite Eye on Earth: pollution over Northeast India and Bangladesh
Lingering haze continued over south central Asia shrouding the lowlands south of the Himalayas. North-east India and Bangladesh are often plagued by pollution in the winter, when cold, heavy air slides down the southern face of the Himalayas into the lower lands, holding pollution close to the ground. While winter pollution is a common phenomenon, the Centre for Science and the Environment has noted that not only are this winter's particulate levels extremely high, but so are levels of several toxic chemicals, including nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide. In December 2010, the Department of Environment (DoE) reported that airborne particulates in the city of Dhaka, Bangladesh, reached nearly five times the acceptable level set by the National Air Quality Standard of BangladeshPhotograph: Terra/MODIS/NASA
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Satellite Eye on Earth: Ice covered Lake Baikal
Ice covered Lake Baikal in late January 2011, as snow coated nearby peaks. Ice on Lake Baikal is not at all unusual in January. The ice that forms on the lake is generally quite strong, even strong enough to support the weight of vehicles driving over the surface. Lake Baikal (also known as Ozero Baykal or Ozero Bajkal), is the world's oldest and deepest freshwater lake. At roughly 635km long, with an average width of about 50km, it is also the world's largest freshwater lake by volume, holding as much fresh water as North America's Great Lakes combined. Surrounded by mountains, the lake occupies a rift where parts of the Earth's crust as wrenching apart. Geologists value the lake for what it can reveal about the development of ocean basinsPhotograph: Aqua/MODIS/Nasa
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Satellite Eye on Earth: Tropical Cyclone Carlos
The dense centre of tropical cyclone Carlos was surrounded by a radiant, halo-like cloud pattern, as the storm battered the towns of Onslow and Exmouth, Australia that same day. As Tropical Cyclone Carols passed Onslow and Exmouth, located on Western Australia's coast, wind gusts were measured up to 155 km/h, making it a category 2 cyclone on the Australian Tropical Cyclone Category scale Photograph: Terra/MODIS/Nasa
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