Are you a Super Sleuth? Take our Earth Imagery Challenge

Are you a Super Sleuth? Take our Earth Imagery Challenge

Each week we feature a different NASA Earth science data image from one of our twelve NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs).

On Fridays we will reveal the answer with links to additional information on how to access the imagery and learn more about the featured data product.

Question: What is the name of the typhoon observed in this NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image acquired on 9/26/16?

Hint: This is the third typhoon to have battered Taiwan over the past few weeks.

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Flight MH370 - A possible location of the crash?

Flight MH370 - A possible location of the crash?Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) is a missing international passenger flight operated by a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board. Flight 370 departed Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at 00:41 on 8 March 2014 for a scheduled six-hour flight to Beijing, China. Reports indicate that Subang Air Traffic Control Centre lost contact with the plane at about 01:22, while it was over the Gulf of Thailand, and the plane was reported missing at 02:40. As of 9 March 07:00 UTC the location of the impact is still unknown.However a scan of the latest Terra/MODIS satellite image reveals a dark band in the South China Sea, located approximately at 6.1N 104.6E. The picture has been taken at 03:35 UTC on 03/09/2014 with a resolution of 250 meters.

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A Trio of Plumes in the South Sandwich Islands

A Trio of Plumes in the South Sandwich Islands

On September 29, 2016, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this false-color image (MODIS bands 7-2-1) showing volcanic activity in the South Sandwich Islands.

Located in the South Atlantic Ocean, the uninhabited South Sandwich Islands include several active stratovolcanoes. Due to their remote location, these volcanoes are some of the least studied in the world, though satellites often catch them erupting.

The combination of clouds and ice can make it difficult to see plumes of volcanic ash in natural color imagery. Using portions of the electromagnetic spectrum that are typically invisible to the naked eye—such as infrared—enables satellites to distinguish ice from ash and clouds, or even reveal hot spots underneath a smoky wildfire.

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Grosser Aletschgletscher

Grosser Aletschgletscher

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of the highest mountain in the Swiss Alps and the center of western Eurasia’s largest glaciated area. This is the Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area. These peaks feature huge glaciers, with bright snowy slopes that contrast with dark shadows on other steep slopes.

The photo shows the Great Aletsch Glacier, known widely by its German name Grosser Aletschgletscher. This is the largest glacier in Europe at 23 kilometers (14 miles) long; the upper 10 kilometers (6 miles) cross the left side of the image. Its neighbors are the Fiescher and Finsteraar glaciers. In this late summer view, the rocky contents of each glacier show up as gray sections, where more ice has melted. The dark lines in the glaciers are classic moraines—concentrations of dark rocks trapped in ice after being scraped from the mountains and valley walls. The moraines give a strong visual sense of flow lines transporting rock down-valley (which is the bottom of the image).

Some of the highest and most visited peaks in Europe are found in this region, including the Eiger (on the top edge of the image). The highest summit in the area is Finsteraarhorn, standing 4274 meters (14,022 feet) above sea level. Thousands of visitors from towns to the north can ascend by rail to a point at the head of the Aletschgletscher by passing through in a tunnel dug inside the Jungfrau.

The peak known as Agassizhorn was named to commemorate Louis Agassiz, a Swiss-American geologist who is the father of the modern science of glaciology. In the mid-1800s, Agassiz convinced the scientific world that glaciers were very much thicker and longer during an Ice Age thousands of years ago. Agassiz was so interested in glaciers and ice movement that he lived in a hut built on the Finsteraar glacier.

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