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October |
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October |
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Our Vision |
Our Mission |
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| TABLE OF CONTENTS | CLICK ON THE RED LINKS BELOW TO VIEW ARTICLES |
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One American was in space |
9/11: the only American not on Earth remembers watching from space (video) |
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News from the WMO |
Ozone hole smaller in 2009 than 2008: WMO |
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In |
NOAA’s Teacher at Sea Program: A Free Teacher Research Experience |
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Ground Breaker |
SpaceX and Astrium Announce Groundbreaking Deal |
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News |
Alaska's North Slope |
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News From NOAA |
Closing Statement from World Climate Conference-3 And Australian Dust Storms |
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News From NASA |
Spacecraft Talk Continued During
JPL Wildfire Threat And Satellites and Submarines Give the Skinny on Sea Ice Thickness And Landsat: A Space Age Water Gauge |
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Education Tools |
Geology.com Offers Teaching Resource for Earth Science Information |
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Go to SEA's Home Page |
Visit the Satellite Educators Association home page |
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As America paused to remember the victims of the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the only American not on Planet Earth that horrific day spoke eloquently of the shock and pain of witnessing from above.
On August 12, the shuttle docked with the ISS. Culbertson's companions after the shuttle left on August 20 were two Russian cosmonauts, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Nikolaevich Dezhurov, Soyuz Commander, and Mikhail Tyurin, Flight Engineer. They and the link to Mission Control back home in Houston were what sustained Culbertson as the crew witnessed and filmed the devastation as Twin Towers of the World Trade Center collapsed. The photo to the right was taken by Culbertson as the space station overflew New York City. "It's difficult to describe how it feels to be the only American completely off the planet at a time such as this," Culbertson told ground controllers. As the tragedy unfolded, Culbertson learned that a friend of his had been flying Flight 93 when its heroic crew and passengers forced its early crash in Pennsylvania, diverting it from another attack in Washington, D.C. Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. Culbertson spoke poignantly of exhaustion and a sense of isolation. He kept reporting their observations, including a "haze" over Washington, D.C., and the "odd bloom" of the smoke rising from the Twin Towers. NASA was determined that the agency would find a way to honor the victims of 9-11. Then-NASA Administrator Dan Goldin launched the "Flags for Heroes and Families" program. The crew of mission STS-108 aboard Endeavour carried 6,000 smaill American flags into space. Also aboard: a U.S. flag found at the World Trade Center site after the attacks, a U.S. flag that had flown above the Pennsylvania state capitol, a U.S. Marine Corps Colors flag from the Pentagon, a New York Fire Department flag, and a poster that included photographs of firefighters lost in the attacks. On Dec. 9, the shuttle and ISS crews paused for a memorial to those who had been lost. It was an emotional ceremony. The flag found in the Twin Towers rubble "....has a few tears in it. You can still smell the ashes," Endeavour commander Commander Dominic L. Gorie (Captain, USN) said Culbertson returned home with Gorie and the rest of the Endeavour crew. Also returning home: the 6,000 flags. NASA later mounted them on specially-designed memorial certificates and presented them to the survivors and families of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. NASA also deployed scientists and resources, including satellite tracking, to help monitor and analyze the environmental effects of the huge smoke and debris clouds from the destruction. This is the video Culbertson shot and his message to the folks back home. To view the video click here ______________________________________________________________ Ozone hole smaller in 2009 than 2008: WMOBy: Tom Spears, Canwest News Service 
The
World Meteorological Organization said Wednesday that the
ozone hole is expected to be
smaller in 2009 than a year ago.
"The meteorological conditions observed so far could
indicate that the 2009 ozone hole will be smaller than those of 2006 and
2008 and close to that of 2007," said the UN agency in a statement.
The hole in the layer over the Antarctic was discovered in
the 1980s. It regularly tends to form in August, reaching a maximum size
late September or early October before it fills again in December.
The size is dependent on
weather conditions. This year, the hole began forming "earlier than before,"
said WMO's expert on the ozone Geir Braathen. On September 16, it stood at 24 million square kilometers,
he said. In 2008, the maximum reached was 27 million square km
while in 2007, the maximum was 25 million square km. Experts have warned that the damage to the
ozone layer, which shields the
Earth from harmful ultra-violet
rays, is so bad that it will only attain full recovery in 2075. Ozone provides a natural protective filter against harmful
ultra-violet rays from the sun, which can cause sunburn, cataracts and skin
cancer as well as damage vegetation. Its depletion is caused by extreme cold at high altitude
and a particular type of pollution, from chemicals often used in
refrigeration, some plastic foams, or aerosol sprays, which have accumulated
in the atmosphere.
Most of these chemicals,
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), are being phased out under the 1987
Montreal Protocol, but they linger in the atmosphere for many years.
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SpaceX and Astrium Announce Groundbreaking Deal
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Astrium announce
a contract for a SpaceX Falcon 1e to launch an Earth observation satellite
designed by Astrium or its recently acquired subsidiary Surrey Satellite
Technology (SSTL).
About SpaceX
Founded in 2002, SpaceX is a private company owned by
management and employees, with minority investments from Founders Fund and
Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The SpaceX team now numbers over 800, with
corporate headquarters in Hawthorne,
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Closing Statement from World Climate
Conference-3 Improving development and delivery of climate services offers untold economic, environmental, human health, and national security benefits. For these reasons, the U.S. delegation is very pleased with the outcome of this conference, and its decision to establish a Global Framework for Climate Services. Today, user demands for climate information are increasing rapidly. Decision-makers at all levels of government, business leaders, civil society and individual citizens are asking how they can best prepare their communities, businesses or lives for the impacts of climate change. Lives, prosperity and social stability are at stake. We must now seize the opportunity to use the science-based information about climate change and variability and translate it into meaningful information that can be used to inform critical decisions. That the United States was both a sponsor and participant in this conference reflects President Obama’s strong commitment to addressing climate change. Climate change is a shared challenge. The declaration agreed to here unites all countries in recognizing the need for climate services. As we head into Copenhagen we are heartened by the spirit of cooperation and commitment. The United States is working actively toward a successful agreement through ambitious domestic actions and international cooperation. This morning’s announcement that President Obama will deliver an opening speech at the UN High Level Summit on Climate Change in New York later this month further demonstrates our country’s commitment to tackling this issue. The full closing statement by Dr. Lubchenco will be found by clicking here
Back to top
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NOAA’s Teacher at Sea Program: A Free Teacher Research Experience
Now Accepting Applications for 2010 Field
Season
______________________________________________________________ A rare, sunny day across Alaska’s North Slope on September 5 provided a clear view from outer space of North America’s largest oil field. When NASA’s Terra satellite passed over Prudhoe Bay at midday on Saturday, the waning sun of summer had managed to warm the air at the Deadhorse airport, near the shores of the Arctic Ocean, to a balmy 64 degrees. In the image to the right captured by the MODIS sensor on Terra, thousands of small lakes can be seen dotting the tundra — in a region normally frozen over except for a brief period of time between June and September. Because of a layer of permafrost less than 3 feet beneath the surface, the melted snow has no place to soak into the soil. That results in an abundance of small lakes and ponds, which turn into breeding grounds for voracious swarms of mosquitoes each summer. Oil was discovered beneath Prudhoe Bay on March 12, 1968, by engineers from what is now called ARCO, and Exxon. It was soon estimated that there were about 25 billion barrels of oil lying beneath the tundra and adjacent coastal waters of the Arctic Ocean. The 1973 oil crisis quickly made it economically feasible to not only drill more than 1,000 wells in America’s most remote region, but also to construct a pipeline across the state to deliver the crude to tanker ships. The Tran-Alaska Pipeline was completed in 1977, and extends 800 miles south from Prudhoe Bay to the Valdez Marine Terminal. Between 1977 and 2005, 13 billion barrels of oil were transported through the pipeline. Production peaked in 1998 at 2 million barrels per day, but had fallen to only 943,000 per day by 2005. The once vast oil reserve was contained in porous rock formations between 5,000 and 20,000 feet beneath the surface. But it has been able to rise to the wellheads under its own geologic pressure, eliminating the need for pumping. Thirty years of extraction from wells around Prudhoe Bay, and a vast network of satellite oil fields to the east and west, has considerably depleted the amount of oil beneath the region. British Petroleum estimated in 2006 that only 2 billion barrels of oil remain that can be acquired with current technology.
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Satellites and Submarines Give the Skinny
on Sea Ice Thickness
To better identify what these changes mean for the future, scientists need a
long-term look at past ice behavior. Each year, Arctic ice undergoes changes
brought about by the seasons, melting in the summer warmth and refreezing in
the cold, dark winter. A single extreme melt or freeze season may be the
result of any number of seasonal factors, from storminess to the Arctic
Oscillation (variations in atmospheric circulation over the polar regions
that occur on time scales from weeks to decades).
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Changes in the amount of atmospheric dust in Eastern Australia are
associated with local wind variations that the researchers related to
changes in the behavior of the Pacific climate system. While Australia has
experienced a relatively dust-free period since the 1970s, the U.S.-based
researchers predict this prolonged pattern will likely change and perhaps
soon. In addition, they found that the amount of sunshine over northern New
Zealand also is connected to the Pacific climate system. “This current dust storm has been produced by an individual weather
system that is rather classic in terms of picking up dust in Eastern
Australia. We know these systems were much more common from the late 1950s
to early 1970s, followed by a period of suppressed dust,” said Peter Lamb of
the NOAA-funded Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies.
“A reversal in the climate system’s behavior has been anticipated since at
least the end of the 1990s.” The climate researchers analyzed surface dust observations during the
past 50 years in Central Eastern Australia and found significant
fluctuations linked to climate conditions in the Pacific Ocean and other key
environmental conditions across the southwest Pacific including northern New
Zealand sunshine. The researchers found that from 1959 to 1973, Australia saw the largest
number of dust storms, followed by a sharp decline from 1973 to 1976. The
country experienced a much more dust-free period from 1977 to 2006. Northern
New Zealand sunshine decreased markedly from the earlier to later period.
Earlier this decade, the researchers detected signs that the Pacific climate
system could shift back to its earlier pattern.
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Spacecraft Talk Continued During JPL Wildfire
Threat
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M.Y. S.P.A.C.E. Photos from the 2008 conference posted.
Be a M.Y.
S.P.A.C.E. Teacher _________________________________________________________________
Landsat: A Space
Age Water Gauge
NASA has released a video illustrating an innovative
satellite-based method that maps agricultural water consumption. The new
mapping tool, based on Landsat satellite data, received a prestigious
Innovations In American Government award from Harvard University’s Ash
Institute on September 14. ___________________________________________________________
Geology.com Offers Teaching Resource for Earth Science Information Geology.com is a website for teachers, students, geologists and anyone with an interest in the Earth. Every day several thousand people receive Geology.com’s earth science news updates by email, RSS feed and Twitter. These will keep you informed about topics such as energy, resources, climate change and natural hazards. Geology.com is updated daily with news releases, articles, teaching ideas and earth science reference materials. The site also features an earth science glossary, rock and mineral photo galleries, printable time scale, mineral identification chart. Geology.com is a popular destination for teachers and students. Earth science teachers will find teaching ideas, rock photos that can be used with computer projection, ideas for teaching plate tectonics with easy-to-draw illustrations and much more. Geology.com's extensive collection of reference maps is popular with social science teachers. About Geology.com
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"Tears
don't flow in space," Commander Frank Culbertson, then-commander of the
International Space Station's Expedition 3 crew, said. Culbertson had been
launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on August 10.
This summer, a
group of scientists and students — as well as a Canadian senator, a writer,
and a filmmaker — set out from Resolute Bay, Canada, on the icebreaker
Louis S. St-Laurent. They were headed through the Northwest Passage, but
instead of opening shipping lanes in the ice, they had gathered to open up
new lines of thinking on Arctic science. 
Dust
storms in Australia, like the one happening right now, could become more
common according to climate research funded by the NOAA Climate Program
Office.
As
the flames of the raging brush fire dubbed the Station Fire threatened the
northern edge of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Saturday, Aug. 29, the
managers of NASA's Deep Space Network prepared for the worst. 
 "Image from video showing new method of mapping water consumption from space")
