NASA's Terra satellite captured this image of the burn scar from Colorado's Black Forest fire, which charred more than 14,000 acres (5,700 hectares) and destroyed 509 homes, killing two people.
Astronauts View Raging Wildfires
Colorado's West Fork Complex fire was so hot that it spawned pyrocumulus clouds”tall, cauliflower-shaped clouds that swell high above Earth's surface. Here's how it looked from the International Space Station.
Black Forest Fire Colorado's Most Destructive
Colorado wasn't forecast to have an unusually high wildfire risk this year, but when temperatures soared above 100°F in Denver on June 11”the earliest ever for triple digits”all bets were off. On the same day, the Black Forest fire erupted. A week later, more than 500 homes were destroyed and two lives lost northeast of Colorado Springs.
Satellite Observes Giant Oklahoma Tornado Scar
On June 2, 2013, NASA's Terra satellite observed an immense scar on the Oklahoma landscape left by a May 20, 2013, EF-5 tornado”the most severe rating on the enhanced Fujita scale. It was the deadliest U.S. tornado since an EF-5 killed 158 people in Joplin, Mo., in 2011.
Sizing Up a Volcano
When studying volcanoes, detecting even slight movements of the land surface can tell a lot about what's happening below. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have a new tool to observe such ground deformation.
Astronauts Capture Novel View of Alaska Volcano
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) photographed striking views of Pavlof Volcano on May 18, 2013. The oblique perspective from the ISS reveals the ash plume's 3-D structure, which often is obscured by the traditional nadir views of most remote sensing satellites.
The Views from LDCM”Better Than Our Own Eyes!
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to soar like a satellite, watching the world pass beneath you? Except for a few astronauts, the dream is elusive”but through imagery from the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), we can take such a vicarious flight.
Micro-Organisms Spice up Lake Color
High in Argentina's Andes Mountains, Laguna (lake) Verde shows off a range of colors created by a host of microscopic organisms in this astronaut photo taken from the International Space Station.
IceBridge Scientists Capture Dramatic Photos
NASA's Operation IceBridge scientists have wrapped up another season of their six-year polar ice survey. After weeks of cruising low over the ice, they usually return with stacks of jaw-dropping photos of rarely seen parts of the world”this spring's expedition was no exception.
Sicily Volcano Acts Up
Early in April 2013, Mount Etna in Sicily appeared whimsical, blowing smoke rings composed not of actual smoke, but of steam, volcanic gases and some volcanic ash. Then on April 18, the Advanced Land Imager on the Earth Observing-1 satellite observed additional activity.
