Friday, May 28, 2010

Cashing Water With Satellites




Chasing Water






With the help of a suite of satellites we are getting better and better at chasing water. I interviewed two of the seniors and pioneers in the field. Meet the satellite altimetry wizards Ole and Philippa (in the video)! :-)




Improved GPS




Relativistic GPS



Since everything is moving relative to each other (The Earth rotates around it's only varying axis, around the Sun and in the galaxy etc) it is hard to define a pure inertial system - or coordinate system for positioning if you like. Hence we call upon Einstein! :-)




Sunday, May 23, 2010

Mount St.Helens Lethal Eruption's 30th Anniversary




This Crater...



Courtesy of NASA

...is basically what was left after Mount St. Helens unbelievable blast in 1980. A dome grew out of this crater in 2004 (image), but you can see how much of the mountain that was just blown off in 1980.
Volcanoes fascinate me! ('transcript' or rather my interpretation of George Clooney's words to Catherine Zeta-Jones in Intolerable Cruelty). :-)




Titan




Titan



Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory/SRI/New Mexico State University

...and with storm.




Credit: Antonin Bouchez (W.M. Keck Observatory)




Traveled World




The World


visited 48 states (21.3%)
Create your own visited map of The World

Inspired by Don. :-)


The Middle-East is not an easy place to go, so that explains that hole in my 'geographical education'. "My" Africa is just like for Earth observation systems in general, basically a 'black hole'. I hope to do something about that - I'd really love to learn more about that continent.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Atlantis' Final Mission




Men In Black

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...or rather men against black space. Astronaut playing with 'arms' at ISS. Looking good!

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Finally a narcissistic view...

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All images courtesy of NASA




Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Mount St. Helens erupts - 30 years ago!




Mount St. Helens Erupts 18th May 1980



What a spectacular and devastating disaster this was. It killed more than 50 persons including volcanologist David A Johnston while he was observing the volcano.




Dragonfly




Hot Dragonfly



I think they're all hot. One of my favorite bugs! :-)




Monday, May 17, 2010

Plankton reaching Norway




Plankton 'attack' on Norway



Credit: ESA

It could also look like some accessory to Norway - like a necklace...:-)

Sweet.




Norwegian National Day 17th May 2010




Hurra For 17. Mai!



In Norway we celebrate our national day a little different than others (with military parades and the likes). We have all our children dress up, form a parade with children's band, sing songs and scream Hurray!

This is to all my friends with Norwegian roots, in particular Xineann.




Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Eyjafjallajökull




Eyjafjallajokull keep on keeping on...

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Credit: NASA


The Icelandic volcano on Eyjafjallajokull simply will not call it at day. New high plumes of ash have been coming our way (Ireland for the most part) again. And there is no sign of this volcano zipping it any time soon.

Looks gorgeous in this color palette taken by EO-1.




Friday, May 7, 2010

The Antennae




I Heart The Antennae!

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Credit: Star Shadows Remote Observatory and PROMPT/CTIO(Jack Harvey, Steve Mazlin, Rick Gilbert, and Daniel Verschatse)

The colliding galaxies.