TheGreenGrok.com Celebrates 20 Years of NASA Research

by Bill Chameides | Jun 05, 2009
posted by Erica Rowell (Editor)

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— filed under: Antarctica, Australia, carbon monoxide, coal ash, emperor penguins, Grok Image, heat waves, ice, NASA, phytoplankton, Tennessee Valley Authority

TheGreenGrok.com Celebrates 20 Years of NASA Research

Until recently, researchers have had a hard time accurately estimating emperor penguin populations. Now, thanks to some far-out tools, they're having better luck.

This just in. Penguin droppings, viewed from space, are providing important clues for scientists. What on earth …?

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it is tied to everything else in the universe." — John Muir (1838-1914) U.S. naturalist, explorer

Research and Images That Shed Light on How Our Planet Works

Google isn’t the only place with cool maps. The U.S. government and its international partners have an ongoing project to study our little blue planet from the far reaches of space.

The project began in 1989, and the first satellite was launched a decade later. It’s been called the Mission to Planet Earth and the Earth Science Enterprise. Today, the Earth Observing System, launched in 1999, is a big part of it.

To celebrate twenty years of success with NASA's study of Earth system science, The Green Grok looks at penguin poo and other highlights of space views to see how they’re helping us understand how our planet works. Regular readers of the blog will recognize topics of discussion.

20 Years of Earth System Science
When it was launched, NASA called it the “Mission to Planet to Earth.” After spending decades going and studying where “no man had gone before,” NASA decided it was time to understand our own little blue planet.
The Christian Science Monitor described it as a project that would “compile an environmental ‘'encyclopedia'’ of our planet.”
The New York Times hailed it as “a 25-year effort using a new network of satellites to understand how the Earth's atmosphere, seas and living creatures function as a global system. The enterprise … is … one of the nation's most encompassing and urgent scientific programs ... creat[ing] the first system of unmanned satellites able to observe and measure the actions of major components of the global environment as they interact.”
This year marks the 20th anniversary of NASA's approach to studying the Earth as a system and the 10th anniversary of its products being provided on NASA's web site. These products have become fundamental to research and management of our planet’s resources. So much so that they are often taken for granted.
Unfortunately, the future of the Earth Observing System, the most visible part of NASA's work in this area, is very much in question.

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1. Exceptional Heat Wave - One of the worst heat waves on record occurred early this year. This map shows temperature anomalies throughout the country. The red areas indicate above-average temperatures; the white areas indicate normal temperatures; the blue areas indicate below-average temperatures. The data are from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite.

2. A storm hits the Louisiana coast, causing wide damage, including lots of flooding.

3. The world’s biggest iceberg breaks apart - Measuring some four square miles, Iceberg B-15A lost its claim to fame as the world's biggest berg when it broke off the Western Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf.

4. Scientists identified two cyclones using satellite imagery.

5. Tracking which of the Great Lakes will freeze first.

6. Salt Glaciers in Iran - Underground salt formations buried during tectonic activity have pushed through to the surface "like toothpaste from a tube," describes NASA's web site.

7. Just how many emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) are frolicking on the coast of Antarctica, and why do we care? These penguins tend to inhabit far-out, difficult-to-reach areas, but knowing how many there are is key to understanding their response — and their environment’s response — to climate change. Now, satellite imagery showing stains of penguin manure, called guano, is helping scientists determine population numbers.

8. Phytoplankton off Argentina coast

9. Coal Ash Spill - One of the largest of its kind in U.S. history, this coal ash spill sent more than a billion gallons of sludge coal waste from a holding facility at its coal-burning power plant over more than 400 surrounding acres.

10. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, or AIRS, instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite is helping us to track the effects of natural and human-produced pollutants around the globe. This image shows carbon monoxide hot spots during an eight-day stretch of major forest fires in South America in 2002. Our own Duke colleague Prasad Kasibhatla uses this data to estimate the global rate of tropical deforestation. Launched in 2002, AIRS has provided “accurate, detailed atmospheric temperature and moisture observations for weather and climate applications. … In addition to carbon monoxide, other key trace gases it monitors include carbon dioxide and methane.”