EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


Solar Corona Observed in Fog at Nags Head, North Carolina

February 02, 2021

Sun_on_the_Sound_2020-11-26

Photographer: Rob Bruner
Summary Author: Rob Bruner
While visiting the Outer Banks of North Carolina one day this past
November, the weather was very foggy throughout the morning and
into the afternoon. However, by midafternoon, the fog began to break
up, and the Sun was partially visible, but then the fog quickly
rolled back in, considerably reducing the visibility over Currituck
Sound. As the fog reappeared, I could see a corona around the Sun,
and then noticed its reflection near the shoreline. Fog is composed of
water droplets that act to deflect ( diffraction process) light
rather than reflect and refract it, as with raindrops, which may be
up to 1,000 times smaller in diameter. Note that smaller droplets tend
to result in larger diffraction angles and thus a larger corona. Make
sure to protect your eyes when looking in the direction of the Sun.
Photo taken on November 26, 2020.

Photo Details: Camera: Apple iPhone 11; Software: PaintShop Pro 22.00;
Exposure Time: 0.0001s (1/18868); Aperture: ƒ/1.8; ISO equivalent: 40;
Focal Length (35mm): 26
* Nags Head, North Carolina Coordinates: 35.914719, -75.605147

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Solar Corona Observed in Fog at Nags Head, North Carolina Lunar
Halo Above Evia, Greece Bright Parhelion over Syracuse, Italy
Archive - Aurora Observed from Space Station The Golden Hour at
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Germany
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Atmospheric Effects Links

* Atmospheric Optics
* Color and Light in Nature
* The Colors of Twillight and Sunset
* Refraction Index
* Image Gallery: Atmospheric Effects
* What is a Rainbow?

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Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu

--- up 6 weeks, 6 days, 21 hours, 27 minutes
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EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


SpaceX Test Flight

March 02, 2021

Cesar rocket failure 25

Photographer: Cesar Cantu
Summary Author: Cesar Cantu

Space conquest requires tests; many of them don't entirely succeed. On
February 2, 2021, SpaceX launched the prototype Starship rocket
seen above from its flight facility in Boca Chica, Texas. Initially,
the silver booster achieved an altitude of approximately 6 miles (10
km) as planned but the pilotless test flight ended with a spectacular
explosion when the rocket failed to straighten out and crashed to earth
tail-first.

Photo Details: 14-tile composite image
* South Padre Island, Texas Coordinates: 25.99639, -97.15719

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SpaceX Test Flight Lunar Meteorite NWA 7986 Refraction of
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Similarity Across Scales at the Extreme: Shapes of Pleurosigma and
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Applied Sciences Links

* BBC: World Water Crisis
* Indoor Air Quality
* Mathematics in Nature
* A Mathematical Nature Walk
* NASA: Applied Earth Sciences
* Remote Sensing Tutorial

-
Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu

--- up 10 weeks, 6 days, 21 hours, 27 minutes
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EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


Frost Pattern on Cold Window

April 02, 2021

035243255E634A4684822E8ECB91EB40 (1)

Photographer: Mary Kelly
Summary Authors: Mary Kelly; Jim Foster

The photo above shows an elaborate frost pattern on a storm window
in my home in Des Moines, Iowa. It was snapped around midday on
February 6, 2021. Fern-like frost patterns like this will often form on
windowpanes once the outside air temperature drops below about 14
degrees F (-10 C) if there's sufficient moisture (usually transferred
from the inside of the house) to allow frost crystals to grow.

Outside, the air temperature was 9 degrees F (-13 C). The inside
temperature was about 66 degrees F (19 C), but on the second floor,
where the window frost was prominent, it was probably cooler because
the heating vents here aren’t very efficient. Worth noting, the
humidity may have been somewhat higher than normal because the bathroom
shower had been used earlier in the day. Also, it should be mentioned
that the upstairs windows don’t completely latch. So it’s likely that
the cold temperature of the indoor glass allowed moisture in the
upstairs rooms to crystalize directly onto the windowpanes.
* Des Moines, Iowa Coordinates: 41.5868, -93.6250

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Cryosphere Links

* Guide to Frost
* What is the Cryosphere?
* Bentley Snow Crystals
* Glaciers of the World
* Ice, Snow, and Glaciers: The Water Cycle
* The National Snow and Ice Data Center Google Earth Images
* Snow and Ice Crystals

-
Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu

--- up 1 week, 22 hours, 9 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (21:1/186)

EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


Interplay of Rocket Exhaust and its Reflection on Water

June 02, 2021


2T2A2047-Edit

Photographer: Michael Seeley

Summary Authors: Michael Seeley; Jim Foster

Shown above is a 195-second exposure of the launch of a SpaceX
Falcon9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was taken at
4:28 a.m. (local time) on March 24, 2021. I chose my viewing position
specifically to have water in view of the camera since I thought it
would be glassy enough to mirror the launch and the rocket’s
exhaust. As it turned out, the water, though not rough, was gently
rolling, creating the curious squiggles in the foreground that caught
my attention. This is something I hadn’t previously observed. The
exhaust's reflection on the water is known as a glitter path. Like
all such paths, it's composed of quickly moving points of light darting
over the water's surface. However, the "squiggles" are akin to moon
circles that can only be seen when the water surface is rippled. I find
the interplay between the water and the rocket exhaust to be quiet
mesmerizing.

Cocoa Beach, Florida Coordinates: 28.3200, -80.6076


Recent EPODs

strong_storms_over_the_olympic_mountains
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archive_schunemunk_mountain_conglomerate purple_anemone
geodiversity_atop_utahs_velvet_ridge may_apples_in_my_garden
-
Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
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https://epod.usra.edu

--- up 3 weeks, 5 days, 12 hours, 15 minutes
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EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


Annular Eclipse of June 10, 2021, Observed from Quebec

July 02, 2021

Ecl10juin21
Ecl10juin21

Photographer: Philippe Moussette

Summary Author: Philippe Moussette & Cadan Cummings

The phenomenon seen here is an annular solar eclipse, as observed
from Quebec City, Quebec on June 10, 2021. Solar eclipses occur
when the Moon passes in front of the Sun and casts a shadow onto the
Earth. Depending on the alignment of the planetary bodies and the
distance from the Earth to the Moon, this event can be one of three
types- total, partial, or annular. In the case of the eclipse on
June 10, 2021, the new Moon was too far away from the Earth to
completely cover the Sun, therefore resulting in an annular eclipse.
The Moon’s orientation and distance in relation to the Earth is
continually changing due to its elliptical orbit. This orbit
eccentricity and wobble is the reason solar eclipses do not occur
every month.

The top image shows a timelapse mosaic of the Moon passing in front of
the solar disk. The partial shadow cast by the Moon’s disk is called
the antumbra during an annular eclipse. Depending on your
location’s latitude and longitude, the Moon’s coverage of the Sun
varies with the point of maximum cover called the path of
annularity. In the second picture, the annular eclipse is beginning
shortly after sunrise over the St. Lawrence River.
* Quebec City, Quebec Coordinates: 46.837661, -71.198527

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Sun Links

* NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
* NASA Solar Eclipse Page
* NOAA Solar Calculator
* The Sun-Earth Connection: Heliophysics
* The Sunspot Cycle
* Solar System Exploration: The Sun
* The Sun Now
* This Week’s Sky

-
Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu

--- up 8 weeks, 12 hours, 15 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (21:1/186)

EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


Creating a Natural Abstract Photograph

August 02, 2021


Menashe_DSC_5806 (002)

Photographer: Menashe Davidson

Summary Author: Menashe Davidson

The photo above shows a purple anemone flower as observed through
water drops coating a sheet of clear plastic. It was taken in my
home garden in Rishon LeZion, Israel. A water drop can act as a
convex lens. Such lenses are thicker in the center than along
their edges and can magnify and also distort objects placed behind
them.

Since I focused here in on a fragment of a natural scene in my garden,
I purposely created a seemingly unreal impression from a real object --
the anemone. So, it can be thought of as an abstract photograph that
captures a sensation, a mood, but to create it I had to begin with
something concrete, in this case with water drops and flowers. The
drops beautifully reflect the world about the anemone. Click here
to see a video of this phenomenon.


* Rishon LeZion, Israel Coordinates: 31.9730, 34.7925

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Plant Links

* Discover Life
* Tree Encyclopedia
* What are Phytoplankton?
* Encyclopedia of Life - What is a Plant?
* USDA Plants Database
* University of Texas Native Plant Database
* Plants in Motion
* What Tree is It?

-
Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu

--- up 12 weeks, 3 days, 12 hours, 15 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (21:1/186)

EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


Archive - Gurgler Glacier

October 02, 2021
6a0105371bb32c970b01b7c85d7cfd970b

Every weekend we present a notable item from our archives.

This EPOD was originally published May 23, 2016.
Photographer: Klaus Sandforth
Summary Author: Klaus Sandforth

May 2016 Viewer's Choice Shown above are several ski
mountaineers entering the Gurgler Glacier in the Ötztaler Alpen
(Eastern Alps) of Austria. What looks at first sight like a classic
glacier snout is dead ice of the retreating Gurgler Glacier,
not far from Schalfkogel Peak, where the group is heading to climb.
Dead ice is forming in receding glacial environments, where
distinct ice bodies get separated from the main glacier. Note the
slightly stratified but mostly crystal clear ice here. The rippled
surface texture might be caused by differential melting and
sublimation due to warm air currents, particularly in spring and
summer. The surface of the ice is perfectly smooth and appears to
be polished. This structure is rather temporary and fragile as it
developed only a few years ago and will likely fade away just as
quickly. Our passage might seem dangerous, but during the winter season
when temperatures are generally below freezing level, it’s a pretty
safe place to stay.
Like many glaciers in the Alps, the Gurgler Glacier lost much of
its mass in the last 150 years and is now retreating on average a
few tens of meters every year. Climate change and glacier retreat
in the Alps has both ecological and economical impacts. Glaciers
attract tourists and also provide natural water reservoirs and
hydropower. Photo taken on March 17, 2015.
Photo Details: Apple iPhone 4S back camera; 35 mm focal length; ƒ/2.4
aperture; 1/1126 sec. exposure; ISO 50.
* Gurgler Glacier, Austria Coordinates: 46.8193, 10.9756

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Cryosphere Links

* Guide to Frost
* What is the Cryosphere?
* Bentley Snow Crystals
* Glaciers of the World
* Ice, Snow, and Glaciers: The Water Cycle
* The National Snow and Ice Data Center Google Earth Images
* Snow and Ice Crystals

-
Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu

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