NASA: TERRA (EOS AM-1)

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Terra
Terra is a multi-national, multi-disciplinary mission involving partnerships with the aerospace agencies of Canada and Japan. Managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the mission also receives key contributions from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Langley Research Center. Terra is an important part of NASA’s Science Mission, helping us better understand and protect our home planet.

Featured Image
Glacial Dust off Alaska

Larger image (911 kB, JPEG, opens in a new window)

Rising from the Copper Glacier, Alaska’s Copper River flows through a glacier-carved landscape of steep mountains and fields of sand dunes before emptying into the Gulf of Alaska. The river is choked with silt and lined with sand. It is also prone to high winds. The combination results in spectacular dust storms, such as the one observed by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on October 30, 2009.

In this image, the wind is blowing from the snow-covered mountains to the Gulf of Alaska. The wind picked up fine sediment from the riverbank and carried it over the ocean. The pale brown plume of airborne dust contrasts sharply with the dark ocean beneath it.

The sand and silt come from the combined erosive power of flowing ice and water. Heavy glaciers grind rock into fine sediment and gravel as they flow slowly down mountain valleys. The sediment washes into rivers and streams, and much of it eventually makes its way to the Copper River. The flowing water of the river also erodes away rock, adding to the accumulation of sediment from glaciers. As a result, the Copper River is lined with sand, including broad fields of sand dunes in some locations.

The large image provided above is the highest resolution image available (250 meters per pixel). The MODIS Rapid Response System provides the image in additional resolutions.

References

National Park Service. Copper River Float. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Accessed November 2, 2009.
National Park Service. (2006, November 21). Forces of Change. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Accessed November 2, 2009.

NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.

Status Update
August 17 - 23, 2007

(Last Updated 24 August 2007)

Podcasts
Terra Podcasts are courtesy of EarthSky.org.

Wayne Esaias on honeybee behavior
6/29/2009
View at EarthSky
Download - Short (mp3, 1.73MB)
Download - Extended (mp3, 13.8MB)

Jeff Key connects polar winds with your local weather
8/10/2009
View at EarthSky
Download - Short (mp3, 1.73MB)
Download - Extended (mp3, 9.2MB)

Podcast Archive
(Links on this page may leave this site and connect to a non-NASA resource).

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