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The term supermoon denotes a full moon that occurs at roughly the same time the moon is nearest Earth in its monthly orbit. The next one is coming up on the night of June 22-23, 2013. An astrologer, not an…

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Archive for nasa jpl

NASA: What’s up for January – Close encounters of the planetary kind

By alkaon on January 2, 2013 No Comments

PASADENA, Ca. (NASA JPL) – Hello and welcome. I’m Jane Houston Jones at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. 

It’s easy and fun to find planets when they’re next to the moon. 

Saturn is visible in the southeastern dawn sky near Virgo’s bright white star Spica and the moon on the fifth. And to the left of the moon on the sixth. 

NASA JPL

NASA JPL

NASA JPL

NASA JPL

On the 10th, Venus will be next to the crescent moon before dawn. 

NASA JPL

NASA JPL

In the evening sky, catch red Mars low to the horizon. You’ll find it to the left of the slender crescent moon on the 12th. 

NASA JPL

NASA JPL

Look the next night and you’ll see the crescent moon is bigger and above Mars. 

Jupiter continues to reign supreme this month. So try to join a local star party to see its amazing details through a telescope. You won’t need a telescope to see some close encounters with the moon and Jupiter this month. 

In the early evening of Jan. 10, you’ll find Jupiter below the Pleiades, halfway up in the eastern sky.

NASA JPL

NASA JPL

Then, between Jan. 20 and 23, you’ll see the moon pass from Jupiter’s right to its left. They are less than 1 degree apart on the evening of the 21st. Look at 8 p.m. Pacific or 11 p.m. Eastern to see this close pairing. 

NASA JPL

NASA JPL

Meanwhile, you can also find where NASA’s Juno, Dawn and even the Voyager spacecraft are against the constellations.  Just use NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System ( eyes.nasa.gov ).

To learn about all of NASA’s missions, visit www.nasa.gov. 

That’s all for this month. I’m Jane Houston Jones. 

Article source: http://wtvr.com/2013/01/02/nasa-whats-up-for-january-close-encounters-of-the-planetary-kind/

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NASA: What’s up for December 2012

By alkaon on December 3, 2012 No Comments

PASADENA, Ca. (NASA JPL) – What’s Up for December? Starry fireworks end the year with a bang.

I’m Jane Houston Jones at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The constellation Gemini, the twins, is one of the dazzling winter constellations.
Gemini will rise in the northeast near the beautiful constellation Orion.

The Geminid meteor shower is usually one of the best of the year.

Though the shower’s peak is brief, on the night of December 13 and 14, up to 120 meteors per hour are predicted, if you live in an area with dark skies.

You’ll see some meteors before and after the peak days, too.

If you have a dark sky, you’ll also see the winter Milky Way rising between Orion and Gemini, bisecting the sky.

The constellations Perseus and Cassiopeia are nearly overhead and are easy to see, even from the city.

If you haven’t tried to find the asteroids Ceres and Vesta yet, they’re at their best this month, too.
And they’re easy to find near Jupiter.

All three objects reach opposition in December, when they’re best for viewing.

Mercury, Venus and Saturn line up in the predawn sky from the 9th through the 21st.

Finally, on December 25, watch Jupiter next to the moon an hour past sunset.

To study the stars and planets, and to learn about all of NASA’s missions, visit www.nasa.gov.

That’s all for this month. I’m Jane Houston Jones.

Article source: http://wtvr.com/2012/12/03/nasa-whats-up-for-december-2012/

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NASA: Mars rover Curiosity to drive to new destination after parking at a sand …

By alkaon on November 16, 2012 No Comments

LOS ANGELES
– After playing in the sand, the Curiosity rover is poised to trek across the Martian landscape in search of a rock to drill into, scientists reported Thursday.

The six-wheel rover has been parked for more than a month at a sand dune where it has been busy scooping up soil, sniffing the atmosphere and measuring radiation levels on the surface. Its next task is to zero in on a rock and that requires driving to a new location.

Mission deputy scientist Ashwin Vasavada expected Curiosity to be on the move in the “next few days.”

“It’s the bedrock which really gives you the story of ancient Mars,” said Vasavada of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $2.5 billion mission. “The soil is a little harder to interpret because we don’t know how old it is or where it came from.”

The car-size rover touched down in Gale Crater, an ancient depression near the Martian equator, in August on a two-year mission to probe whether the landing site once had conditions capable of supporting microbial life. Armed with a high-tech suite of instruments, it’s the most sophisticated spacecraft to ever land on the red planet.

During the first three months, a weather station aboard Curiosity detected brief drops in air pressure, a sign of whirlwinds in the region.

“These events are starting to occur more and more often,” said Manuel de la Torre Juarez of NASA JPL. “We expect to see more in the future.”

Previous rovers have spotted and even recorded dust devils dancing across the Martian terrain, but scientists said Curiosity has not yet seen evidence that the swirling winds have lifted dust.

Curiosity’s ultimate destination is a 3-mile-high mountain rising from the center of the crater floor that’s rich in mineral deposits. Scientists had hoped to drive to the base of the mountain before the end of the year, but that doesn’t look likely after the extended stay at its current spot.

___

Follow Alicia Chang at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia.

Article source: http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/179538421.html

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NASA’s IT Future: Robot Telework, 3-D Printing

By alkaon on November 16, 2012 No Comments

11 Cool Tools NASA Curiosity Brought To Mars
(click image for larger view and for slideshow)
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory wants to pilot more early-stage information technologies, whether they be three-dimensional printing, robotics, or new user interfaces, NASA JPL CTO for IT Tom Soderstrom said Wednesday.

Speaking over a video link — multimedia videoconferencing is another technology the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is testing — to attendees gathered as part of a regular series of colloquia at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., Soderstrom said that NASA JPL is relying on its employees to push pilot projects and IT prototypes.

“IT as we know it is going away,” Soderstrom said. “It’s all about innovating together. NASA is not going to get famous for IT, it’s for putting rovers on Mars, for putting the Hubble Telescope out there, and we should use IT to support that mission. Which technology is going to be the winner? It’s not going to be IT that decides.”

With that in mind, JPL is actively piloting a number of cutting-edge IT capabilities and has even sent teams of non-IT workers to the Consumer Electronics Show to report back on technologies that they think they could use in their jobs. The agency has worked with a large range of companies and agencies on prototypes and pilots within the last year, including Google, Microsoft, Apple, Toyota and others.

[ Read Humanoid Robot Challenge Kicks Off At DARPA. ]

“Historically, we would lay out a big budget, plan it, and then a year later deliver something that nobody wanted because it was too much time,” Soderstrom said. “What we do now is lay it out and then prototype.” Ideation to prototype could be as short as a matter of weeks, he added.

Some of the technologies being tested are far out, while others are innovative but to be expected. On the futuristic side, NASA JPL is heavily interested in desktop three-dimensional printing to print out tools and parts; remote-controlled robots with video screens that enable employees working elsewhere to navigate the physical office environment and hold multimedia interactions with colleagues; and user interfaces that use technologies such as Microsoft Kinect to allow users to manipulate images on the screen with simple hand gestures a la Minority Report.

One of the new technologies NASA JPL is exploring, three-dimensional printing, “is something that’s really revolutionary,” said Gabriel Rangel, JPL assistant CTO and emerging IT solutions engineer, holding up a wrench printed on a three-dimensional printer. “We’re now able to look [at] and print out different devices. Imagine a mechanical design center, to be able to print out a working part.” Soderstrom added that the technology might someday even be used to print out a spacecraft.

Another area of focus at JPL is the “workplace of the future.” Projects in this area cover everything from gesture-based computing to remote-controlled devices. On the gesture front, JPL is experimenting with technologies from companies such as Microsoft Kinect, Leap Motion and Oblong Industries.

But the most interesting project might be what the agency calls Robotic Mobile JPLers. With this technology, JBL employees working remotely pilot a remote-controlled device that’s connected by the Internet to employees’ computers. The wheeled robot has a sound system, a screen that shows the JPL employee’s face, a video camera and a microphone, allowing the remote employee to virtually navigate the physical space at JPL and interact with other employees. “It’s very early experimental, but it works quite well,” said Soderstrom. For example, the agency has used the technology to enable a sick employee to be able to virtually attend important meetings.

On the tamer side, NASA JPL has bought heavily into mobile apps, big data, cloud computing, mobile apps and collaboration technologies like wikis and an internal video sharing site called JPL Tube. JPL Tube has been successful enough that JPL is now prototyping a NASA-wide version called NASA Tube that might soon be more broadly available.

More than half of federal agencies are saving money with cloud computing, but security, compatibility, and skills present huge problems, according to our survey. Also in the Cloud Business Case issue of InformationWeek Government: President Obama’s record on IT strategy is long on vision but short on results. (Free registration required.)

Article source: http://www.informationweek.com/government/leadership/nasas-it-future-robot-telework-3-d-print/240134995

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NASA’s TRMM satellite sees birth of Arabian Sea cyclone

By alkaon on October 25, 2012 No Comments


Since it was launched in 1997 the Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite has been useful for monitoring in the tropics. TRMM passed above the first tropical cyclone of 2012 (TC01A) as it was forming in the Arabian Sea on October 2012 at 1513 UTC (11:13 a.m. EDT). Rainfall from TRMM’s (TMI) and (PR) were overlaid on an enhanced infrared image from TRMM’s Visible and (VIRS) to provide a complete picture of rainfall rates occurring within the storm.


NASA's TRMM satellite sees birth of Arabian Sea cyclone
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The AIRS instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured infrared imagery of Tropical Storm 01A on Oct. 24 at 5:35 a.m. EDT that showed the strongest thunderstorms (purple) surrounded the center of circulation. Those thunderstorms are reaching high into the troposphere where cloud top temperatures are as cold as -63 Fahrenheit (-52 Celsius). Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen

TRMM PR and TMI data showed that rain at the surface was falling at a rate of up to 41 mm/hour (~1.6 inches) in the forming tropical cyclone. Bands of thunderstorms were also wrapping tightly into a well-defined low level center of circulation. TRMM PR data also was also used to create a 3-D image that showed the vertical structure of convective storms in the area. The view showed some towering convective storms were reaching heights of over 16 km (~9.9 miles).

Another satellite passed over TC01A and captured infrared data on the storm, revealing temperature of cloud tops. The colder the cloud top, the higher the thunderstorm is in the atmosphere, and the more powerful the storm. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured of Tropical Storm 01A on Oct. 24 at 5:35 a.m. EDT (0935 UTC) that showed the strongest thunderstorms surrounded the center of circulation. Those thunderstorms were reaching high into the troposphere where cloud top temperatures are as cold as -63 Fahrenheit (-52 Celsius).

On Oct. 24 at 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT), TC01A had maximum sustained winds near 35 knots (~40 mph). It was located about 300 nautical miles east-southeast of Cape Guardafui, Somalia, near 10.4 North latitude and 55.7 East longitude. TC01A was moving to the west at 16 knots and is expected to move to the west-southwest over the next couple of days before making landfall south of Cape Guardafui, Somalia. Cape Guardafui is located in the northeastern Bari province and forms the geographical point of the Horn of Africa.

Tropical cyclone 01A is predicted by the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) to hit northeastern Somalia on October 25, 2012 with wind speeds of about 35 knots (~40 mph).

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Article source: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-nasa-trmm-satellite-birth-arabian.html

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NASA sees Tropical Storm Sandy approaching Jamaica

By alkaon on October 25, 2012 No Comments


On Oct. 23, 2012 at 1545 UTC (11:45 a.m. EDT), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument captured a visible image of Tropical Storm Sandy when its center was a couple of hundred miles south of Jamaica. Sandy’s clouds filled up the eastern Caribbean Sea, and showed signs of good circulation. The MODIS image revealed that Sandy’s cloud cover extends over 280 miles (440 km). extend outward up to 140 miles (220 km) from the center.


NASA sees Tropical Storm Sandy approaching Jamaica
Enlarge

The AIRS instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured infrared imagery of Tropical Storm Sandy on Oct. 23 at 2:47 p.m. EDT that showed the strongest thunderstorms (purple) surrounded the center of circulation. Those thunderstorms are reaching high into the troposphere where cloud top temperatures are as cold as -63 Fahrenheit (-52 Celsius). Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured of Tropical Storm Sandy later that day at 2:47 p.m. EDT. The infrared image showed the strongest thunderstorms surrounded the center of circulation. Those thunderstorms are reaching high into the troposphere where cloud top temperatures are as cold as -63 Fahrenheit (-52 Celsius).

This video is not supported by your browser at this time.

This animation of NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite observations from Oct. 21-24, 2012, shows Tropical Storm Sandy become a hurricane just before making landfall in Jamaica and Tropical Storm Tony form and strengthen in the central Atlantic Ocean. Sandy became a hurricane on Oct. 24 at 11 a.m. EDT when its maximum sustained winds hit 80 mph (130 kph). At that time, it was centered about 65 miles (100 km) south of Kingston, Jamaica, near 17.1 North and 76.7 West. This visualization was created by the NASA GOES Project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Credit: NASA GOES Project

On Oct. 24, the warnings and watches posted covered a large area. A is in effect for Jamaica, the Cuban Provinces of Camaguey, Las Tunas, Granma, Santiago De Cuba, Holguin, and Guantanamo. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Haiti, the Central Bahamas, and the Northwestern Bahamas.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the Southeastern Bahamas, the Florida East Coast from Jupiter Inlet to Ocean Reef, the Florida Upper Keys from Ocean Reef to Craig Key, and Florida Bay.

At 8 a.m. EDT on Oct. 24, Sandy’s maximum sustained winds were on the edge of hurricane-force at 70 mph (110 kph). Hurricane strength is 74 mph. Sandy’s center was located near latitude 16.6 north and longitude 76.9 west, just 95 miles (155 km) south of Kingston, Jamaica. Sandy is moving toward the north near 14 mph (22 kph) and the National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted that this general motion is expected to continue through Thursday (Oct. 25) accompanied by a gradual increase in forward speed.

According to NHC forecasters, the center of Sandy is expected to move across Jamaica by late this afternoon and evening today, Oct. 24 and move near or over eastern Cuba late tonight and Thursday morning. Oct. 25. Sandy is then expected to approach the central Bahamas on Thursday.

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Article source: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-nasa-tropical-storm-sandy-approaching.html

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NASA’s Global Hawk and satellites see tropical storm Nadine turning around

By alkaon on September 25, 2012 No Comments


The fifth science flight of NASA’s Global Hawk concluded when the aircraft landed at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va. on Sunday, Sept. 23 after flying over Tropical Storm Nadine in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean. The Hurricane and Sentinel (HS3) mission scientists changed the flight path during the Global Hawk flight to be able to overfly Nadine’s center.

“Measurements from dropsondes found wind speeds greater than 60 knots at lower levels above the surface during that adjusted flight leg,” said Scott Braun, HS3 Mission Principal Investigator from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. “Despite the large distance of Nadine from the U. S. East Coast, the was able to spend about 11 hours over the storm.”

NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the eastern Atlantic Ocean on Sept. 24 at 03:23 UTC, and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured an of Tropical Storm Nadine’s cloud top temperatures. The indicated the strongest thunderstorms and heaviest rainfall were to the northeast of the center of circulation. Those cloud top temperatures exceeded -63 Fahrenheit (-52 Celsius). from the southwest has pushed the bulk of clouds and showers to the northeast.


NASA's Global Hawk and satellites see tropical storm Nadine turning around

This infrared image was captured by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite. The image shows Tropical Storm Nadine struggling in the eastern Atlantic Ocean about 455 miles (735 km) south of the Azores Islands. The image was taken on Sept. 24 at 03:23 UTC. Purple areas indicate the strongest thunderstorms and heaviest rainfall. Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen

On Friday, Sept. 24 at 11 a.m. EDT, Tropical Storm Nadine’s are near 50 mph (85 kmh). Nadine was located about 440 miles (705 km) south of the Azores, near latitude 31.7 north and longitude 27.8 west. Nadine is moving west-northwest near 7 mph (11 kmh) and a gradual turn to the west and southwest is expected later.

The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) is a five-year mission specifically targeted to investigate the processes that underlie hurricane formation and intensity change in the Atlantic Ocean basin. HS3 is motivated by hypotheses related to the relative roles of the large-scale environment and storm-scale internal processes.

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Article source: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-nasa-global-hawk-satellites-tropical_1.html

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NASA Administrator Bolden And SBA Administrator Mills "Hangout" With …

By alkaon on September 21, 2012 No Comments

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2012 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and Small Business Administration Administrator Karen Mills highlighted the contributions of small businesses to the success of the Curiosity rover’s landing on Mars during a Google+ Hangout Wednesday with ATA Engineering, headquartered in Herndon, Va.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO)

ATA Engineering partnered with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) team to test and analyze the entry, descent and landing of the rover, specifically the wheels, actuators and thermal control systems.

“The dedicated and mission-focused work of our small business partners like ATA Engineering has been essential to Curiosity’s ongoing success story, and I’m especially proud of NASA’s work with them,” Bolden said. “Curiosity is the largest rover that ever has been sent to another planet and will provide invaluable data regarding Mars that will benefit the scientific community for years to come. Small businesses helped support the design and fabrication of Curiosity and also took part in many other activities that made the mission possible.”

Mills praised ATA Engineering and the many other small businesses that contributed to last month’s successful Curiosity landing and contribute to NASA’s other science and exploration missions.

“ATA Engineering and the many other small businesses involved in the Mars Science Laboratory project embody the entrepreneurial spirit, drive and ability of America’s small businesses to build groundbreaking tools and parts that help make even the most sophisticated projects successful,” Mills said. “This mission is a shining example of what is possible when America’s small businesses are given the chance to do what they do best.”

ATA Engineering worked with the JPL Curiosity team for six years to assist in the development of cutting-edge technologies that led to the Curiosity landing, as well as the tools aboard the rover that will help scientists investigate whether conditions on Mars may have been favorable for microbial life.

“As a 100 percent employee-owned small business, the staff at ATA Engineering is incredibly proud to have been part of the development team for Curiosity,” said Mary Baker, president of ATA Engineering. “Over the course of six years, we have had the unique opportunity to work closely with the talented engineers and scientists at NASA JPL to help drive and validate the design of a number of key subsystems on one of the most exciting robotics development programs in history. Not only do programs like this give small businesses such as ours the opportunity to contribute directly to the development and advancement of state-of-the-art technology, they act as an inspiration to the next generation of engineers and scientists.”

NASA exceeded its small business goal for fiscal year 2011 and was one of only three of the “big seven” Federal agencies — the ones that together spend approximately 90 percent of small business-eligible dollars — that exceeded its small business goals. Approximately $2.5 billion in prime contracts were awarded directly to small businesses in 2011, up about $75 million from the previous year. NASA’s large prime contractors awarded approximately $2 billion in additional subcontracts to small businesses in fiscal year 2011.

NASA also released “Curiosity and NASA’s Mission to Mars,” a publication that details the contributions of small businesses across the country which contributed to the mission. To read the document, visit NASA’s Office of Small Business Programs at:

http://osbp.nasa.gov

For information about the Small Business Administration, visit:

http://www.sba.gov

For more about Curiosity, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/msl

and

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl

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Article source: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/19/4835606/nasa-administrator-bolden-and.html

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NASA Administrator Bolden and SBA Administrator Mills "Hangout" with …

By alkaon on September 20, 2012 No Comments

RELEASE
:
12-330

NASA Administrator Bolden and SBA Administrator Mills “Hangout” with Curiosity Small Business ATA Engineering

WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and Small Business Administration Administrator Karen Mills highlighted the contributions of small businesses to the success of the Curiosity rover’s landing on Mars during a Google+ Hangout Wednesday with ATA Engineering, headquartered in Herndon, Va.

ATA Engineering partnered with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) team to test and analyze the entry, descent and landing of the rover, specifically the wheels, actuators and thermal control systems.

“The dedicated and mission-focused work of our small business partners like ATA Engineering has been essential to Curiosity’s ongoing success story, and I’m especially proud of NASA’s work with them,” Bolden said. “Curiosity is the largest rover that ever has been sent to another planet and will provide invaluable data regarding Mars that will benefit the scientific community for years to come. Small businesses helped support the design and fabrication of Curiosity and also took part in many other activities that made the mission possible.”

Mills praised ATA Engineering and the many other small businesses that contributed to last month’s successful Curiosity landing and contribute to NASA’s other science and exploration missions.

“ATA Engineering and the many other small businesses involved in the Mars Science Laboratory project embody the entrepreneurial spirit, drive and ability of America’s small businesses to build groundbreaking tools and parts that help make even the most sophisticated projects successful,” Mills said. “This mission is a shining example of what is possible when America’s small businesses are given the chance to do what they do best.”

ATA Engineering worked with the JPL Curiosity team for six years to assist in the development of cutting-edge technologies that led to the Curiosity landing, as well as the tools aboard the rover that will help scientists investigate whether conditions on Mars may have been favorable for microbial life.

“As a 100 percent employee-owned small business, the staff at ATA Engineering is incredibly proud to have been part of the development team for Curiosity,” said Mary Baker, president of ATA Engineering. “Over the course of six years, we have had the unique opportunity to work closely with the talented engineers and scientists at NASA JPL to help drive and validate the design of a number of key subsystems on one of the most exciting robotics development programs in history. Not only do programs like this give small businesses such as ours the opportunity to contribute directly to the development and advancement of state-of-the-art technology, they act as an inspiration to the next generation of engineers and scientists.”

NASA exceeded its small business goal for fiscal year 2011 and was one of only three of the “big seven” Federal agencies — the ones that together spend approximately 90 percent of small business-eligible dollars — that exceeded its small business goals. Approximately $2.5 billion in prime contracts were awarded directly to small businesses in 2011, up about $75 million from the previous year. NASA’s large prime contractors awarded approximately $2 billion in additional subcontracts to small businesses in fiscal year 2011.

NASA also released “Curiosity and NASA’s Mission to Mars,” a publication that details the contributions of small businesses across the country which contributed to the mission. To read the document, visit NASA’s Office of Small Business Programs at:

http://osbp.nasa.gov

For information about the Small Business Administration, visit:

http://www.sba.gov

For more about Curiosity, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/msl

and

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl

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Jewels of the Summer Night Sky – Skywatching Highlights | Video

By alkaon on July 8, 2012 No Comments

Star clusters, nebulae, planetary meetings, Earthshine Moon and a meteor shower give skywatchers a lot to look out for this summer. NASA JPL’s What’s Up in July, Science@NASA and Hubblesite’s Tonight’s Sky provide the insight.

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NASA Image of the day

Rare Clear View of Alaska

 
On most days, relentless rivers of clouds wash over Alaska, obscuring most of the state's 6,640 miles (10,690 kilometers) of coastline and 586,000 square miles (1,518,000 square kilometers) of land. The south coast of Alaska even has the dubious distinction of being the cloudiest region of the United States, with some locations averaging more than 340 cloudy days per year. That was certainly not the case on June 17, 2013, the date that the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite acquired this rare, nearly cloud-free view of the state. The absence of clouds exposed a striking tapestry of water, ice, land, forests, and even wildfires. Snow-covered mountains such as the Alaska Range and Chugach Mountains were visible in southern Alaska, while the arc of mountains that make up the Brooks Range dominated the northern part of the state. The Yukon River -- the longest in Alaska and the third longest in the United States -- wound its way through the green boreal forests that inhabit the interior of the state. Plumes of sediment and glacial dust poured into the Gulf of Alaska from the Copper River. And Iliamna Lake, the largest in Alaska, was ice free. The same ridge of high pressure that cleared Alaska's skies also brought stifling temperatures to many areas accustomed to chilly June days. Talkeetna, a town about 100 miles north of Anchorage, saw temperatures reach 96°F (36°C) on June 17. Other towns in southern Alaska set all-time record highs, including Cordova, Valez, and Seward. The high temperatures also helped fuel wildfires and hastened the breakup of sea ice in the Chukchi Sea.Image Credit: NASA/Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFCCaption: Adam Voiland
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