ISS002 Earth Sciences Results Briefing, 14 February, 2002

ISS002 Earth Sciences Results Briefing
February 14, 2002

DYNAMIC EVENTS

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ISS002-754-6 VonKarman Vortices; Canary Islands, Atlantic. This fluid-flow phenomenon around solid objects, from butterfly wings to airplane wings to islands, is easily seen leeward of the Canary Islands. This pattern indicates that the winds are in the range of 5 to 13 meter/sec and the inversion layer is below the island mountain peaks. When wind speeds are greater, cloud eddies are elongated or pulled apart to some degree. Studies of natural Von Karman vortices provide insights for modeling air-flow patterns around aircraft - e.g., interactions of vortices from planes flying in close formation and comparisons of vortices from aircraft vs. those from mountain peaks.

ISS002-E-6448 Equatorial Front: Central Pacific. This line in the ocean, seen in the sunglint, is oriented almost north-south. It occurs along the leading edge of a mass of colder water pushing over warmer water moving from east to west. (demonstrated in the animation of the Avg Monthly Sea Surface Temps in 1996, they appear as waves along the equator). In addition to being a shear zone where the two different water masses meet, mixing of waters along this boundary brings up nutrient-rich water from below and provides food for plankton. The plankton produce a less ruffled area on the surface causing a different reflectance from the waters surface. On the surface, this "line" can be about 1 mile across, a yellow or greenish color as compared to the surrounding waters and very noisy. This image was sent to the University of Hawaii.

ISS002-754-D Two separate plumes of smoke trail southeastward from vents on the central peak of Mt. Etna (no date on film). The current episode of activity lasted from November, 2000 through January, 2002. Etna boasts one of the world's longest documented records of historical volcanism, dating back to 1500 BC. Two styles of eruptive activity typically occur at Etna: persistent explosive eruptions from the three prominent summit craters and flank eruptions from fissures.

ISS002-714-2 Plankton offshore from the Namibian Desert. In Shuttle photographs of offshore Namibia we typically see coccolithophorid plankton blooms, which appear as milky bright blue spots in the ocean. There are few photos of this area (perhaps only one other) showing the filamentous Trichodesmium plankton seen here. We will confer with plankton specialists about occurrences of this type of plankton off of Namibia -- different nutrient sources for the two varieties? different current patterns? seasonal vs. infrequent occurrences of Trichodesmium?

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Recommended Citation: Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. "The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth." .

NASA Responsible Official: Tracy Calhoun

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Contributors: Earth Sciences Web Team

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

International Space Station National Laboratory

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ISS002-754-6	VonKarman Vortices; Canary Islands, Atlantic. This fluid-flow phenomenon around solid objects, from butterfly wings to airplane wings to islands, is easily seen leeward of the Canary Islands. This pattern indicates that the winds are in the range of 5 to 13 meter/sec and the inversion layer is below the island mountain peaks. When wind speeds are greater, cloud eddies are elongated or pulled apart to some degree. Studies of natural Von Karman vortices provide insights for modeling air-flow patterns around aircraft - e.g., interactions of vortices from planes flying in close formation and comparisons of vortices from aircraft vs. those from mountain peaks.
ISS002-E-6448	Equatorial Front: Central Pacific. This line in the ocean, seen in the sunglint, is oriented almost north-south. It occurs along the leading edge of a mass of colder water pushing over warmer water moving from east to west. (demonstrated in the animation of the Avg Monthly Sea Surface Temps in 1996, they appear as waves along the equator). In addition to being a shear zone where the two different water masses meet, mixing of waters along this boundary brings up nutrient-rich water from below and provides food for plankton. The plankton produce a less ruffled area on the surface causing a different reflectance from the waters surface. On the surface, this "line" can be about 1 mile across, a yellow or greenish color as compared to the surrounding waters and very noisy. This image was sent to the University of Hawaii.
ISS002-754-D	Two separate plumes of smoke trail southeastward from vents on the central peak of Mt. Etna (no date on film). The current episode of activity lasted from November, 2000 through January, 2002. Etna boasts one of the world's longest documented records of historical volcanism, dating back to 1500 BC. Two styles of eruptive activity typically occur at Etna: persistent explosive eruptions from the three prominent summit craters and flank eruptions from fissures.
ISS002-714-2	Plankton offshore from the Namibian Desert. In Shuttle photographs of offshore Namibia we typically see coccolithophorid plankton blooms, which appear as milky bright blue spots in the ocean. There are few photos of this area (perhaps only one other) showing the filamentous Trichodesmium plankton seen here. We will confer with plankton specialists about occurrences of this type of plankton off of Namibia -- different nutrient sources for the two varieties? different current patterns? seasonal vs. infrequent occurrences of Trichodesmium?

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Astromaterials Research & Exploration Science Directorate. Recommended Citation: Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. "The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth." .
	NASA Responsible Official: Tracy Calhoun Curator: jsc-earthweb@mail.nasa.gov Contributors: Earth Sciences Web Team	National Aeronautics and Space Administration Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center	International Space Station National Laboratory Last Update:
Server: 1