[{"source":"remote","image-id":"201404250029HQ","title":"USA Science and Engineering Festival 2014","caption":"A NASA staff member describes the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission. The GPM Core Observatory satellite was launched into space on February 27, 2014 and will measure rain and snow worldwide every three hours. The GPM mission will help advance our understanding of Earth's water and energy cycles, improve the forecasting of extreme events that cause natural disasters, and extend current capabilities of using satellite precipitation information. The USA Science and Engineering Festival took place at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC on April 26 and 27, 2014. Photo Credit: (NASA\/Aubrey Gemignani)","alt-text":"","images":{"small":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/201404250029HQ\/201404250029HQ~small.jpg","medium":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/201404250029HQ\/201404250029HQ~medium.jpg","large":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/201404250029HQ\/201404250029HQ~large.jpg"}},{"source":"remote","image-id":"201404250030HQ","title":"USA Science and Engineering Festival 2014","caption":"A NASA staff member describes the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission. The GPM Core Observatory satellite was launched into space on February 27, 2014 and will measure rain and snow worldwide every three hours. The GPM mission will help advance our understanding of Earth's water and energy cycles, improve the forecasting of extreme events that cause natural disasters, and extend current capabilities of using satellite precipitation information. The USA Science and Engineering Festival took place at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC on April 26 and 27, 2014. Photo Credit: (NASA\/Aubrey Gemignani)","alt-text":"","images":{"small":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/201404250030HQ\/201404250030HQ~small.jpg","medium":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/201404250030HQ\/201404250030HQ~medium.jpg","large":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/201404250030HQ\/201404250030HQ~large.jpg"}},{"source":"remote","image-id":"201405270032HQ","title":"White House Science Fair","caption":"Girl Scout troop 2612 members from Tulsa, OK take photos of one another with Google Glass at the White House Science Fair Tuesday, May 27, 2014. Avery Dodson, 6; Natalie Hurley, 8; Miriam Schaffer, 8; Claire Winton, 8; and Lucy Claire Sharp, 8 participated in the Junior FIRST Lego League's Disaster Blaster Challenge, which invites elementary-school-aged students from across the country to explore how simple machines, engineering, and math can help solve problems posed by natural disasters. The girls invented the \"Flood Proof Bridge\" and built a model mechanizing the bridge using motors and developing a computer program to automatically retract the bridge when flood conditions are detected. The fourth White House Science Fair was held at the White House and included 100 students from more than 30 different states who competed in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competitions. (Photo Credit: NASA\/Aubrey Gemignani)","alt-text":"","images":{"small":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/201405270032HQ\/201405270032HQ~small.jpg","medium":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/201405270032HQ\/201405270032HQ~medium.jpg","large":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/201405270032HQ\/201405270032HQ~large.jpg"}},{"source":"remote","image-id":"PIA03899","title":"NASA Keeps Watch on a Potential Disaster in the Icy Andes","caption":"An Earth-monitoring instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite is keeping a close eye on a potential glacial disaster in the making in Peru's spectacular, snow-capped Cordillera Blanca (White Mountains), the highest range of the Peruvian Andes. Data from NASA's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (Aster) is assisting Peruvian government officials and geologists in monitoring a glacier that feeds Lake Palcacocha, located high above the city of Huaraz, 270 kilometers (168 miles) north of Lima. An ominous crack has developed in the glacier. Should the large glacier chunk break off and fall into the lake, the ensuing flood could hurtle down the Cojup Valley into the Rio Santa Valley below, reaching Huaraz, population 60,000, in less than 15 minutes. \"Glacial natural hazards like the one in Huaraz are an increasing threat to people in many parts of the world,\" said Dr. Michael Abrams, associate Aster team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. \"Remote sensing instruments like Aster can serve a vital role in mountain hazard management and disaster mapping by providing rapid access to data, even in regions not easily accessible by humans. Aster's unique vantage point from space gives scientists another tool with which to see early signs of potential glacial flood-burst events and to monitor changes in glacial behavior over time. In Huaraz, Peruvian authorities and scientists will incorporate Aster data along with data from ground-based monitoring techniques to better assess current conditions and take steps necessary to reduce risks to human lives and property.\" Comparison images of the area are available at: http:\/\/asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov . Huaraz can be seen in the images' left-center, with Lake Palcacocha in the images' upper right corners at the head of a valley, below the snow and glacier cap. The left image was acquired on November 5, 2001; the right on April 8, 2003. Glacial flood-bursts, known by Peruvians as \"aluviones,\" occur periodically when water is released abruptly from a previously ice-dammed lake alongside, within, or above a glacier. The release can be caused by various triggering events. These flood-bursts typically arrive with little or no warning, carrying liquid mud, large rock boulders and blocks of ice. The Rio Santa Valley is no stranger to such disasters. Since 1702, floods caused by glaciological conditions have repeatedly caused death and destruction in the region. One particularly devastating event in 1941 destroyed approximately one-third of Huaraz, killing an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 people. Since then, the Peruvian government has emphasized control of the water level in Lake Palcacocha and other lakes in the region that pose similar threats. The efforts appear to have worked; since 1972, no destructive floods resulting from the breakout of glacial lakes have occurred. Nevertheless, officials are still monitoring the current situation closely. http:\/\/photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov\/catalog\/PIA03899","alt-text":"An Earth-monitoring instrument aboard NASA Terra satellite kept a close eye on a potential glacial disaster in the making in Peru spectacular, snow-capped Cordillera Blanca White Mountains, the highest range of the Peruvian Andes.","images":{"small":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/PIA03899\/PIA03899~small.jpg","medium":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/PIA03899\/PIA03899~medium.jpg","large":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/PIA03899\/PIA03899~large.jpg"}},{"source":"remote","image-id":"PIA25771","title":"Engineers, Technicians Working on NISAR in Clean Room","caption":"Engineers and technicians from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory work on the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) science instrument payload in a clean room at JPL on Feb. 3, 2023. The payload is scheduled to ship to India in March 2023. The NISAR mission \u2013 a joint effort between NASA and ISRO \u2013 will measure changes to Earth's land ice surfaces down to fractions of an inch. Data collected by this satellite will help researchers monitor a wide range of changes critical to life on Earth in unprecedented detail. This includes spotting warning signs of imminent volcanic eruptions, helping to monitor groundwater supplies, tracking the melt rate of ice sheets tied to sea level rise, and observing shifts in the distribution of vegetation around the world. The data will inform humanity's responses to urgent challenges posed by natural disasters and climate change, and help communities prepare for and manage hazards. There are two instruments on the satellite that will send and receive radar signals to and from Earth's surface to make the mission's measurements. An L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which uses a signal wavelength of around 9 inches (24 centimeters), and an S-band SAR with a signal wavelength of nearly 5 inches (12 centimeters). Both will bounce their microwave signal off of the planet's surface and record how long it takes the signal to make one roundtrip, as well as the strength of that return signal. This enables the researchers to calculate the distance from the spacecraft to Earth's surface and thereby determine how the land or ice is changing. An antenna reflector nearly 40 feet (12 meters) in diameter, supported by a deployable boom, will focus the microwave signals sent and received by the SARs. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, leads the U.S. component of NISAR and is providing the mission's L-band SAR instrument. NASA is also providing the radar reflector antenna, the deployable boom, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystem. ISRO is providing the spacecraft bus, the S-band SAR, the launch vehicle, and associated launch services and satellite mission operations. https:\/\/photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov\/catalog\/PIA25771","alt-text":"Engineers and technicians work on the science instrument payload for the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission in a JPL clean room.","images":{"small":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/PIA25771\/PIA25771~small.jpg","medium":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/PIA25771\/PIA25771~medium.jpg","large":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/PIA25771\/PIA25771~large.jpg"}},{"source":"remote","image-id":"iss032e006129","title":"Earth Observation","caption":"ISS032-E-006129 (10 July 2012) --- Flooding in Krymsk in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 32 crew member on the International Space Station. On the night of July 7, 2012 a major storm dumped more than a foot of water on the southern Russian area of Krasnodar, near the Black Sea. The resulting flood was likened to a tsunami, and to date, more than 170 people died, most from the city of Krymsk. The Moscow times reports that more than 19,000 people lost everything. This image taken by cosmonauts aboard the space station shows the city of Krymsk. The tan-colored areas indicate some of the regions that were flooded; the color is probably due to the mud and debris that were left by the floodwaters. Krymsk is located in the western foothills on the northern slope of the Caucasus Mountains?a range that stretches between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The vast amount of rain quickly overwhelmed the small river channels that flow northward from the mountains to the Russian lowlands and the Kuban River; Krymsk, located on one of those tributaries, was directly in the pathway of the flash flood. As part of the international partner agreement to use the International Space Station to benefit humanity, crew members and other Earth observing instruments provide best-effort support to the International Disaster Charter (IDC) when it is activated by collecting imagery of areas on the ground impacted by natural events such as the flooding in Krymsk. This image was acquired July 10, 2012 in response to the IDC activation.","alt-text":"","images":{"small":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/iss032e006129\/iss032e006129~small.jpg","medium":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/iss032e006129\/iss032e006129~medium.jpg","large":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/iss032e006129\/iss032e006129~large.jpg"}},{"source":"remote","image-id":"GSFC_20171208_Archive_e001884","title":"Mt. Ruapehu, New Zealand","caption":"All around the world, people live in places where the threat of natural disaster is high. On the North Island of New Zealand, the Mount Ruapehu volcano is just such a threat. A towering, active stratovolcano (the classic cone-shaped volcano), snow-capped Ruapehu Volcano is pictured in this enhanced-color image. The image is made from topography data collected by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on February 11, 2000, and imagery collected by the Landsat satellite on October 23, 2002. Ruapehu is one of New Zealand\u2019s most active volcanoes, with ten eruptions since 1861. The eruptions aren\u2019t the only threat from the volcano, however. Among the most serious threats is a volcanic mudflow called a lahar. In between eruptions, a lake forms in the volcano\u2019s caldera from melting snow. If a previous eruption has deposited a dam of ash, rocks and mud in the lake\u2019s natural overflow point, then the lake becomes dangerously full, held back only by the temporary dam. In this scene, the lake is nestled among the ridges at the top of the volcano. Eventually, the dam gives way and a massive flow of mud and debris churns down the mountain toward farmland and towns below. Scientists estimate that Ruapehu has experienced 60 lahars in the last 150 years. A devastating lahar in 1953 killed more than 150 people, who died when a passenger train plunged into a ravine when a railroad bridge was taken out by the lahar. The flank of the volcano below the lake is deeply carved by the path of previous lahars; the gouge can be seen just left of image center. Currently scientists in the region are predicting that the lake will overflow in a lahar sometime in the next year. There is great controversy about how to deal with the threat. News reports from the region indicate that the government is planning to invest in a high-tech warning system that will alert those who might be affected well in advance of any catastrophic release. Others feel that the government should combat the threat through engineering at the top of the mountain, for example, by undertaking a controlled release of the lake. Credit Landsat data provided courtesy of the University of Maryland Global Land Cover Facility Landsat processing by Laura Rocchio, Landsat Project Science Office SRTM 3-arcsecond elevation data courtesy of SRTM Team NASA\/JPL\/NIMA Visualization created by Earth Observatory staff. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center<\/a><\/b> enables NASA\u2019s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA\u2019s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency\u2019s mission. Follow us on Twitter<\/a><\/b> Join us on Facebook<\/a><\/b>","alt-text":"","images":{"small":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/GSFC_20171208_Archive_e001884\/GSFC_20171208_Archive_e001884~small.jpg","medium":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/GSFC_20171208_Archive_e001884\/GSFC_20171208_Archive_e001884~medium.jpg","large":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/GSFC_20171208_Archive_e001884\/GSFC_20171208_Archive_e001884~large.jpg"}},{"source":"remote","image-id":"PIA25598","title":"ISRO Chairman Visits NISAR in a Clean Room at JPL","caption":"NASA's NISAR Project Manager Phil Barela (with hands raised) speaks with Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman S. Somanath about the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) science instrument payload in a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Feb. 3, 2023. Somanath was among a group of visitors to the facility that included officials from NASA, ISRO, and the Indian Embassy. The NISAR mission \u2013 a joint effort between NASA and ISRO \u2013 will measure changes to Earth's land ice surfaces down to fractions of an inch. Data collected by this satellite will help researchers monitor a wide range of changes critical to life on Earth in unprecedented detail. This includes spotting warning signs of imminent volcanic eruptions, helping to monitor groundwater supplies, tracking the melt rate of ice sheets tied to sea level rise, and observing shifts in the distribution of vegetation around the world. The data will inform humanity's responses to urgent challenges posed by natural disasters and climate change, and help communities prepare for and manage hazards. There are two instruments on the satellite that will send and receive radar signals to and from Earth's surface to make the mission's measurements. An L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which uses a signal wavelength of around 9 inches (24 centimeters), and an S-band SAR with a signal wavelength of nearly 5 inches (12 centimeters). Both will bounce their microwave signal off of the planet's surface and record how long it takes the signal to make one roundtrip, as well as the strength of that return signal. This enables the researchers to calculate the distance from the spacecraft to Earth's surface and thereby determine how the land or ice is changing. An antenna reflector nearly 40 feet (12 meters) in diameter, supported by a deployable boom, will focus the microwave signals sent and received by the SARs. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, leads the U.S. component of NISAR and is providing the mission's L-band SAR instrument. NASA is also providing the radar reflector antenna, the deployable boom, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystem. ISRO is providing the spacecraft bus, the S-band SAR, the launch vehicle, and associated launch services and satellite mission operations. https:\/\/photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov\/catalog\/PIA25598","alt-text":"NASA's NISAR Project Manager Phil Barela speaks in a JPL clean room with ISRO Chairman S. Somanath and other officials from NASA, ISRO, and the Indian Embassy about the science instrument payload for the NISAR mission.","images":{"small":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/PIA25598\/PIA25598~small.jpg","medium":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/PIA25598\/PIA25598~medium.jpg","large":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/PIA25598\/PIA25598~large.jpg"}},{"source":"remote","image-id":"PIA25599","title":"NASA, ISRO, Indian Embassy Officials Visit NISAR in Clean Room","caption":"Officials from NASA, the Indian Space Research Organisation, and the Indian Embassy, grouped at left, visit a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Feb. 3, 2023, to view the scientific instrument payload for the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission. The payload is scheduled to be shipped to India in March 2023. The NISAR mission \u2013 a joint effort between NASA and ISRO \u2013 will measure changes to Earth's land ice surfaces down to fractions of an inch. Data collected by this satellite will help researchers monitor a wide range of changes critical to life on Earth in unprecedented detail. This includes spotting warning signs of imminent volcanic eruptions, helping to monitor groundwater supplies, tracking the melt rate of ice sheets tied to sea level rise, and observing shifts in the distribution of vegetation around the world. The data will inform humanity's responses to urgent challenges posed by natural disasters and climate change, and help communities prepare for and manage hazards. There are two instruments on the satellite that will send and receive radar signals to and from Earth's surface to make the mission's measurements. An L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which uses a signal wavelength of around 9 inches (24 centimeters), and an S-band SAR with a signal wavelength of nearly 5 inches (12 centimeters). Both will bounce their microwave signal off of the planet's surface and record how long it takes the signal to make one roundtrip, as well as the strength of that return signal. This enables the researchers to calculate the distance from the spacecraft to Earth's surface and thereby determine how the land or ice is changing. An antenna reflector nearly 40 feet (12 meters) in diameter, supported by a deployable boom, will focus the microwave signals sent and received by the SARs. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, leads the U.S. component of NISAR and is providing the mission's L-band SAR instrument. NASA is also providing the radar reflector antenna, the deployable boom, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystem. ISRO is providing the spacecraft bus, the S-band SAR, the launch vehicle, and associated launch services and satellite mission operations. https:\/\/photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov\/catalog\/PIA25599","alt-text":"Officials from NASA, ISRO, and the Indian Embassy visit a JPL clean room to view the scientific instrument payload for the NISAR mission.","images":{"small":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/PIA25599\/PIA25599~small.jpg","medium":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/PIA25599\/PIA25599~medium.jpg","large":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/PIA25599\/PIA25599~large.jpg"}},{"source":"remote","image-id":"sts068-s-052","title":"STS-68 radar image: Mt. Rainier, Washington","caption":"STS068-S-052 (3 October 1994) --- This is a radar image of Mount Rainier in Washington state. The volcano last erupted about 150 years ago and numerous large floods and debris flows have originated on its slopes during the last century. Today the volcano is heavily mantled with glaciers and snow fields. More than 100,000 people live on young volcanic mud flows less than 10,000 years old and, are within the range of future, devastating mud slides. This image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C\/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C\/X-SAR) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on its 20th orbit on October 1, 1994. The area shown in the image is approximately 59 by 60 kilometers (36.5 by 37 miles). North is toward the top left of the image, which was composed by assigning red and green colors to the L-Band, horizontally transmitted and vertically, and the L-Band, horizontally transmitted and vertically received. Blue indicates the C-Band, horizontally transmitted and vertically received. In addition to highlighting topographic slopes facing the Space Shuttle, SIR-C records rugged areas as brighter and smooth areas as darker. The scene was illuminated by the Shuttle's radar from the northwest so that northwest-facing slopes are brighter and southeast-facing slopes are dark. Forested regions are pale green in color, clear cuts and bare ground are bluish or purple; ice is dark green and white. The round cone at the center of the image is the 14,435 feet (4,399 meters) active volcano, Mount Rainier. On the lower slopes is a zone of rock ridges and rubble (purple to reddish) above coniferous forests (in yellow\/green). The western boundary of Mount Rainier National Park is seen as a transition from protected, old-growth forest to heavily logged private land, a mosaic of recent clear cuts (bright purple\/blue) and partially re-grown timber plantations (pale blue). The prominent river seen curving away from the mountain at the top of the image (to the northwest) is the White River, and the river leaving the mountain at the bottom right of the image (south) is the Nisqually River, which flows out of the Nisqually glacier on the mountain. The river leaving to the left of the mountain is the Carbon River, leading west and north toward heavily populated regions near Tacoma. The dark patch at the top right of the image is Bumping Lake. Other dark areas seen to the right of ridges throughout the image are radar shadow zones. Radar images can be used to study the volcanic structure and the surrounding regions with linear rock boundaries and faults. In addition, the recovery of forested lands from natural disasters and the success of re-forestation programs can also be monitored. Ultimately this data may be used to study the advance and retreat of glaciers and other forces of global change. Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C\/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C\/X-SAR) is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. (P-44703)","alt-text":"","images":{"small":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/sts068-s-052\/sts068-s-052~small.jpg","medium":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/sts068-s-052\/sts068-s-052~medium.jpg","large":"http:\/\/images-assets.nasa.gov\/image\/sts068-s-052\/sts068-s-052~large.jpg"}}]

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