NASA :Acadia National Park.- Parque Nacional de Acadia

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/acadia-national-park

Acadia National Park is one of the most visited parks in America, drawing more than 2.5 million visitors per year to the craggy, jagged coast of Maine. The park is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2016. On September 6, 2015,  on the Landsat 8 satellite acquired these images of Acadia National Park and its surroundings.

 

Mountains and hills roll right up to the Atlantic Ocean in this rocky landscape carved by glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age. Since the beginning of the 20th Century, the park has been pieced together by donations and acquisitions of once-private lands, and it is still growing. Of the park’s 47,000 acres, more than 12,000 are privately owned lands under conservation agreements, while the rest is held by the National Park Service. Mount Desert Island is the focal point of the park, which also includes lands around a former naval base (Schoodic Peninsula), Isle au Haut, and several smaller islands.

 

Mount Desert Island is the largest in Maine and the second largest on the East Coast. “It looks like a big lobster claw,” said Lynne Dominy, chief park ranger for interpretation at Acadia. “It's both ironic and iconic, as we are surrounded by lobsters living in the Gulf of Maine.”

Efforts to preserve Acadia began around 1901, led by conservationist George Dorr, who began cobbling together acquisitions and donations of land. Dorr and the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations turned over 6,000 acres to the U.S. government, with President Woodrow Wilson creating Sieur de Monts National Monument in 1916. In 1919, the parcels of the Maine coast were desginated Lafayette National Park in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette. In 1929, the name was changed to Acadia, recalling the name of the original French colony in the region. Due to the public-private nature of the land holdings, it was not until 1986 that the U.S. Congress finally established official borders for the park.

Annotated images and additional information: NASA's Earth Observatory

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey
Caption: Mike Carlowicz

Last Updated: Aug. 1, 2016

Editor: Sarah Loff

Acadia National Park

Tags:  Earth, Image of the Day, Land, Landsat,

NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
Inscríbete en el Foro del blog y participa : A Vuelo De Un Quinde - El Foro!

NASA : Ice Scours the North Caspian Sea .- Hielo recorre el Norte del Mar Caspio Mar .................

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., hemos recibido una noticia de la Agencia Espacial NASA, y nos dice: "El operativo Land Imager (OLI) del Landsat 8 por satélite de la NASA tomó esta imagen de gran tamaño de color natural que muestra una vista del mar Caspio en todo el Archipiélago Tyuleniy el 16 de abril de 2016. científico del océano Norman Kuring del Centro de Vuelo Espacial Goddard de la NASA encontró una característica desconcertante en la imagen - las líneas que cruzan el  norte del Mar Caspio . Por sí sola, la imagen era sorprendente y hermosa. aguas poco profundas que rodean el archipiélago Tyuleniy le permiten ver la vegetación verde oscuro en el fondo del mar. Pero la pregunta sigue siendo: ¿qué causó esas líneas?

More information..........

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/ice-scours-the-north-caspian-sea

 The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on NASA's Landsat 8 satellite acquired this large natural-color image showing a view of the Caspian Sea around the Tyuleniy Archipelago on April 16, 2016. Ocean scientist Norman Kuring of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center found a puzzling feature in the image -- lines crisscrossing the North Caspian Sea. On its own, the image was strikingly beautiful. Shallow waters surrounding the Tyuleniy Archipelago allow you to see the dark green vegetation on the sea bottom. But the question remained: what caused those lines?

 

The dark green areas—possibly sea grass or benthic algae—and the lines are features of the sea bottom. “You can tell this by the fact that marks laid down in January have not moved by April,” Kuring said. “If those were water features, they would not persist through one tidal cycle.”

 

It’s possible that some of the marks have a human origin. Similar lines show up in the world’s oceans because of trawling. But the scientific literature and a January satellite image suggest that a majority of the marks in the images were gouged by ice. In January, blocks of ice stand at the leading end of many lines, most notably in the northeast corner of the image. By April, ice has melted and only the scour marks persist.

 

Stanislav Ogorodov, a scientist at Lomonosov Moscow State University who has published research on the phenomenon, agrees: “Undoubtedly, most of these tracks are the result of ice gouging.” Ogorodov notes that this part of the Caspian is very shallow—about 3 meters deep. Ice that forms here in wintertime is usually about 0.5 meters thick, so most of it never touches the seafloor. But the ice tends to be “warm” and thin, which gives rise to relatively weak ice cover that is easily deformed by wind and currents. When pieces of ice are pushed together, some ice is forced upward and downward into so-called “hummocks.” The keels of hummocks, frozen into the ice fields, can reach the seafloor and scour the bed as the ice moves.

Downloadable wide-view image
More information and annotated images: NASA's Earth Observatory

Image Credit: NASA image by Norman Kuring, NASA’s Ocean Color web
Caption: Kathryn Hansen

Last Updated: April 25, 2016

Editor: Sarah Loff

Tags:  Earth, Image of the Day, Landsat, Water,

NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
Inscríbete en el Foro del blog y participa : A Vuelo De Un Quinde - El Foro!

NASA : The Advance of Hubbard Glacier .- El avance de Glaciar Hubbard

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., hemos recibido información de  la Agencia Espacial  NASA, sobre el avance del Glaciar Hubbard, ubicado en Alaska.

Según nos informa NASA, : "Desde que comenzaron las mediciones en 1895, el glaciar Hubbard de Alaska ha sido engrosamiento y avanzar constantemente en la bahía :Disenchantment Bay . El avance va en contra de tantos glaciares de adelgazamiento y en retirada cerca en Alaska y en todo el mundo.

NASA, agrega : " Según Leigh Stearns, glaciólogo de la Universidad de Kansas, el avance de Hubbard es debido a su gran área de acumulación; cuenca del glaciar se extiende lejos en las montañas de San Elías. Nieve que cae en la cuenca o bien se funde o fluye hacia abajo a la terminal, provocando Hubbard para crecer de manera constante. Además, Hubbard se está acumulando una gran morrena, palear sedimentos, rocas y otros escombros de la superficie de la Tierra en borde de ataque del glaciar. La morrena en la parte delantera da la estabilidad glaciar y le permite avanzar con mayor facilidad debido a que el hielo no tiene por qué ser tan gruesa como para permanecer conectado a tierra. (Si es delgada, puede empezar flotante y no avanzará necesariamente.)............"

(Morrena, Es un producto de la erosión con acumulación de tierra, piedras y barro alrededor de la cuenca del glaciar.)

More information.....
http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-advance-of-hubbard-glacier

Since measurements began in 1895, Alaska’s Hubbard Glacier has been thickening and steadily advancing into Disenchantment Bay. The advance runs counter to so many thinning and retreating glaciers nearby in Alaska and around the world.

This image, acquired by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8, shows Hubbard Glacier on July 22, 2014.

According to Leigh Stearns, a glaciologist at the University of Kansas, Hubbard’s advance is due to its large accumulation area; the glacier’s catchment basin extends far into the Saint Elias Mountains. Snow that falls in the basin either melts or flows down to the terminus, causing Hubbard to steadily grow. In addition, Hubbard is building up a large moraine, shoveling sediment, rock, and other debris from Earth’s surface onto the glacier’s leading edge. The moraine at the front gives the glacier stability and allows it to advance more easily because the ice does not need to be as thick to stay grounded. (If it is thin, it can start floating and will not necessarily advance.)

Twice in the past hundred years—in 1986 and again in 2002—the moraine has made contact with Gilbert Point and blocked the entrance to Russell Fjord. With nowhere to drain, runoff caused the water level in the fjord to rise rapidly.

More information and annotated images.

Image Credit: NASA/Earth Observatory

Last Updated: May 24, 2015

Editor: Steve Fox

Tags:  Earth, Image of the Day

 NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com 
Inscríbete en el Foro del blog y participa : A Vuelo De Un Quinde - El Foro!

NASA : Coloring the Sea Around the Pribilof Islands.- Un coloreado Mar alrededor de las islas Pribilof

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., hemos recibido información de la Fundación Nacional de Ciencia, de Los Estados Unidos; acerca det trabajo de investigación de : El Operativo Land Imager (OLI) en Landsat 8 capturó esta vista de un florecimiento de fitoplancton cerca de las islas Pribilof de Alaska el 22 de septiembre de 2014. Los Pribilofs están rodeados de aguas ricas en nutrientes en el mar de Bering. El sombreado azul verde y luz lechosa del agua indica la presencia de grandes poblaciones de fitoplancton microscópico-en su mayoría cocolitóforos, que tienen escalas de calcita que aparecen en blanco en las imágenes de satélite. Tal fitoplancton forman la base de un hábitat tremendamente productivo para peces y aves...."

Coloring the Sea Around the Pribilof Islands

The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this view of a phytoplankton bloom near Alaska’s Pribilof Islands on Sept. 22, 2014. The Pribilofs are surrounded by nutrient-rich waters in the Bering Sea. The milky green and light blue shading of the water indicates the presence of vast populations of microscopic phytoplankton—mostly coccolithophores, which have calcite scales that appear white in satellite images. Such phytoplankton form the foundation of a tremendously productive habitat for fish and birds.

Blooms in the Bering Sea increase significantly in springtime, after winter ice cover retreats and nutrients and freshened water are abundant near the ocean surface. Phytoplankton populations plummet in summertime as the water warms, surface nutrients are depleted by blooms, and the plant-like organisms are depleted by grazing fish, zooplankton, and other marine life. By autumn, storms can stir nutrients back to the surface and cooler waters make better bloom conditions.

> More information.

Image Credit: NASA/Landsat 8

NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
Inscríbete en el Foro del blog y participa : A Vuelo De Un Quinde - El Foro!