خشم و سر گشتگی در کوه آتشفشان اتنا – ایتالیا – " سیسیل" Paroxysm at Mount Etna

Paroxysm 
1: a fit, attack, or sudden increase or recurrence of symptoms (as of a disease) 
2: a sudden violent emotion or action 
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Throughout 2011, activity at Sicily’s Mount Etna has been characterized by paroxysms: short, violent bursts of activity. Each event has included volcanic tremors, ash emissions, and lava flows centered around the New Southeast Crater, just below the summit.

On August 12, 2011, Etna had its tenth paroxysm of the year, captured in this natural-color satellite image. Etna spewed a thick white plume of gas and ash to the southeast, towards the nearby city of Catania. The ash cloud was produced by vigorous lava fountaining at the New Southeast Crater. The Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Center estimated ash emissions reached an altitude of 14,000 feet (4,300 meters); 2,000 feet (600 meters) above the 10,925-foot (3,330-meter) summit. The image was captured at 11:40 a.m. local time by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite.

Boris Behncke, a volcanolgist from the Istituto Nazionale Di Geofisica E Vulcanologia in Catania, Sciliy, provides updates on Etna’s activity on his Twitter feed, @etnaboris.

1.   References

2.   Klemetti, Erik. (2011, August 12). GVP Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for August 3–9, 2011: Cleveland’s Dome, Indonesian Volcanoes and a Busy Etna. Accessed August 12, 2011.

3.   Toulouse VAAC. (2011, August 12). Volcanic Ash Advisory. Accessed August 12, 2011.

مخزن آب " ایست من " در کبک – کانادا- Eastmain Reservoir, Quebec

On May 19, 2011, the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite observed a work in progress in northern Quebec, east of James Bay. The project—known as the Eastmain-1-A/Sarcelle/Rupert Project—is designed to increase hydroelectric power for the Canadian province.

The top image is a wide-area view of the hydroelectric project, and it shows the Eastmain Reservoir, which lies about 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of Montreal. A layer of ice lingers on the reservoir's surface, with areas of open water appearing in darker shades of blue. Cracks on the ice span the reservoir, especially in the south.

The white outline in the top image shows the area covered in the lower, close-up view. This image provides a detailed look at some of the structures along this reservoir: the Eastmain-1 power house and the Eastmain-1-A power house, which is under construction.

Eastmain-1 has three water turbines that can collectively generate as much as 480 megawatt hours of electricity, according to the EM-1 Project plan. Meanwhile, HydroQuébec explains that Eastmain-1-A is intended to supplement its slightly older neighbor. When complete, Eastmain-1-A is expected to generate up to 768 megawatts.

The construction of the Eastmain-1-A power house is just one part of a much larger undertaking. Also included in the Eastmain-1-A/Sarcelle/Rupert Project is the partial diversion of the Rupert River, where Eastmain-1 and Eastmain-1-A are located; construction of a 150-megawatt powerhouse, Sarcelle, at the outlet of the Opinaca Reservoir; and the construction of a new drinking-water plant at Waskaganish.

HydroQuébec is responsible for Québec’s electricity transmission system, and distributes energy throughout Québec, and exports some energy to the United States. HydroQuébec undertook the Eastmain-1-A/Sarcelle/Rupert Project to harness and develop hydropower in the region. In 2006, a provincial review committee reported that the appearance and flow of the Rupert River would undeniably change as a result of the planned power structures. Nonetheless, the project was allowed to move forward.

1.   References

2.   EM-1 Project. (n.d.). Net GHG emissions at the Eastmain-1 reservoir. Accessed August 4, 2011.

3.   HydroQuébec. (2011). Project Description. Accessed August 4, 2011.

4.   Provincial Review Committee. (2006, October 31). Eastmain-1-A and Rupert Diversion hydropower project. (PDF file) Accessed August 4, 2011.

آتش سوزی در توده ی زنده ی " زیست توده" ، جنوب قاره ی آفریقا Biomass Burning, Southern Africa

A smoke pall dominates this view of tropical southern Africa, one of the most fire-prone regions of the world. Numerous fires give rise to regional smoke palls every dry season. Fires are both natural (started by lightning) and set by local people to clear woodlands for agricultural fields.

This oblique, northwest-looking view from July 2011, at the end of the dry season, shows the extent of the smoke on the African plateau—from central Zimbabwe (image lower left) to northern Malawi more than 1,000 kilometers away (image top right), and in the wide coastal plains of the lower Zambezi River valley of Mozambique (image lower right). Here smoke can be seen blowing inland, channeled up the Zambezi River valley and contributing to the pall on the plateau. The light gray smoke plumes contrast with higher altitude, brighter patchy cloud cover at image lower right.

The smoke palls obscure the details on the land surface so that Lake Malawi, one of Africa’s Great Lakes, is barely visible. The same goes for Lake Cahora Bassa, Africa’s fourth largest reservoir, in the Zambezi valley. The sun’s reflection off the surface of Lake Kariba makes it prominent in the view at image left. Kariba is 220 kilometers long and is the world’s largest artificial reservoir by volume. The steep, shadowed, mid-afternoon faces of the Inyanga Mountains on the Mozambique-Zimbabwe border protrude above the smoke layer at image lower left. Solar panels extending from Russian spacecraft docked at the International Space Station are visible at image left.

Astronaut photograph ISS028-E-18675 was acquired on July 23, 2011, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 28 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 28 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson, Jacobs/ESCG at NASA-JSC.

Instrument: 

ISS - Dig

تابستان و زمستان در حوضه ی آبخیز " تاریم " - گرمترین و خشک ترین کویر چین - Winter and Summer in the Tarim Basin

In westernmost China lies the Tarim Basin, home to the Taklimakan Desert—the biggest, hottest, driest desert in China. Sand dunes cover about 85 percent of the Taklimakan, often feeding massive dust storms. Isolated from the Asian monsoon and from Arctic storms, the central basin receives less than 10 millimeters (0.4 inches) of precipitation per year. In such a parched environment, plants are rare, and yet they exist. In the summertime, they appear to thrive.

Runoff from the Tien Shan mountains and the Kunlun Shan mountains feed rivers, which in turn support vegetation. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured these images of the Tarim Basin on January 26, 2011 (top), and August 6, 2011 (bottom).

In the January image, snow blankets the mountain peaks north and south of the Tarim Basin, and the basin itself appears in shades of brown. In the August image, snow has receded from many mountains, while the snow melt has provided life-sustaining moisture to vegetation around the margin of the basin.

Fed by runoff from the Kunlun Shan, the Hotan River (also Khotan River) flows northward—but only for part of the year. The river valley appears dry in January, but in August, it is lined with vegetation.

Along the basin’s northern margin, the Hotan joins the Tarim River, which links multiple areas of green in the August image. The Tarim River supplies water to an area roughly 300 miles (500 kilometers) long. Deciduous forests, filled with poplar trees, flourish nearby in the summer. The forests not only green up the edges of the Tarim Basin, they also stabilize the sandy soil and moderate the arid climate. As human settlement in the region has increased, however, some of this forest has been cleared to make way for irrigated crops.

1.   References

2.   Encyclopedia Britannica. (2011). Hotan River. Accessed August 9, 2011.

3.   Geomorphology from Space. (2009, September 9). The Southwest Taklimakan Desert. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Accessed August 9, 2011.

4.   Wild World Ecoregion Profile. (2001). Tarim Basin deciduous forests and steppe. World Wildlife Fund. National Geographic. Accessed August 9, 2011.

5.   World Wildlife Fund, McGinley, M. (2007). Taklimakan Desert. Encyclopedia of Earth. Accessed August 9, 2011

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گرد و غبار بر فراز دریای سرخ Dust over the Red Sea

Dust plumes blew off the coast of Sudan and across the Red Sea on August 3, 2011. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite took this picture the same day.

Two distinct plumes arise not far from the coast of Sudan and blow toward the northeast. The northern plume almost reaches Saudi Arabia. North of these plumes, a veil of dust with indistinct margins extends from Sudan most of the way across the water.

This image shows more than just dust. Just northeast of the Sudan-Eritrea border, wave patterns, which may beatmospheric gravity waves, appear alongside the dust plumes. Likewise, irregularly shaped patches of white occur off the coasts of Eritrea and Saudi Arabia. These light-colored areas may result from sunglint—the reflection of sunlight off the water surface and into the satellite sensor.

ستون خاکستر از آتشفشا ن ، کامچا تکا Thick Ash Plume from Shiveluch Volcano, Kamchatka

آتشفشا ن " کامچاتکا " واقع در کناره ی اقیانوس ، در سرزمین روسیه، هم اکنون فعال ترین منطقه ی آتشفشانی "گوی زمین " است

The Kamchatka Peninsula, along Russia’s Pacific coast, is currently the most volcanically active area in the world: four volcanoes are erupting simultaneously, and a fifth is showing sings of an impending eruption. Ash plumes from two of these volcanoes are visible in this natural-color satellite image. Along the northern (top) edge of the image Shiveluchemits a broad gray plume from the lava dome growing on its southern flank. 90 kilometers (60 miles) to the southwest a much smaller plume escapes from Bezymianny.

This image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite on August 3, 2011. Bright green vegetation covers the river floodplains and mountainsides, which gives way to bare rock and eventually snow at higher elevations.

1.     Reference

2.     Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team. (2011, July 28).KVERT Information Releases. Accessed August 4, 2011.

 Five volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsula are either erupting or showing signs of impending eruption. In this image a thick plume of ash streams from a lava dome on Shiveluch Volcano.

The steep, cone-shaped volcano was shrouded in snow, and the rugged terrain was being illuminated from the south, which created dramatic shadows to the north and west. Both the mountain itself and the plume are casting a shadow (brown area) on the western and northern flanks of the volcano. Within this shadow, black rivulets of lava are visible on the northwest slopes.

According to the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team, Klyuchevskaya Volcano has been displaying a range of volcanic activity over the past week, including gas-steam plumes reaching six kilometers (20,000 feet) above sea level, flowing lava, and Strombolian eruptions reaching 300 meters (1,000 feet) above the summit.

With a summit that reaches 3,283 meters (10,771 feet), Shiveluch is one of the largest and most active volcanoes in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. At least 60 large eruptions of Shiveluch have occurred during the past 10,000 years, making it the most vigorous volcano of the Kuril-Kamchatka volcanic arc.

On January 25, 2011, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’sTerra satellite detected a hot avalanche of volcanic debris—a pyroclastic flow—sliding down the south side of the volcano. This image shows the flow’s heat signature as measured in thermal infrared light. The white area at the lava dome is very hot, while the red areas on the edge of the flow are just warmer than the surrounding snow.

The hot trail of material descending to the south forms a large distributed deposit, indicating a recent collapse of the lava dome and formation of a large debris avalanche. According to the Global Volcanism Program, Shiveluch’s current eruptive period began in 1999.

1. References

2. Global Volcanism Program. (n.d.) Shiveluch. Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History. Accessed February 10, 2011.
3. Photojournal. (2011, January 27). NASA spacecraft captures fury of Russian volcano. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Accessed February 10, 2011.

آتش سوزی در جزیره Fires Scorch Cape Barren Island

A trail of small islands connects the southeastern tip of Australia to Tasmania, to the south. A cluster of three large (in comparison to others in the chain) islands known as the Furneaux Group sits just north of Tasmania. In mid-October 2006, the central island in this group—Cape Barren Island—was ablaze.

This pair of images is based on data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’sAqua satellite on October 15. The left-hand image is a photo-like view of the area, showing the active fire locations that MODIS detected outlined in red. A plume of gray smoke spreads northeast. The right-hand scene uses both visible and infrared light that MODIS observed to highlight the burned area. The extent of the burn is dramatic: all the red areas show burned vegetation. Vegetation appears green, water appears dark blue (nearly black), while clouds appear light blue or white. In the infrared-enhanced image, the smoke becomes a transparent blue. A bright pink glow in this type of image often indicates open flame.

Fewer than 100 people live on Cape Barren Island, most of them on the northwestern corner. The island has undulating, grassy lowlands interrupted by outcrops of granite mountains. In the second week of October, two separate fires on the island burned together, creating a single large blaze that had affected about 78,000 hectares (nearly 193,000 acres) as of October 16.

These images are provided at MODIS’ maximum spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The large images show a wider area. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides both the photo-like and infrared-enhancedversions of the images at additional resolutions.