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        {
            "id": 31300,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/31300/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2024-07-29T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "A Greenhouse Boom in China",
            "description": "Animated version of a story originally published at https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/152874/a-greenhouse-boom-in-china || ",
            "hits": 72
        },
        {
            "id": 31297,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/31297/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2024-07-17T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Korean Peninsula imagery",
            "description": "Landsat imagery of the Korean peninsula updated from stories originally published on Earth Observatory. || ",
            "hits": 57
        },
        {
            "id": 31103,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/31103/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2020-02-12T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "2013 Rim Fire",
            "description": "Rim Fire progression || rimfire_mantage_print.jpg (1024x576) [66.3 KB] || rimfire_mantage.jpg (3840x2160) [1.2 MB] || rimfire_mantage_searchweb.png (320x180) [57.9 KB] || rimfire_mantage_thm.png (80x40) [4.6 KB] || ",
            "hits": 39
        },
        {
            "id": 31110,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/31110/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2020-02-12T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "Marine Layer Clouds in California",
            "description": "Marine layer clouds over California at night || day-night-california_vir_2012271_lrg_00000_print.jpg (1024x576) [96.9 KB] || day-night-california_vir_2012271_lrg_00000_searchweb.png (320x180) [59.3 KB] || day-night-california_vir_2012271_lrg_00000_thm.png (80x40) [5.0 KB] || day-night-california_vir_2012271_lrg_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [5.6 MB] || day-night-california_vir_2012271_lrg_1080p30.webm (1920x1080) [2.1 MB] || day-night-california_vir_2012271_lrg_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [13.6 MB] || 3840x2160_16x9_30p (3840x2160) [64.0 KB] || ",
            "hits": 79
        },
        {
            "id": 31127,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/31127/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2020-02-12T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "Shale Revolution: As Clear as Night and Day—South Texas",
            "description": "Eagle Ford Shale Play || ShaleRevolutionSouthTexas_print.jpg (1024x576) [132.3 KB] || ShaleRevolutionSouthTexas.png (5760x3240) [7.7 MB] || ShaleRevolutionSouthTexas_searchweb.png (320x180) [92.0 KB] || ShaleRevolutionSouthTexas_thm.png (80x40) [6.4 KB] || shale-revolution-as-clear-as-night-and-daysouth-texas.hwshow [327 bytes] || ",
            "hits": 52
        },
        {
            "id": 31032,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/31032/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2019-04-08T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Historic Floods Inundate Nebraska",
            "description": "Comparison of imagery of Omaha in March 2018 and 2019 shows flooding in 2019 || omaha_oli_flooding_2019_print.jpg (1024x576) [246.2 KB] || omaha_oli_flooding_2019.png (3840x2160) [12.9 MB] || omaha_oli_flooding_2019_searchweb.png (320x180) [124.7 KB] || omaha_oli_flooding_2019_thm.png (80x40) [6.8 KB] || omaha_oli_flooding_2019_1080p.mp4 (1920x1080) [3.0 MB] || omaha_oli_flooding_2019_720p.mp4 (1280x720) [1.6 MB] || omaha_oli_flooding_2019_720p.webm (1280x720) [635.5 KB] || omaha_oli_flooding_2019_3840p.mp4 (3840x2160) [8.5 MB] || ",
            "hits": 89
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        {
            "id": 4687,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4687/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2018-09-28T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "El Nino Fueled Rains Swamp South America",
            "description": "Since the middle of 2015, meteorologists have warned that El Niño could bring unusually wet weather to Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, and southern Brazil. The first image shows a view of this region before the flood and the second is after the December/January El Nino rains swamped this part of South America. || OneBeforeAfterFLoodSA-ArgentinaParaguay02.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [252.4 KB] || OneBeforeAfterFLoodSA-ArgentinaParaguay02.00001_searchweb.png (320x180) [131.8 KB] || OneBeforeAfterFLoodSA-ArgentinaParaguay02.00001_thm.png (80x40) [7.7 KB] || OneBeforeAfterFLoodSA-ArgentinaParaguay02.mp4 (3840x2160) [71.7 MB] || ElNinoFlood (3240x3240) [0 Item(s)] || OneBeforeAfterFLoodSA-ArgentinaParaguay02.webm (3840x2160) [8.8 MB] || rioparaguay02.hwshow [207 bytes] || ",
            "hits": 74
        },
        {
            "id": 30962,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30962/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2018-05-31T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Sulfur Dioxide Leaks from Kilauea",
            "description": "This series of images, created using data from the Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite (OMPS) sensor on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite, shows elevated concentrations of sulfur dioxide from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano on May 5, 2018. || hawaii_omp_so2.png (1920x1080) [299.9 KB] || hawaii_omp_so2_print.jpg (1024x576) [49.1 KB] || hawaii_omp_so2_searchweb.png (320x180) [31.7 KB] || hawaii_omp_so2_thm.png (80x40) [3.7 KB] || sulfur-dioxide-leaks-from-kilauea-data.hwshow [290 bytes] || ",
            "hits": 29
        },
        {
            "id": 30963,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30963/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2018-05-31T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Probing Kilauea’s Plume",
            "description": "These images, created using data from the Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) on Terra, show the height of the sulfur-rich plume from Hawaii's Kilauea on May 6, 2018. || probing_plume.png (1920x1080) [1.7 MB] || probing_plume_print.jpg (1024x576) [139.0 KB] || probing_plume_searchweb.png (320x180) [78.6 KB] || probing_plume_thm.png (80x40) [6.0 KB] || probing-kilaueas-plume.hwshow [272 bytes] || ",
            "hits": 37
        },
        {
            "id": 30964,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30964/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2018-05-31T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Kilauea Continues to Erupt",
            "description": "On May 14, 2018, at 10:41 AM local time (20:41 Universal Time), the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 acquired a natural-color image of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano. || kilauea_continues_print.jpg (1024x682) [280.7 KB] || kilauea_continues.png (4860x3240) [26.3 MB] || kilauea_continues_searchweb.png (320x180) [123.7 KB] || kilauea_continues_thm.png (80x40) [8.0 KB] || kilauea-continues-to-erupt.hwshow [284 bytes] || ",
            "hits": 75
        },
        {
            "id": 30965,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30965/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2018-05-31T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "The Infrared Glow of Kilauea’s Lava Flows",
            "description": "The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 acquired the data for this false-color view of the lava flow as it appeared on the night of May 23, 2018. || IR_leilani_print.jpg (1024x574) [95.3 KB] || IR_leilani.png (4104x2304) [3.5 MB] || IR_leilani_searchweb.png (320x180) [44.9 KB] || IR_leilani_thm.png (80x40) [2.7 KB] || the-infrared-glow-of-kilaueas-lava-flows.hwshow [284 bytes] || ",
            "hits": 56
        },
        {
            "id": 30908,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30908/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2017-10-10T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Pinpointing Where the Lights Went Out in Puerto Rico",
            "description": "Night lights across Puerto Rico before and after Hurricane Maria, 2017 || maria_pr_1080p.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [55.4 KB] || maria_pr_1080p.00001_searchweb.png (180x320) [32.7 KB] || maria_pr_1080p.00001_thm.png (80x40) [3.3 KB] || maria_pr_1080p.mp4 (1920x1080) [1.8 MB] || maria_pr_720p.mp4 (1280x720) [961.0 KB] || maria_pr_1080p.webm (1920x1080) [3.4 MB] || maria_pr_2304p.mp4 (4096x2304) [5.0 MB] || maria_pr (4104x2304) [64.0 KB] || ",
            "hits": 59
        },
        {
            "id": 30898,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30898/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2017-09-18T16:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "A Menacing Line of Hurricanes",
            "description": "VIIRS imagery of Katia, Irma, and Jose || hurricanes_vir_2017251_lrg.jpg (4095x2730) [5.7 MB] || hurricanes_vir_2017251_lrg_searchweb.png (180x320) [109.1 KB] || hurricanes_vir_2017251_lrg_thm.png (80x40) [7.2 KB] || a-menacing-line-of-hurricanes.hwshow [223 bytes] || ",
            "hits": 46
        },
        {
            "id": 11761,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11761/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2017-07-21T13:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Land Changes in Atchafalaya Bay",
            "description": "Since 1972, Landsat satellites have orbited our home planet, collecting data about the land surface we rely on. This video shows footage of the launch of the first Landsat satellite, on July 23, 1972, and a timelapse of the changing coastal wetlands in Atchafalaya Bay, Louisiana.Music credit: Step By Step, by Gresby Race Nash [PRS] || 11761_Atchafalaya_Delta_Landsat45th_large.00385_print.jpg (1024x576) [74.5 KB] || 11761_Atchafalaya_Delta_Landsat45th_large.00385_searchweb.png (320x180) [63.5 KB] || 11761_Atchafalaya_Delta_Landsat45th_large.00385_thm.png (80x40) [5.0 KB] || 11761_Atchafalaya_Delta_Landsat45th_prores.mov (1280x720) [1.5 GB] || 11761_Atchafalaya_Delta_Landsat45th_large.mp4 (1920x1080) [111.8 MB] || 11761_Atchafalaya_Delta_Landsat45th_youtube_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [162.4 MB] || 11761_Atchafalaya_Delta_Landsat45th_facebook_720.mp4 (1280x720) [118.5 MB] || 11761_Atchafalaya_Delta_Landsat45th.webm (960x540) [45.1 MB] || GSFC_20170721_Landsat_m11761_Atchafalaya.en_US.vtt [42 bytes] || ",
            "hits": 75
        },
        {
            "id": 30882,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30882/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2017-06-07T12:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Breakdown of an Ice Arch",
            "description": "Ice arch collapse at the Nares Strait || ice_arch_collapse_lincoln_print.jpg (1024x574) [137.9 KB] || ice_arch_collapse_lincoln.png (4104x2304) [11.1 MB] || ice_arch_collapse_lincoln_searchweb.png (320x180) [90.7 KB] || ice_arch_collapse_lincoln_thm.png (80x40) [6.3 KB] || breakdown-of-an-ice-arch.hwshow [298 bytes] || ",
            "hits": 26
        },
        {
            "id": 30874,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30874/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2017-03-24T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Sprawling Shanghai",
            "description": "Shanghai sprawl over time, 1984-2022 || shanghai_2022_00865_print.jpg (1024x576) [263.9 KB] || shanghai_2022_00865_searchweb.png (320x180) [123.1 KB] || shanghai_2022_00865_thm.png (80x40) [7.5 KB] || shanghai_2022_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [37.5 MB] || shanghai_2022_1080p30.webm (1920x1080) [4.1 MB] || 3840x2160_16x9_30p (3840x2160) [0 Item(s)] || shanghai_2022_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [135.9 MB] ||",
            "hits": 112
        },
        {
            "id": 30760,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30760/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2016-04-20T06:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Reading the ABCs from Space",
            "description": "Fun with the letters of the alphabet",
            "hits": 321
        },
        {
            "id": 11911,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11911/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2015-07-07T11:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Mount St. Helens at 35",
            "description": "Thirty-five years after Mount St. Helens erupted, satellites in orbit and scientists on ground still monitor the recovery. || c-1280.jpg (1280x720) [341.8 KB] || c-1024.jpg (1024x576) [253.6 KB] || c-1024_print.jpg (1024x576) [238.0 KB] || c-1024_searchweb.png (320x180) [141.8 KB] || c-1024_thm.png (80x40) [29.0 KB] || ",
            "hits": 40
        },
        {
            "id": 11848,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11848/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2015-05-28T11:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Space Photography",
            "description": "Cool things happen when astronauts get behind the camera. || s1-1024.jpg (1024x576) [249.1 KB] || s1-1024_print.jpg (1024x576) [233.7 KB] || s1-1024_searchweb.png (320x180) [126.8 KB] || ",
            "hits": 30
        },
        {
            "id": 11759,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11759/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2015-03-26T11:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Growing Plains",
            "description": "River sediment is creating new landforms on Louisiana's coastline. || cf-1024.jpg (1024x576) [200.3 KB] || cf-1024_print.jpg (1024x576) [195.6 KB] || cf-1024_searchweb.png (320x180) [102.0 KB] || cf-1024_print_thm.png (80x40) [20.8 KB] || ",
            "hits": 24
        },
        {
            "id": 11684,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11684/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2014-11-20T11:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "The Erupting Peninsula",
            "description": "Explorer Stepan Krasheninnikov first pointed it out in 1755: there may not be another land mass on Earth where so many volcanoes and hot springs are crammed into so little space. Situated along the Pacific Coast of Russia, the Kamchatka Peninsula is part of the Ring of Fire, one of the most geologically active zones on the planet. More than 300 volcanoes dot the peninsula, including 29 active ones. The volcanoes are as diverse—in shape, size, geologic formations, and eruptive styles—as they are numerous. The logistics of maintaining ground-based sensors in this rugged region make satellites a necessity for monitoring the volcanoes. In September 2014, the USGS-NASA Landsat 8 satellite captured six clear images of Kamchatka's often cloudy east coast. The images were stitched into a mosaic, providing a seamless look at five volcanoes with plumes of steam, gas, or ash rising from their summits. Watch the video for a tour of the mosaic. || ",
            "hits": 53
        },
        {
            "id": 11478,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11478/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2014-04-29T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "The World's Highest Mountains",
            "description": "Fourteen mountain peaks stand taller than 8,000 meters (26,247 feet). There could have been many more of these “eight-thousanders” if, in 1793, the French commission that established the length of the meter had made it just a bit shorter. Yet the decision to make a meter equivalent to one ten-millionth of the distance between the equator and the North Pole left the world with only this handful. All of them are found in either the Karakoram or Himalayan mountain ranges of central Asia. Ground photography of the towering peaks is ubiquitous, but images captured by NASA’s EO-1 satellite offer a less familiar perspective. The sensor on EO-1 looked directly down on the mountains, providing a view of the very tip of each summit. Check out the images to see the world's five highest peaks from orbit. || ",
            "hits": 223
        },
        {
            "id": 11446,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11446/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2014-01-30T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "Spectacular Sarychev",
            "description": "On June 12, 2009, a fortuitous orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) made it possible for an astronaut on board to capture Sarychev Volcano in the early stages of eruption. The volcano is located on the northwestern end of Matua Island, which is part of the Kuril Islands, a chain of 56 islands northeast of Japan. The eruption sent a plume of brown-colored ash and white steam rising into the atmosphere. The plume was so immense that it cast a large shadow on the island. Sarychev is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain. Prior to June 12, the last explosive eruption occurred in 1989, with eruptions in 1986, 1976, 1954, and 1946 also producing lava flows. Watch the video to see how the eruption looked from space. || ",
            "hits": 63
        },
        {
            "id": 11353,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11353/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2013-10-31T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Follow The Line",
            "description": "You may think the seasons are caused by a change in the distance between Earth and the sun. In fact, the tilt of Earth on its axis is the most important factor. You can see this from space by watching the movement of Earth’s terminator—the edge between the shadows of nightfall and the sunlight of dusk and dawn. Because Earth spins on a tilted axis, the orientation of this line changes over the course of a year in sync with the seasons. On the September and March equinox, when Earth is at a right angle to the sun, light is spread evenly across the globe and the terminator runs from pole to pole. But on the December and June solstice, when Earth is tilted away from and toward the sun, respectively, light is cast disproportionately on each hemisphere, causing the terminator to appear slanted. Watch the video to view the migration of Earth's terminator across the seasons. || ",
            "hits": 419
        },
        {
            "id": 11284,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11284/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2013-07-30T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Mapping Drought",
            "description": "In 2012, the continental United States suffered through one of its worst droughts in decades. With another summer upon us, drought continues to be a problem for many parts of the country. Using data from NASA’s GRACE satellites and other satellite and ground-based measurements, scientists have created maps that show the amount of water in the U.S. stored near the surface and underground from August 2002 through May 2013. The maps provide two views of monthly changes in water storage: the wetness in the “root zone,\" or the top meter of soil, and the ground water storage in shallow aquifers. The color-coded maps express how much water is stored as a probability of occurrence from 1948 to 2009, where red colors represent places that are dryer than normal, and blue colors represent places that are wetter than normal. Watch the visualization to see how water storage in the U.S. changes over time. || ",
            "hits": 19
        },
        {
            "id": 30055,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30055/",
            "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
            "release_date": "2013-06-27T14:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Columbia Glacier, Alaska",
            "description": "The Columbia Glacier in Alaska is one of the most rapidly changing glaciers in the world. These false-color images show how the glacier and the surrounding landscape has changed since 1986. Snow and ice appears bright cyan, vegetation is green, clouds are white or light orange, and the open ocean is dark blue. Exposed bedrock is brown, while rocky debris on the glacier’s surface is gray. By 2011, the terminus had retreated more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) to the north. Since the 1980s, the glacier has lost about half of its total thickness and volume. The retreat of the Columbia contributes to global sea-level rise, mostly through iceberg calving. This one glacier accounts for nearly half of the ice loss in the Chugach Mountains. However, the ice losses are not exclusively tied to increasing air and water temperatures. Climate change may have given the Columbia an initial nudge, but it has more to do with mechanical processes. In fact, when the Columbia reaches the shoreline, its retreat will likely slow down. The more stable surface will cause the rate of calving to decline, making it possible for the glacier to start rebuilding a moraine and advancing once again. || ",
            "hits": 79
        },
        {
            "id": 11238,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11238/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2013-04-30T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "The Breakup",
            "description": "Visualizations can give the impression that the Arctic ice cap is a continuous sheet of stationary, floating ice. In fact, it's a collection of smaller pieces that constantly shift, crack and grind against one another as they are jostled by winds and ocean currents. Especially during the summer, but even during the height of winter, cracks can open up between pieces of ice. That's what was happening during February and March 2013, when extensive fracturing took place in the Beaufort Sea. A series of storms passing over central Alaska intensified the cracking, but the age of the sea ice involved also played a role. The area was covered almost completely by thin, first-year ice, rather than older and sturdier ice because of the ongoing retreat of Arctic sea ice associated with climate change. Watch the video to see a time-lapse view of the breakup from images taken by the Suomi NPP satellite. || ",
            "hits": 25
        },
        {
            "id": 11195,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11195/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2013-03-14T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Ship Tracks Off North America",
            "description": "Though they resemble airplane contrails, it was actually ships churning across open water that left this cluster of serpentine cloud trails lingering over the eastern Pacific Ocean. The narrow clouds, known as ship tracks, form when water vapor condenses around small particles of pollution released into the air as part of ship exhaust. Some of these particles are soluble in water and serve as seeds around which cloud droplets form. Clouds infused with ship exhaust end up having more and smaller droplets than unpolluted clouds. As a result, light hitting these exhaust-infused clouds scatters in many directions, making them appear brighter than standard marine clouds, which are typically seeded by naturally-occurring particles of sea salt. Watch the video to see how wind patterns change the shape of these clouds over the course of a day. || ",
            "hits": 64
        },
        {
            "id": 11141,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11141/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2012-11-29T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "The Four Seasons",
            "description": "It's no secret that the 23.5 degree tilt of Earth's axis causes the amount of sunlight that reaches the planet's surface to change throughout the year, producing the familiar pattern of spring, summer, fall and winter. A sharp variation in seasons can be seen particularly in places around or within the mid-latitudes, where the amount of sunlight received ranges widely depending on the time of year. Located at about 39 degrees north of the equator, Lake Tahoe, a nature lover's playground on the California-Nevada border, gets a hearty taste of all four seasons. Viewed from space, the seasons paint the landscape in passing shades of green, brown and white. Watch the transformation in the time-lapse video of images captured by NASA's Earth Observing-1 satellite between August 2009 and September 2010. || ",
            "hits": 310
        },
        {
            "id": 4011,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4011/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2012-11-28T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "United States Active Fires 2012",
            "description": "Records maintained by the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) and NASA both indicate that 2012 was an extraordinary year for wildfires in the United States.NIFC statistics show that more than 9.1 million acres had burned as of November 30, 2012—the third highest total in a record that dates back to 1960. Also notable: despite the high number of acres burned in 2012, the total number of fires—55,505—was low, the least on the NIFC record. Average fire size in 2012 was the highest on the record.The visualizations depict fires that burned between January 1 and October 31, 2012, as detected by the MODIS instruments. The fires are displayed over MODIS' vegetation and snow cover data. Yellow and orange indicates fires that were more intense and had a larger area of active burning. Most of these intense fires occurred in the western United States, where lightning and human activity often sparks blazes that firefighters cannot contain. Many of the lower intensity fires shown in red were prescribed fires, lit for either agricultural or ecosystem management purposes.The Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) can routinely detect both flaming and smoldering fires that are aproximately 1000 square meters in size. Under pristine and extremely rare observing conditions even smaller flaming fires that are aproximately 50 square meters can be detected. Each active fire location represents the center of a 1 km pixel that is flagged by the algorithm as containing a fire within the pixel. For more information on the fire data, see the MODIS Collection 5 Active Fire Product User's Guide. For more information on the algorithm, see Giglio, L., J. Descloitres, C. O. Justice, and Y. J. Kaufman. 2003. An enhanced contextual fire detection algorithm for MODIS. Remote Sensing of Environment, 87:273-282 || ",
            "hits": 27
        },
        {
            "id": 11079,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11079/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2012-09-18T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Dawn To Dusk",
            "description": "As Hurricane Isaac churned through the Caribbean Sea, past Florida, and toward the Gulf Coast, Earth-observing satellites watched every move. When the Category 1 storm finally battered the coast of Louisiana on August 28, 2012, multiple satellites produced striking views of the storm by day, by night, and in an experimental rapid-fire mode that showed incredibly fine detail of the storm's evolution. The GOES 14 satellite normally captures one image every 15 minutes. But as Isaac made landfall the weather satellite captured one image per minute, illuminating otherwise unseen detail. The movement of clouds at different altitudes creates a textured appearance while thunderstorms near the storm's core bubble up as dusk approaches. The animation shows the GOES 14 view of Isaac from dawn to dusk on August 28, a unique view of the storm as it hit the Gulf Coast. || ",
            "hits": 39
        },
        {
            "id": 10982,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10982/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2012-06-14T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Rapid Retreat",
            "description": "Columbia Glacier descends from an ice field 10,000 feet above sea level, through the flanks of Alaska's Chugach Mountains and into a narrow inlet. Since 1980, the glacier has lost about half of its thickness and volume, while the front where the glacier's ice meets open water—called the terminus—has retreated more than 12 miles. Climate change may have helped nudge the terminus off an underwater anchor of rock and debris that stabilized the ice for many years. Once it lost that footing, the lack of friction between ice and bedrock has driven a rapid loss of ice from the glacier to Columbia Bay. A time-lapse video of false-color images captured by USGS-NASA Landsat satellites shows how the glacier and the surrounding landscape changed between 1986 and 2011. Watch ice give way to ocean and bedrock become exposed as Columbia Glacier retreats. || ",
            "hits": 61
        },
        {
            "id": 10934,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10934/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2012-03-27T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Devastation And Recovery",
            "description": "After two months of geologic volatility, an earthquake on May 18, 1980, triggered the northern flank of Mount St. Helens to collapse, sending an enormous avalanche of debris crashing toward the North Fork Toutle River in southwest Washington. Like a bottle of champagne shattering as it's uncorked, hot rocks, ash, gas and steam exploded from the volcano, obliterating the forested landscape to the north. The velocity of the blast exceeded speeds of 670 miles per hour, shearing trees at their trunks up to 19 miles away. The video below, based on images captured by USGS-NASA Landsat satellites between 1979 and 2011, documents the scale of the devastation and the surrounding vegetation's slow road to recovery. Some finer details aren't visible from space, so scientists have closely monitored the aftermath from the ground, as seen in photos taken from the USGS archive included in the media gallery. || ",
            "hits": 26
        },
        {
            "id": 10892,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10892/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2012-02-23T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "Goodbye, Glaciers",
            "description": "While previous studies have focused on Antarctica's and Greenland's massive ice sheets, this year scientists offered the first detailed estimate of how much all the world's ice deposits are melting and contributing to sea level rise. Using data from NASA's twin GRACE satellites, researchers concluded that Earth has lost a total of 4.3 trillion tons of ice between 2003 and 2010. Greenland and Antarctica lost the bulk of the ice, but nearly a quarter of the losses came from glaciers in Alaska, Canada and Patagonia. The total melting during this period added about half an inch to global sea levels—enough to cover the United States with a layer of water one-and-a-half feet thick. GRACE's inventory of North and South America is shown on a rotating globe in the visualization below, where yellow dots mark the location of individual glaciers and areas with greatest ice loss are shaded purple and blue. || ",
            "hits": 33
        },
        {
            "id": 10903,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10903/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2012-02-09T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "Carbonivores",
            "description": "We all inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide with every breath. For plants, it's the opposite. Tiny pores on leaves absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen as part of a cellular process that converts sunlight and water into energy. Individually, plants take in small amounts of carbon dioxide from the air, but en masse the world's vegetation behaves like a giant lung that can change the composition of the atmosphere. The visualization below, which is based on data from the MODIS instrument and four years of carbon dioxide measurements from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite, reveals how carbon dioxide concentrations fluctuate due to vegetation cover on land. Here, flashing white squares represent carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Notice a sharp reduction in squares as vegetation thrives during the Northern Hemisphere summer. Conversely, more squares are present in winter as vegetation losses lead to rising carbon dioxide levels across the globe. || ",
            "hits": 60
        },
        {
            "id": 10897,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10897/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2012-01-26T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "Relive Snowmageddon",
            "description": "Satellites provide dramatic views of clouds, but in order to understand the processes that underlie how clouds form and evolve, scientists turn to complex computer models that simulate Earth's atmosphere. By feeding a range of ground, aircraft and satellite data into Goddard's Earth Observing System Model (GEOS-5), research meteorologists can see how closely the mathematical equations used to simulate atmospheric dynamics match reality. Such models are by no means perfect, but they have improved tremendously in recent years. The visualizations below, based on GEOS-5 model runs from February 2010, show how well the model reproduced the massive blizzard known as \"Snowmageddon.\" In the visualization, watch Snowmageddon's sprawling, comma-shaped cloud system—complete with a tail that reaches all the way to the Caribbean—as it churns up the Eastern Seaboard dumping three feet of snow in some areas. || ",
            "hits": 40
        },
        {
            "id": 10896,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10896/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2012-01-24T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "Bubbles In The Sky",
            "description": "Ever notice how in many parts of the world, puffy, cauliflower-shaped cumulus clouds are more common in the summer? There's a reason for this: thermal convection. In winter, the sun has less time to heat the surface and cause instability in the atmosphere. But during the summer, heat from the sun warms the land surfaces so much that pockets of hot air—scientists call them thermals—bubble upward much like steam in a pot of boiling water. As the hot air rises, the water vapor trapped within condenses into microscopic cloud droplets. If the air is humid enough, rapidly changing cumulus clouds puff up in the atmosphere, sometimes bulging to heights above 39,000 feet. Watch in the visualizations below—based on a climate model that simulated cloud formation during a Southern Hemisphere summer—how cumulus clouds pop up over the forests of Africa and South America. || ",
            "hits": 73
        },
        {
            "id": 10881,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10881/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2011-12-29T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "Snow Leads, Sea Ice Follows",
            "description": "Seen from the vantage point of a satellite, snow covers much of North America for half the year like a white curtain that begins its descent in fall and isn't drawn up until spring. Lagging behind the snow by a month or so, sea ice spreads across the Arctic Ocean and infiltrates the channels, islands and bays of Alaska and Canada. Snow and sea ice share this leading-and-lagging relationship because of the different rates at which the ground and oceans absorb and emit heat. Land temperatures drop more quickly, and extensive snow cover settles in by October. The ocean has a longer memory of temperature. Arctic waters retain enough heat in fall to keep ice from forming well after snow has accumulated on solid ground at the same latitude. Likewise, Arctic sea ice doesn't reach its annual maximum extent until late March, typically more than a month after the snow cover peak. In the visualization below, keep an eye on the massive Hudson Bay in northern central Canada: Snow encircles the frigid body of water before the first sea ice creeps into the bay. In spring, snow retreats past the bay completely before its sea ice even begins to dissipate. || ",
            "hits": 36
        },
        {
            "id": 10850,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10850/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2011-12-27T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "Let It Snow",
            "description": "Seasonal snow cover, the cold mantle that wraps up to 40 percent of the land surface in the Northern Hemisphere during winter, does more than cause rejoicing for those who dream of a White Christmas. Snow plays a key role in the Earth's energy balance, reflecting most of the sunlight that reaches its surface back to space, preventing warming of the ground beneath. Snow also absorbs energy from the atmosphere during spring melt, keeping temperatures moderate. Satellite measurements of snow extent began in the 1960s, and this lengthy record shows a 10 percent decline in annual snow cover since 1966, mainly due to earlier spring melting. Darker, snow-free ground absorbs more solar radiation and emits more warmth to the atmosphere. The snow cover loss is also a concern for those who depend on snowmelt for drinking water. Watch the visualizations below, based on data from NASA's MODIS instrument, to see the dramatic variation in a year of Earth's snow cover. In the Northern Hemisphere, the first flakes fall in mid-September over Siberia and Alaska. By the end of February, snow cover starts its retreat northward. Antarctica is home to most of the Southern Hemisphere's snow, except for some white-capped peaks and seasonal mountain snowfall in South America and Africa. || ",
            "hits": 101
        },
        {
            "id": 10863,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10863/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2011-11-15T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "Forecasting South American Fires",
            "description": "Human settlement patterns are the primary factor that drives the distribution of fires in the Amazon. Satellite imagery shows, for example, that fishbone-shaped patterns of burned and deforested land extend outward from roads in predictable ways. Likewise, fires are rare in thinly populated areas. In recent years, however, new research has made clear that subtle environmental factors — including minor variations in ocean temperatures — amplify human impacts and underpin much of the variability in the number of fires the region experiences from one year to the next. A study conducted by UC Irvine scientists and published last week in Science even showed that scientists can predict the severity of the South American fire season months in advance by analyzing ocean temperatures in the North Atlantic and Central Pacific. To make the discovery, the researchers compared about a decade of fire observations collected by NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites with records of sea surface temperatures maintained by NOAA. The video below offers a visual representation of the same decade of fire data the scientists used to conduct their study. Look closely to see if you can spot the especially intense fires seasons of 2005, 2007 and 2010. || ",
            "hits": 23
        },
        {
            "id": 10831,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10831/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2011-11-01T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "The Geography Of Fire",
            "description": "What do nearly ten years of satellite fire observations look like? Instruments on two NASA Earth-observing satellites have answered that question by scanning the surface for signs of fire four times a day since 2002. The instruments have generated an ever-growing string of data that researchers have used to map the distribution of the world's fires in unprecedented detail. The visualization below provides a global tour of these observations using red to indicate actively burning fires, green to show vegetation and white to show snow. It begins with heavy grassland fires that speckle the dry interior of Australia in 2002. The view then pans to Asia and fire-prone Africa where waves of agricultural and management fires sweep across large portions of these continents in sync with seasonal surges of vegetation and retreating snow. A glimpse of a mild South American fire season in 2009 follows, along with intermittent flashes from wildfires that ravaged areas of Texas in the spring of 2011. Such data has more than aesthetic value: scientists use it to track fire trends over time and to refine calculations that show how greenhouse gases and particles emitted by fires in different regions contribute to climate change. || ",
            "hits": 31
        },
        {
            "id": 10839,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10839/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2011-10-25T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Crisscrossing Clouds",
            "description": "Since 1965 scientists have observed unusual cloud lines that crisscross over the ocean in certain satellite images. Researchers initially speculated that aircraft, missiles, or even natural patterns of air circulation might have caused the oddly shaped clouds to form. But ultimately seafaring ships proved to be the culprits; specifically tiny particles found in the exhaust that billows from their smokestacks. The streaky clouds, called ship tracks, are found throughout the world's oceans. They form in the same manner as marine clouds, which are made of individual cloud droplets created when water condenses around sea salt and other airborne particles known as aerosols. Ship fumes, however, inject extra particles into the air that boost the overall number of particles and cause an abundance of small, more reflective cloud droplets to form. The result: lines of unusually bright and narrow clouds such as those seen in the video below. || ",
            "hits": 61
        },
        {
            "id": 10851,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10851/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2011-10-20T16:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "A Look Back at a Decade of Fires",
            "description": "For more than a decade, instruments on Terra and Aqua, two of NASA's flagship Earth-observing satellites, have scanned the surface of our planet for fires four times a day. The instruments, both Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS), have revolutionized what scientists know about fire's role in land cover change, ecosystem processes, and the global carbon cycle by allowing researchers to map the characteristics and global distribution of fires in remarkable detail. The collection of videos below provides perspective on how global fires impact humans and our planet. || ",
            "hits": 52
        },
        {
            "id": 3870,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3870/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2011-10-18T23:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "African Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI",
            "description": "From space, we can understand fires in ways that are impossible from the ground. The MODIS instrument onboard the Terra and Aqua satellite, was specifically designed to detect fires. As a result, it can see both smaller fires and a wide range of fires from cool grass fires to raging forest fires. Burning carbon particles both on the tiny soot particles in the flame and on the fuel itself emit a very specific wavelength of light, 3.8 to 4 microns. NASA research has contributed to much improved detection of fire for scientific purposes using satellite remote sensing and geographic information systems. This has helped advance our understanding of the impacts of fire in many areas of earth science, including atmospheric chemistry and the impacts on protected areas. This research has led to the development of a rapid response system widely used throughout the world for both natural resource management and for firefighting by providing near real-time information. The visualization shows fires detected in Africa from July 2002 through July 2011. Africa has more abundant burning than any other continent. MODIS observations have shown that some 70 percent of the world's fires occur in Africa alone. \"It's incredibly satisfying to see such a long record of fires visualized,\" said Chris Justice, a scientist from the University of Maryland who leads NASA's effort to use MODIS data to study the world's fires. \"It's not only exciting visually, but what you see here is a very good representation of the data scientists use to understand the global distribution of fires and to determine where and how fires are responding to climate change and population growth.\"More information on the Fire Information for Resource Management (FIRMS) is available at http://maps.geog.umd.edu/firms/. || ",
            "hits": 45
        },
        {
            "id": 3869,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3869/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2011-10-18T19:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Boreal Forest Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI",
            "description": "NASA has released a series of new visualizations that show the locations of the millions of fires detected by key fire-monitoring instruments on NASA satellites over the last decade. This visualization shows fire observations made by the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on board the Terra and Aqua satellites in Europe and Asia from July 2002 through July 2011.  \"It's incredibly satisfying to see such a long record of fires visualized,\" said Chris Justice, a scientist from the University of Maryland who leads NASA's effort to use MODIS data to study the world's fires. \"It's not only exciting visually, but what you see here is a very good representation of the data scientists use to understand the global distribution of fires and to determine where and how fires are responding to climate change and population growth.\"More information on the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) is available at https://earthdata.nasa.gov/earth-observation-data/near-real-time/firms. || ",
            "hits": 53
        },
        {
            "id": 3871,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3871/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2011-10-18T19:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Australia Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI",
            "description": "From space, we can understand fires in ways that are impossible from the ground. The MODIS instrument onboard the Terra and Aqua satellite, was specifically designed to detect fires.  This visualization shows fire detections from July 2002 through July 2011. The visualization also includes vegetation and snow cover data to show how fires respond to seasonal changes. The tour begins in Australia in 2002 by showing a network of massive grassland fires spreading across interior Australia as well as the greener Eucalyptus forests in the northern and eastern part of the continent.More information on the Fire Information for Resource Management (FIRMS) is available at http://maps.geog.umd.edu/firms/. || ",
            "hits": 42
        },
        {
            "id": 3872,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3872/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2011-10-18T19:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "South American Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI",
            "description": "From space, we can understand fires in ways that are impossible from the ground. NASA research has contributed to much improved detection of fire for scientific purposes using satellite remote sensing and geographic information systems.  This visualization of South America shows fire observations made by MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on board the Terra and Aqua satellites . South America exhibits a steady flickering of fire  across much of the Amazon rainforest with peaks of activity in September and November. Almost all of the fires in the Amazon are the direct result of human activity, including slash-and-burn agriculture, because the high moisture levels in the region prevent inhibit natural fires from occurring.More information on the Fire Information for Resource Management (FIRMS) is available at http://maps.geog.umd.edu/firms/. || ",
            "hits": 94
        },
        {
            "id": 3873,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3873/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2011-10-18T19:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "United States Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI",
            "description": "From space, we can understand fires in ways that are impossible from the ground. NASA has released a series of new visualizations that show fires detected by key fire-monitoring instruments on NASA satellites over the last decade. The visualizations show fire observations made by MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on board the Terra and Aqua satellites. The visualization also includes vegetation and snow cover data to show how fires respond to seasonal changes. \"It's incredibly satisfying to see such a long record of fires visualized,\" said Chris Justice, a scientist from the University of Maryland who leads NASA's effort to use MODIS data to study the world's fires. \"It's not only exciting visually, but what you see here is a very good representation of the data scientists use to understand the global distribution of fires and to determine where and how fires are responding to climate change and population growth.\" North America is a region where fires are comparatively rare. North American fires make up just 2 percent of the world's burned area each year. The fires that receive the most attention in the United States, the uncontrolled forest fires in the West, are less visible than the wave of agricultural fires prominent in the Southeast and along the Mississippi River Valley, but some of the large wildfires that struck Texas earlier this spring are visible.More information on the Fire Information for Resource Management (FIRMS) is available at http://maps.geog.umd.edu/firms/. || ",
            "hits": 40
        },
        {
            "id": 3868,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3868/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2011-10-18T01:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Global Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI",
            "description": "This visualization leads viewers on a narrated global tour of fire detections beginning in July 2002 and ending July 2011. The visualization also includes vegetation and snow cover data to show how fires respond to seasonal changes. The tour begins in Australia in 2002 by showing a network of massive grassland fires spreading across interior Australia as well as the greener Eucalyptus forests in the northern and eastern part of the continent. The tour then shifts to Asia where large numbers of agricultural fires are visible first in China in June 2004, then across a huge swath of Europe and western Russia in August, and then across India and Southeast Asia through the early part of 2005. It moves next to Africa, the continent that has more abundant burning than any other. MODIS observations have shown that some 70 percent of the world's fires occur in Africa alone. In what's a fairly average burning season, the visualization shows a huge outbreak of savanna fires during the dry season in Central Africa in July, August, and September of 2006, driven mainly by agricultural activities but also by the fact that the region experiences more lightning than anywhere else in the world. The tour shifts next to South America where a steady flickering of fire is visible across much of the Amazon rainforest with peaks of activity in September and November of 2009. Almost all of the fires in the Amazon are the direct result of human activity, including slash-and-burn agriculture, because the high moisture levels in the region prevent inhibit natural fires from occurring. It concludes in North America, a region where fires are comparatively rare. North American fires make up just 2 percent of the world's burned area each year. The fires that receive the most attention in the United States, the uncontrolled forest fires in the West, are less visible than the wave of agricultural fires prominent in the Southeast and along the Mississippi River Valley, but some of the large wildfires that struck Texas earlier this spring are visible. More information on the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) is available at http://maps.geog.umd.edu/firms/. || ",
            "hits": 75
        },
        {
            "id": 10822,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10822/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2011-09-15T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Does DNA Have Extraterrestrial Origins?",
            "description": "If terms like adenine and guanine bring back unpleasant memories of Genetics 101 here's one reason to give the words a second thought: A team of scientists has discovered that these and other DNA building blocks can form in outer space and have been deposited on Earth's surface by meteorites. To reach this eye-opening conclusion, researchers ground up and analyzed a set of twelve meteorites collected from Antarctica and Australia. Within them, the scientists found a treasure trove of molecules that may have played a key role in allowing early forms of life to form. Adenine, which helps make up the rungs of DNA's spiraling, ladder-like structure, turned up in eleven of the meteorites. Guanine, another key building block of DNA, was present in eight. Two of the twelve meteorites also contained something extraordinary—exotic molecules that are so rare on Earth that they prove the DNA building blocks must have formed in outer space. The discovery lends support to the theory that a kit of pre-made parts from meteorites or a comet might have kick-started life on Earth. Learn more about the breakthrough in the video below. || ",
            "hits": 703
        },
        {
            "id": 10820,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10820/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2011-09-08T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Deconstructing Eurasia's Wild Weather",
            "description": "Normally the jet stream in the Northern Hemisphere carries weather fronts over Russia in four or five days. But late in the summer of 2010 conditions were anything but normal. A large-scale, stagnant region of high pressure developed and lingered over western Russia for about a month. The rare weather pattern—known to meteorologists as an Omega blocking high—split the jet stream in two, causing winds to flow around the high, an area of descending warm air, in a horseshoe-shaped pattern similar to that of the Greek letter Omega (Ω). The high blocked the normal progression of weather fronts and produced droughts and unusually warm temperatures that fueled a rash of fires near Moscow. As Russia burned, the same blocking pattern kept a low-pressure area over northern Pakistan. The cool, rising air of the low generated torrential rainfall and destructive flooding in northern Pakistan when it clashed with warmer air from the high. In the visualization below, look for the warm air from the persistent high-pressure zone over Russia (shown in yellow and red) and the cooler air from the low-pressure zone (shown in blue) just north of Pakistan. || ",
            "hits": 44
        },
        {
            "id": 3850,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3850/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2011-08-30T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Extreme Russian Fires and Pakistan Floods Linked Meteorologically",
            "description": "In the summer of 2010, months of record-breaking drought and temperatures culminated with a rash of fires that ravaged western Russia for weeks. Temperatures in Moscow soared to an average of 104 °F (40 °C) during late July and early August — more than 18 °F (10  °C) above normal. Hundreds of fires broke out producing some $15 million in damages. The heat and smoke killed about 56,000 people, making the Russian wildfires fires one of the most lethal natural disasters of the year.Meanwhile, some 930 kilometers (1,500 miles) away, relentless rainfall was simultaneously pounding Pakistan and generating intense flooding. The Pakistan Meteorological Department reported nationwide rain totals 70 percent above normal in July and 102 percent above normal in August.New research conducted by William Lau, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., suggests the two seemingly disconnected events were actually closely linked.Under normal circumstances, the jet stream pushes weather fronts through Eurasia in four or five days, but something unusual happened in July of 2010. A large-scale, stagnant weather pattern — known as an Omega blocking event — slowed the Rossby wave over Russia and prevented the normal progression of weather systems from west to east.As a result, a large region of high-pressure formed over Russia trapping a hot, dry air mass over the area. As the high lingered, the land surface dried and the normal transfer of moisture from the soil to the atmosphere slowed. Precipitation ceased, vegetation dried out, and the region became a taiga tinderbox.Meanwhile, the blocking pattern created unusual downstream wind patterns over Pakistan. Areas of low pressure on the leading edge of the Rossby wave formed in response to the high, pulling cold, dry Siberian air into lower latitudes.This cold air from Siberia clashed with warm, moist air arriving over Pakistan from the Bay of Bengal as part of the monsoon. There's nothing unusual about moisture moving north over India toward the Himalayas. It's a normal part of the monsoon. However, in this case, the unusual wind patterns associated with the blocking high brought upper level air disturbances farther south than typical, which in effect helped shifted the entire monsoon system north and west.This brought heavy monsoon rains — centered over parts of India — squarely over the northern part of Pakistan, a region ill-prepared to handle large amounts of rain. || ",
            "hits": 75
        },
        {
            "id": 10788,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10788/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2011-08-30T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Why Auroras Erupt",
            "description": "Why does the aurora borealis—the typically steady green bands of light common in the nighttime sky over the Arctic—occasionally erupt in bouts of activity that leave the sky shimmering with a full palette of reds, whites and purples? Scientists have long known that disturbances in Earth's magnetic field driven by the solar wind can trigger such auroral eruptions, but it hasn't been clear whether the disturbances originate near the Earth or at more distant points closer to the moon. In recent years, a series of five satellites and a network of ground-based instruments in the Arctic have finally helped provide an answer. Hermetically-sealed cameras, called All Sky Imagers, placed strategically throughout the American and Canadian Arctic, look upward to observe nearly the entire arc of the sky where auroras occur. The ground network, considered the sixth \"satellite\" of NASA's aurora-monitoring THEMIS mission, takes auroral snapshots each three-seconds all night long, every night. In 2008, it helped make a breakthrough discovery: the magnetic disturbances that cause auroras to erupt begin about a third of the way to the moon when stressed magnetic lines reconnect and send massive bursts of energy toward Earth. The visualization below shows the first major aurora eruption that the imagers observed. || ",
            "hits": 50
        },
        {
            "id": 10742,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10742/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2011-08-25T12:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "NPP Resource Reel",
            "description": "The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) represents a critical first step in building the next-generation weather satellite system. Goddard Space Flight Center is leading NASA's effort to launch a satellite that will carry the first of the new sensors developed for this next-generation system, previously called the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) and now the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). || ",
            "hits": 32
        },
        {
            "id": 10714,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10714/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2011-08-11T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Black Carbon: Asia's Plain Of Air Pollution",
            "description": "The Himalayan Plateau, a towering mass of rock on the northern edge of the Indian subcontinent, rises sharply over one of the most fertile and populous tracts of land in the world, the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Nearly a billion people crowd that plain, an area about the size of Texas. The region's explosive population growth and strong economy in recent decades have produced an unwelcome byproduct—air pollution. Burning fossil fuels, wood, vegetation and dung sends a steady stream of soot (or, black carbon, as scientists call the light-absorbing particles) aloft. Studies show India's black carbon emissions have jumped about 60 percent per decade in the last two decades. The short-lived particles typically remain in the atmosphere for less than a week, but they pool over the Indo-Gangetic plain as monsoon-fueled winds trap them along the Himalayas. The particles, the most health-sapping part of air pollution, also have a potent climate impact. Unlike most other types of particulate, black carbon absorbs radiation, warming the atmosphere and contributing to the retreat of glaciers in the area. The visualization below, based on three months of data generated by NASA's GOCART model, shows black carbon circulating throughout the region, held largely at bay by the mountain range. || ",
            "hits": 72
        },
        {
            "id": 3844,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3844/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2011-08-09T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Black Carbon: A Global Presence",
            "description": "When wood, fossil fuels, and even dried dung burns at low temperatures, countless bits of carbonaceous material waft into the atmosphere as smoke. These charred bits of matter— known as soot—usually remain aloft for just a short period, but they have a major impact on humans nonetheless. The chain-like particles can penetrate deep into the lungs and contribute to asthma and cardiovascular disease. They also impact the climate. In fact, soot has such a powerful ability to absorb sunlight that climatologists call it \"black carbon\" and the ubiquitous particles are thought to be the second strongest contributor to global warming following only carbon dioxide. The data visualization above, based on data from NASA's GOCART model, simulates the atmospheric concentration of black carbon between August and November of 2009. This story is the first of a two-part series on black carbon, which will conclude on Thursday with a look at how the particles affect the Himalayan region. || ",
            "hits": 107
        },
        {
            "id": 3842,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3842/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2011-06-24T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Carbon Catch And Release",
            "description": "Through tiny, microscopic pores called stomata, plants absorb one hundred billion tons of carbon from the air each year and convert about half of that into organic matter—leaves, roots, tree branches, grass. As we continue to increase the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, knowing exactly how much carbon Earth's plants absorb from the air—Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)—will become only more important. NASA has closely measured this since 2000, and that volume of absorption is seen in the first visualization below as waves of green. The northern hemisphere all the way up to the Arctic Circle swells with life each summer, before much of the vegetation wilts and exhales its carbon in fall and winter. Meanwhile, forests such as the Amazon, a robust green throughout, show off their amazing productivity despite seasonal changes. || ",
            "hits": 43
        },
        {
            "id": 10723,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10723/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2011-02-14T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "Base Camp: West Antarctica",
            "description": "Stretching off the edge of the continent, 1,400 miles west of Antarctica's McMurdo Station, is Pine Island Glacier (PIG)—a massive river of ice 190 miles wide and 30 miles long that satellite measurements reveal is rapidly shrinking in size. Much of the glacier rests on a bed below sea level and global sea levels could increase by three feet or more if the glacier melted completely. The rate of ice loss on the glacier has increased rapidly in recent years, and scientists believe shifting warm water rising from the adjacent deep ocean and circulating in the surrounding Amundsen Sea are rapidly melting the underside of the glacier's floating edge—the ice shelf. To be certain requires measurements taken beneath this floating ice. That's where NASA polar scientist Robert Bindschadler comes in. In 2008, Bindschadler led an expedition to the remote ice shelf by plane, but the dangers of landing on the crevassed surface prevented his team from collecting data. This fall Bindschadler will return via helicopter. The plan on arrival: drill 1,640 feet below the surface and deploy a specially designed instrument that will start continuous measurements of the shifting ocean waters beneath the glacier. || ",
            "hits": 50
        },
        {
            "id": 10704,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10704/",
            "result_type": "Produced Video",
            "release_date": "2011-01-27T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "Marine Deserts On The Move",
            "description": "The Sahara. The Gobi. The Mojave. Viewed from space, the dearth of vegetation in deserts paint vast swaths of tan on continents otherwise alive with green. The mesmerizing seasonal ebb and flow of vegetation dancing over the land and sea surface is the most noticeable feature of the first visualization below, which shows a full ten-year span of data from a NASA satellite instrument called the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS). More surprising is what SeaWiFS reveals about plant life in the oceans. Vast oceanic \"deserts,\" seen here as dark blue and purple, stretch across large portions of the tropics in all major ocean basins. Here, nutrient-starved, warm waters make it nearly impossible for phytoplankton to survive. More than a decade of SeaWiFS data shows these biological deserts are growing at a rapid rate. Meanwhile, productive areas of the ocean (light green and yellow in the animation) have shrunk by between 1 and 4 percent each year for the last decade. Scientists suspect climate change is the culprit, but they need longer-term satellite records to rule out natural variations. || ",
            "hits": 93
        },
        {
            "id": 3817,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3817/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2011-01-14T00:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "Five-Year Average Global Temperature Anomalies from 1880 to 2010",
            "description": "Groups of scientists from several major institutions - NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), the Japanese Meteorological Agency and the Met Office Hadley Centre in the United Kingdom - tally data collected by temperature monitoring stations spread around the world and make an announcement about whether the previous year was a comparatively warm or cool year. This analysis concerns only temperature anomalies, not absolute temperature. Temperature anomalies are computed relative to the base period 1951-1980. The reason to work with anomalies, rather than absolute temperature is that absolute temperature varies markedly in short distances, while monthly or annual temperature anomalies are representative of a much larger region. Indeed, we have shown (Hansen and Lebedeff, 1987) that temperature anomalies are strongly correlated out to distances of the order of 1000 km. For more information about this dataset, see http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp NASA's announcement this year - that 2010 ties 2005 as the warmest year in the 131-year instrumental record - made headlines. But, how much does the ranking of a single year matter?Not all that much, emphasizes James Hansen, the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City. In the GISS analysis, for example, 2010 differed from 2005 by less than 0.01°C (0.018°F), a difference so small that the temperatures of these two years are indistinguishable, given the uncertainty of the calculation.Meanwhile, the third warmest year - 2009 - is so close to 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2007, with the maximum difference between the years being a mere 0.03°C, that all six years are virtually tied.Even for a near record-breaking year like 2010 the broader context is more important than a single year. \"Certainly, it is interesting that 2010 was so warm despite the presence of a La Niña and a remarkably inactive sun, two factors that have a cooling influence on the planet, but far more important than any particular year's ranking are the decadal trends,\" Hansen said. || ",
            "hits": 115
        },
        {
            "id": 3792,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3792/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2010-10-28T00:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Meet NASA's Earth-Observing Fleet",
            "description": "TRMM. Landsat 7. Terra. ACRIMSAT. EO-1. Jason 1. GRACE (twice). Aqua. ICESat. SORCE. Aura. CloudSat. CALIPSO. Jason 2. And, as of June 2011, Aquarius.  None of the acronym-heavy Earth-observing satellites seen in the visualization below have achieved the name recognition of big-ticket NASA missions like Apollo or Hubble. But unmanned probes are quietly beaming down information that has transformed our understanding of how the Earth works and what we know of the human fingerprint on climate. Together they represent a mission to planet Earth as ambitious as any NASA has made to the Moon or Mars. One of the oldest functioning satellites in the fleet, TRMM, monitors precipitation; the newest, Aquarius, measures the salinity of the ocean. The next to launch in October 2011—NPP—will continue a suite of atmospheric, ocean, and land surface records initiated decades ago. The visualization shows the precise orbit tracks of twenty current and former Earth-observing satellites (not including Aquarius), as well as the International Space Station and Hubble. || ",
            "hits": 47
        },
        {
            "id": 3674,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3674/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2010-01-27T13:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "Five-Year Average Global Temperature Anomalies from 1881 to 2009",
            "description": "Each year, scientists at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies analyze global temperature data. The past year, 2009, tied as the second warmest year in the 130 years of global instrumental temperature records, in the surface temperature analysis of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). The Southern Hemisphere set a record as the warmest year for that half of the world. Global mean temperature, was 0.57°C (1.0°F) warmer than climatology (the 1951-1980 base period). Southern Hemisphere mean temperature was 0.49°C (0.88°F) warmer than in the period of climatology. The global record warm year, in the period of near-global instrumental measurements (since the late 1800s), was 2005. This color-coded map displays a long term progression of changing global surface temperatures, from 1881 to 2009. Dark red indicates the greatest warming and dark blue indicates the greatest cooling. For more information on the data used to generate these images, please see http://giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/ || ",
            "hits": 61
        },
        {
            "id": 3675,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3675/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2010-01-26T14:00:00-05:00",
            "title": "Ten-Year Average Global Temperature Anomaly Image from 2000 to 2009",
            "description": "There is a high degree of interannual (year-to-year) and decadal variability in both global and hemispheric temperatures. Underlying this variability, however, is a long-term warming trend that has become strong and persistent over the past three decades. The long-term trends are more apparent when temperature is averaged over several years. This image represents the 10 year average temperatures anomaly data from 2000 through 2009. || ",
            "hits": 96
        }
    ]
}