Mars receives 57% less sunlight than Earth.
Mars
Earth
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Satellite Tracks Saharan Dust to Amazon in 3D
For the first time, a NASA satellite has quantified in three dimensions how much dust makes the trans-Atlantic journey from the Sahara Desert to the Amazon rainforest. Among this dust is phosphorus, an essential nutrient that acts like a fertilizer, which the Amazon depends on in order to flourish.
The new dust transport estimates were derived from data collected by a lidar instrument on NASA's Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation, or CALIPSO, satellite from 2007 though 2013.
An average of 27.7 million tons of dust per year – enough to fill 104,980 semi trucks – fall to the surface over the Amazon basin. The phosphorus portion, an estimated 22,000 tons per year, is about the same amount as that lost from rain and flooding. The finding is part of a bigger research effort to understand the role of dust and aerosols in the environment and on local and global climate.
Friday, February 20, 2015
Thursday, February 19, 2015
The Most Detailed Ecological Land Units Map in the World
Esri and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) are pleased to announce the development of the highest spatial resolution ecological land units (ELUs) map of the world ever produced. The Global ELUs map portrays a systematic division and classification of ecological and physiographic information about land surface features. The work was commissioned by the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO), and published in print by the Association of American Geographers (AAG).
“This map provides, for the first time, a web-based, GIS-ready, global ecophysiographic data product for land managers, scientists, conservationists, planners, and the public to use for global and regional scale landscape analysis and accounting,” said Roger Sayre from the USGS. “The Global ELU map advances an objective, repeatable, ‘big data’ approach to the synthesis and classification of important earth surface data layers into distinct and ecologically meaningful land units.”
The ecological land units provide a spatial accounting framework for assessments of ecosystem services, such as carbon storage and soil formation, as well as important risks such as environmental degradation. Esri has created a Story Map and custom app that allow for additional exploration and insight.
“The ecological land units also lend themselves to the study of ecological diversity, rarity and evolutionary isolation,” said Randy Vaughan from Esri. “For example we can identify the most diverse landscapes in terms of unique ecological land features. Understanding diversity can point the way to improved conservation planning.”
“The data will also be important to the study of environmental change,” added Sayre. “The objective and automated approach to the classification means that the mapping can be updated as better or more current input layers are created. The creation of change layers can also be automated.”
Learn more about the Global ELUs map at esriurl.com/globalelu.
You can browse the Story Map at esriurl.com/elu. See the custom app at esriurl.com/EcoTapestry.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Secret of the Slime
Beneath the towering redwoods lives one of the most peculiar creatures in California: the banana slug. They're coated with a liquid crystal ooze that solves many problems slugs face in the forest - and maybe some of our own.
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Evgeny Kazantsev forecasts the effects of cataclysmic climate change
The series imagines a pattern of extreme weather changes, forcing the earth’s natural and urban landscapes into ruin and disrepair. beloved landmarks, towns and touristic sites are afflicted by heat waves, ice storms and droughts, leaving each in a state of decay and degeneration.
Kazantsev envisages venice’s world-celebrated canals without water, leaving a sad scene of abandoned gondolas at the bottom of an empty waterway; unusually warm conditions sees an alpine town without any sign of snow, the unfortunate scene unfolding from a lone tram car descending down the moistureless mountainside; beachgoers appear to find the sight of a mammoth glacier sitting just off the sandy shores an ordinary circumstance. ‘Cataclysm happens’ - made for burjui design bureau and their client, gefest insurance company – sheds an unnerving light on the potential for natural disaster, and uncovers the alarming scenarios if such havoc were to ensue.
Huge iceberg sailed to the beach.
Barcelona’s landmark sagrada familia is in near ruins, as a result of an extreme dust storm.
Unusually warm conditions sees an alpine town without any sign of snow.
Venice’s world-celebrated canals are envisioned without water.
A deep freeze leaves a waterfall frozen as ice.
Desert meets water in this surreal scene.
Weather patterns force a flocks of birds to loose track of their directional pull.
Strong magnetic storm . Aurora can be seen in Moscow.
Kazantsev envisages venice’s world-celebrated canals without water, leaving a sad scene of abandoned gondolas at the bottom of an empty waterway; unusually warm conditions sees an alpine town without any sign of snow, the unfortunate scene unfolding from a lone tram car descending down the moistureless mountainside; beachgoers appear to find the sight of a mammoth glacier sitting just off the sandy shores an ordinary circumstance. ‘Cataclysm happens’ - made for burjui design bureau and their client, gefest insurance company – sheds an unnerving light on the potential for natural disaster, and uncovers the alarming scenarios if such havoc were to ensue.
Huge iceberg sailed to the beach.
Barcelona’s landmark sagrada familia is in near ruins, as a result of an extreme dust storm.
Unusually warm conditions sees an alpine town without any sign of snow.
Venice’s world-celebrated canals are envisioned without water.
A deep freeze leaves a waterfall frozen as ice.
Desert meets water in this surreal scene.
Weather patterns force a flocks of birds to loose track of their directional pull.
Strong magnetic storm . Aurora can be seen in Moscow.
