10 Ground-breaking Earth Satellite Images From 2018

10 Ground-breaking Earth Satellite Images from 2018

In 2018, our satellites captured beautiful imagery from throughout the solar system and beyond. However, some of our favorite visualizations are of this very planet. While this list is by no means exhaustive, it does capture some Earth satellite images from this year that are both visually striking as well as scientifically informative. This list also represents a broad variety of Earth’s features, as well as satellite instrumentation. Take a journey with our eyes in the sky!

10. Hurricane Florence

Before making landfall, Hurricane Florence churned in the Atlantic for a full two weeks — making it among the longest-lived cyclones of the 2018 season. When it finally did hit land on Sep. 14, the storm devastated the southeastern U.S. coast with intense winds, torrential rains and severe flooding.

This natural-color image was acquired by MODIS on the Terra Satellite on Sep. 12, 2018. 

Images like this, as well as other satellite information, were used to anticipate the impact of the storm. Our Disasters Program created flood proxy maps that were shared with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Guard to estimate how many and which communities would be most affected by the storm, in order to help prepare recovery efforts ahead of time.

9. Australia’s Lake Eyre Basin

The Lake Eyre Basin covers one-sixth of Australia and is one of the world’s largest internally draining river systems. However, the rivers supported by this system are ephemeral, meaning that they only run for short periods of time following unpredictable rain — the rest of the time, the Basin is a dry, arid desert.

However, when the heavy rain comes, the basin erupts in an explosion of green. In this false-color image captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 on Apr. 25, 2018, you can see how the vegetation completely envelops the spaces where the water has receded. (Flood water is indicated by light blue, and vegetation is indicated by light green.)

Satellites are an excellent tool for tracking greening events that are followed by flooding. These events offer opportunities for predictive tools as well as recreation.

8. Alaska’s Chukchi Sea 

A Monet painting comes to life as the Chukchi Sea swirls with microscopic marine algae.

This image was captured off the Alaskan coast by OLI on Landsat 8 on Jun. 18, 2018. After the Arctic sea ice breaks up each spring, the nutrient-rich Bering Sea water mixes with the nutrient-poor Alaskan coastal water. Each type of water brings with it a different type of phytoplankton and the surface waters have just enough light for the algae to populate and flourish. The result is these mesmerizing patterns of turquoise and green.

This image represents one piece of much larger, incredibly complex ecosystem. While one would not normally associate the breaking up of sea ice with phytoplankton blooms, it is an intricate process of the phytoplankton life cycle. The size of the blooms have varied greatly from year to year, and experts are unsure why. Images like these can help scientists track the development of these blooms and link it to other environmental changes.

7. Hawaii’s Kilauea 

Sometimes fresh lava is best viewed in infrared.

This false-color image of Kilauea, captured by OLI on Landsat 8 on May 23, 2018, shows the infrared signal emitted by lava flowing toward the sea. The purple areas surrounding the glowing lava are clouds lit from below, indicating that this image was taken through a break in the clouds.

The Puʻu ʻŌʻō Kupaianaha eruption has been continuously spewing red-hot lava since 1983, making it the longest eruption at Kilauea in recorded history. However, new fissures opened up this year that forced many to evacuate the area. Hawaii’s largest lake evaporated in hours and hundreds of homes were destroyed in Vacationland and Kapoho. 

Imagery, seismometers and ground-based instruments were used to track the underground movement of magma. Infrared imagery can be incredibly helpful in disasters like this when you to view data that cannot be observed with the naked eye. 

6. California’s Woolsey Burn Scar

Nothing quite encapsulates the destruction of a wildfire like a photo from outer space.

This image of the Woolsey Fire aftermath in Southern California was captured on Nov. 18, 2018 by the Advanced Spaceborned Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on the Terra satellite. This false-color infrared image has been enhanced to clearly show the burned vegetation (indicated by brown) and the vegetation that survived unscathed (indicated by green).

The Woolsey Fire clearly left its mark, with almost 152 square miles (394 square km) and 88% of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area badly burned. Images like this one can assist fire managers in the area plan for recovery. 

5. Bangladesh’s Padma River

As the years go by, the Padma River grows and shrinks, twists and turns. It never has a fixed shape, and as a result, thousands of people must regularly adapt to the constant changes in the river’s 75-mile (130-km) shoreline.

This image captured on Jan. 20, 2018 by OLI on Landsat 8 depicts one of the major rivers of Bangladesh. For thirty years, scientists have been tracking the erosion of the river with satellite imagery. Combinations of shortwave infrared, near infrared, and visible light are used to detect differences year-to-year in width, depth, and shape of the river. Sometimes the river splits off, but then rejoins again later. These patterns are created by the river carrying and depositing sediment, shaping the curves of the path of water.

Monitoring the Padma River is going to become especially important as a new bridge development project advances in the Char Janajat area. Although the bridge will most certainly help shorten travel times for citizens, nobody is quite sure how the river erosion might affect the construction and vice versa. 

4. Alaska’s Yakutat Glacier 

It’s hard to believe that Harlequin Lake was once all dry land — but it only started to form once Yakutat Glacier started melting. The lake appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century, and has been growing rapidly ever since.

In this hauntingly beautiful image, captured on Sep. 21 2018 by OLI on Landsat 8, the effect of climate change is apparent — especially when compared to earlier images of the region.

The sad reality is that this image may be one of the last of Yakutat Glacier. Unless the climate warming starts to reverse very soon — which scientists consider very unlikely — Yakutat could be gone as soon as 2070.

3. South Africa’s Theewaterskloof

Cape Town is a seaside city planted on the tip of South Africa. It’s a city known for its beaches and biodiversity — it also almost became known as the first major city to officially run out of water.

This image of Cape Town’s largest reservoir — Theewaterskloof — was acquired on Jul. 9th, 2018 by OLI on Landsat 8. By the time this photo was taken, the city’s main reservoirs stood at 55%. This was a huge increase from where it stood just six months earlier: just 13%.

The severe water shortage in the region started in 2015, only to become more threatening after three successive and unusually dry years. The entire city was preparing for Day Zero — the day the tap water would be shut off.  

Despite forecasts that Day Zero would arrive in April, a combination of heavier rains and local conservation efforts restored the majority of the reservoir. 

2. Aerosol Earth

Aerosols are all around us. From the smoke from a fire, to the dust in the wind to the salt in sea spray — these solid particles and liquid droplets are always swirling in our atmosphere, oftentimes unseen.

The Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS FP) model uses mathematical equations to model what is happening in our atmosphere. The inputs for its equations — temperature, moisture, wind, etc. — come from our satellites and ground sensors.

This visualization was compiled on Aug. 24, 2018 — obviously a busy day for aerosols in our atmosphere. Swirls of sea salt (indicated by blue) reveal typhoons Soulik and Cimaron heading straight towards South Korea and Japan. A haze of black carbon (indicated by red) suffuse from agricultural burning in Africa and large wildfires in North America. And clouds of dust (indicated by purple) float off the Sahara desert.

1. Camp Fire

With nearly a hundred fatalities, hundreds of thousands of acres burned and billions of dollars of damage, the world watched in horror as Camp Fire grew to become the most destructive California wildfire.

This image was captured on Nov. 8, 2018 by OLI on Landsat 8 on the same day Camp Fire ignited. It consolidates both visible light and shortwave-infrared light in order to highlight the active fire. Strong winds and dry conditions literally fanned the flames and spread this wildfire like a rash. 

This image has not only become the iconic portrait for Camp Fire, it is also sobering representation of how quickly a fire can grow out of control in a short amount of time. Even from space, you can almost smell the massive plumes of smoke and feel the heat of the fires.

Whether you realize it or not, our Earth satellite missions are collecting data everyday in order to monitor environmental changes and prepare for natural disasters.  If your interest is piqued by this list, head over to the Earth Observatory. The Earth Observatory updates daily with fresh, new content — brought to you by none other than our eyes in the sky. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

The Official “Log Off” Protest F.A.Q! 

The “Log Off” protest is in response to the recent NSFW ban announced by Tumblr. The ban flags all content the filtering system detects as NSFW, reducing visibility to the community. The system has proven time and time again that is inefficient, oftentimes flagging SFW material as NSFW. 

This SFW material includes art, memes and so on. This ban directly hurts the community and will not solve the actual problems at hand due to the poor flagging system. Because of this, the entire community will suffer.  

So to respond, I propose that every user on Tumblr logs off of Tumblr for 24 hours on December 17th at 12 am EST. 

Times are listed above depending on timezone! 

This post responds to some very common questions about the protest. So make sure to read it over! 

How to Export Your Blog: 

https://tumblr.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360005118894-Export-your-blog

Alternative Sites: 

Pillowfort

Mastodan 

Wordpress 

Twitter 

There is also an official Tumblr blog (ironic, huh?) and Twitter for the protest! It’s at: 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/logoffprotest

Tumblr - https://logoffprotest.tumblr.com/

There will be official updates on each account. Make sure to tag us in any posts, or use the hashtag #logoff2018 ! 

Thanks for your support guys. Let’s fight to make Tumblr better. Actually better. 

As usual, kingofthewilderwest presents a thoughtful and detailed analysis. I just want to mention the scenes in the post that screamed Royai to me. 

-Grumman suggesting that Roy marry his granddaughter. Whether Roy knows who the “girl” is or not, I think it implies Royai. Either the joke is on Roy, because he is being pushed to marry the woman he loves, or Roy’s reply means that it’s not the right time (can’t remember his exact words) yet.

-The conversation with Madame Christmas about Elizabeth- what else could it mean than go spend time with your love? Of course, he can’t. Roy looks so devastated in the scene. To me, this scene straight on states that R&R are :) a known couple to Chris. 

-When he holds her on the Promised Day. His face. Her face. His face. How he holds her (and more so in the manga, I think.) Also, he’s holding her, but she’s also comforting him. That’s a close couple. 

-I also love the scene when (after he has broken protocol to save her from the homunculi attack), he tells her that he feels most human when fighting monsters (or wtte). There is something so intimate about this. I can’t imagine him saying it to anyone else. 

-Finally, I’ve participated in or observed three first times watching FMA:B. All three novices said things like, “I felt the heat between those two,” or, “They are together by the end, right?” 

Damn right Royai is canon. 

Why Royai is Objectively Canon

I love this topic so much and had to enthusiastically yak about it. I’m also nervous making this post… but you know what? Life’s too short to not talk Royai. I said about a week ago that I’d write a post demonstrating why canon material presents romantic Royai as objectively canon. Haha, I don’t believe this is Royai shippers perceiving skewed information for what we want! ^.^

For my perspective, I’m someone who tends not to be drawn to romantic ships, canon or fanon. I rarely ship and I’m almost never gungho about ships. I’m aroace and I find the greatest celebrations in familial platonic and familial relationships. Those are the things I emphasize and look into in my own fictional fixations. I’m slightly cynical by nature that authors intend a close relationship to be implicitly, implied romantic unless there’s obvious sign posts demonstrating that. I’m more likely to argue something implicit isn’t romantic rather than argue it is, honestly. Even if I find myself shipping something (and I do hardcore ship Royai), I keep a strong distinction between what’s canon and what’s fanon, and I don’t care if my ships become canon or not. It doesn’t mean I’m without my bias, but hopefully this gives everyone an angle on what my biases or not are.

Regardless, I firmly believe that Hiromu Arakawa - and in fact every iteration of the FMA franchise - intends Royai to be perceived as romantic interest. It’s written subtly at times, but it’s written intentionally.

Some points I make below will be more objective, undeniable, concrete proofs than others. For each section I’m writing, I’m (generally) putting the strongest, most concrete evidence on top, alongside asterisks to say that this is a VERY important point. But my list also includes minor moments that on their own wouldn’t “prove” Royai. However, in the context of everything else, they provide a gestalt understanding of how Royai interact and are intentionally written/drawn throughout the franchise and especially the manga/FMAB.

I could honestly write essays over EVERY bullet point on this list, but I’ll restrain myself. Yes, this long post is me actually restraining myself. XD

A BRIEF STARTING ESSAY SUMMARIZING KEY POINTS

Grumman, who’s rather keen in sensing motivation, suggests Roy marry his granddaughter, Riza. Roy’s foster mother Chris suggests that Roy should “play with Elizabeth” when he’s feeling blue. When Roy says another man takes Elizabeth-chan away from him, Vanessa asks if this means Roy’s now romantically available - indicating that Riza is where Roy’s romantic interests lie. In fact, both Roy and Riza demonstrate occasional moments of jealousy when someone shows romantic interest in the other. Roy gets disproportionately defensive when Barry hits on Riza. Riza, meanwhile, tries to sabotage one of Roy’s dates by overloading him with paperwork. When she fails to prevent the date, she goes to the shooting range to noticeably vent, catching both Falman and Fuery’s attention for her abnormal behavior.

Royai tend to use formal language to one another, Riza almost exclusively addressing Mustang as「 大佐 」 (colonel). Roy makes sure to put in「 中尉 」 (lieutenant) lots amidst various second-person pronouns. However, when both are emotionally vulnerable and speaking from their heart about each other, like when Riza thinks she might have to shoot Roy, they drop formalities. Roy then never calls her “lieutenant,” instead exclusively uses a term that can be endearing and affectionate, 「 君 」, and uses this word when he says, “I can’t afford to lose you.” Riza, even more tellingly, calls Mustang 「あなた」- something she never calls him in formal situations - an affectionate term wives use to call their husbands. 

The body language and facial expressions Royai give each other is notably different from how they interact with family and close friends. Mustang isn’t someone who engages in much physical contact, be it with his aunt or his best friend Hughes. He sometimes appears irritated if Hughes hops in for an arm around the shoulder. Riza in turn doesn’t reach out for notable physical contact with Rebecca or other friends. But the look of affection Roy gives when Riza is injured in his arms and he realizes she’s safe… is a look he gives no one else. He cradles her and embraces her so tightly that Mei has to remind him Riza’s still injured. When Mustang loses his eyesight, he doesn’t just grab Riza’s hand to get some navigation guidance… but manages to sling his arm around her shoulder. And while it makes sense for Hawkeye to hold onto him in the final fight to keep him oriented, there is a certain level of intimacy to not just holding him by the shoulder, but putting her hand on his chest, too.

Royai demonstrate extreme closeness for one another and preference for the other above all else. Romance doesn’t have to be your closest relationship, but the fact that Royai are so emotionally close only adds support to the rest of my points. Riza would be devastated at the thought of losing Mustang, so much she starts crying and gives up on life in “Death of the Undying,” and then in “Beyond the Inferno” says she’d kill herself alongside Mustang. Roy, in turn, has traumatic flashbacks imagining that Hawkeye might get killed by Gluttony, and is so frantic about her health in “Lost Light” that he is oblivious to an enemy almost attacking and killing him from the back. Mustang even admits to Bradley that he almost risked his physical health and the entire country’s safety… because he wanted to do human transmutation to save Hawkeye’s life. He would risk all that for one special woman.

Multiple characters beyond Chris Mustang, Grumman, and Vanessa indicate that they know Royai is close. Envy immediately believes Riza when she suggests she and Mustang are intimate. The gold-toothed alchemist and Bradley both know that Riza is the specific way to get to Roy’s heart. And throughout the story, Royai is written as a parallel point to Edwin. Riza tells Winry that she sticks with the military in support of one man, which helps give Winry the resolution to support the own man she loves. Riza understands Ed’s desire to protect Winry - a woman Riza knows Ed loves - because Riza, too, has someone dear she needs to protect. Everything from in-story parallels to official art often put Edwin and Royai as counters to each other.

An oft-quoted interview with Hiromu Arakawa published in the thing manga art book has the writer answering a question of why Royai aren’t married. If they weren’t romantically inclined, Arakawa would have said that. Instead, she explained that the thing preventing them from joining in matrimony was military anti-fraternization regulations. 

Other material outside of what Arakawa wrote herself or was placed in FMAB depict romantic Royai as well. 4Koma Theatre (which Arakawa also drew panels for in Chronicle) contains jokes where Mustang shows attraction to Hawkeye. The 2003 anime ends with Mustang reaching out to Hawkeye’s hair and calling her beautiful, and the two of them sharing smiles in the marketplace that show emotions they’ve given no one else. The 2003 character song “Rainy Day No Thanks” contains extremely flirtatious lines from both - it’s in fact a love song. Hawkeye calls Mustang’s actions “cute” and says she wants to hold him close, while Mustang says Riza is “a sexy lady to escort with a kiss.” Art from Daughter of the Dusk and Conqueror of Shamballa show Riza with her hand on Roy’s arm, much as you would see couples walk down the street. Mustang, sparkling and grinning in flirtation, calls Hawkeye so beautiful she takes words away in Prince of the Dawn, and is rather keen to hold onto a sexy photograph of her in a stunning dress in (I believe) Daughter of the Dusk. Maes Hughes seems rather interested in the idea of Roy and Riza pairing up for a team event in Dream Carnival, and teases them to the point of suggesting he could see them making out - which gets Riza abashed. 

All this material combined presents what I believe is a clear case to canon Royai romantic affections, regardless of whether or not you wish to ship it! (and no worries, we can all ship what we please!)

Now, this isn’t about the idea that romance is inherently “closer.” Roy and Riza are clearly close. Familial and platonic bonds can be just as close as romance, though. But the proof that this is coded as implicit romance is clear throughout the franchise, and clearly intended by the creator of the characters herself. So many of these things I mentioned would never be the case if not intended to be romantically coded. Vanessa asking if Riza’s departure means Roy’s now romantically available; Hawkeye sabotaging a date; Riza calling Mustang an affectionate term that’s not familial or platonic in nature; Arakawa herself saying Royai would get married if not for work regulations. Roy and Riza might never be able to act upon romantic interests in one another, but their affections are nevertheless underlyingly romantic. 

And now… the list I have. It’s not even anywhere close to comprehensive. But it should more than enough get the point across.

Keep reading

Is this adult content????? 

lazy mornings

Protest

See y’all on Tuesday. (I hope.) 

I’m torn between the art book (with larger size images) and the actual cards. At the moment, I’m leaning toward the cards.  

PLEASE SUPPORT THE EQUIVALENT EXCHANGE TAROT KICKSTARTER!!

We are incredibly close to our next stretch goal, which is Gilt edges and foil stamping on all cards and box!

As a small taste, I’m posting my @fmatarot card: The Five of Wands! There are a ton of talented artists who contributed to this fantastic project! We even have Artbooks available, where you can see the cards completely uncropped, in great detail!

EQUIVALENT EXCHANGE: @fmatarot KICKSTARTER: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/catstealers-zines/equivalent-exchange-tarot

Please reblog and share the kickstarter with your friends, even if you can’t afford to support it yourself! Thank you, and happy holidays!!