Graphic of the Day - Oz Burneth

My friend Dave Touissant grabbed this graphic from MODIS imagery and tweeted it and here it is now on my blog. The extent and magnitude of the fires in Australia just keeps expanding by the day as this is no longer merely limited to New South Wales and Queensland. Imagery courtesy of MODIS.

Raikoke Awakens

Raikoke Volcano erupted violently several days ago for the first time since 1924. It's located on an uninhabited island in the Russian Kuril Islands along the margins of the northwest Pacific Ocean. This namesake name means "hellmouth" in the native Ainu language. This image was shot from the International Space Station. Photo courtesy of NASA (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - Earth Full-Disc May 14, 2019

Note the unusually Winter-like storm pattern in the northeast Pacific Ocean headed towards California and the Pacific Northwest. Image courtesy of NOAA.

Picture of the Day - CAL FIRE Aerodrome

I found this Google Earth image on Twitter tonight. It shows numerous CAL FIRE aerial assets parked on the tarmac at an unidentified airfield. In this image we see six of CALFIRE's 23 Grumman S-2T 1,200 gallon airtankers and 10 of its 14 OV-10A airtactical aircraft (air attack planes).
Image courtesy of Google Earth (all rights reserved).

Lovely Lullaby Lonely

Tonight late I discovered this beautiful example of progressive trance from Russian trance producer Dennis Kenzo featuring Russian singer Svetlana Pisareva a.k.a. Sveta B. As previously stated on this blog, I'm boycotting all things Russian due to the actions of the corrupt regime governing that imprisoned land. However, I make an exception when it comes to electronica. Married to this sumptuous trance track released in 2012 is some amazing footage of our planet captured from the International Space Station in recent years. Crank up your speakers and enjoy! Note: best listened to in the middle of the night such as right now as I compose this post. Enjoy an extended chill-out version of this track posted a couple of days later HERE.

Picture of the Day - Here GOES-16

Last November 19th, NASA launched the Next-Big-Thing in weather satellitery called GOES-16 (I'm such a weather geek I watched it launch live). Yesterday, NASA released the first images captured by the orbiting probe. Regarding this image NASA states: "This composite color full-disk visible image is from 1:07 p.m. EDT on Jan. 15, 2017, and was created using several of the 16 spectral channels available on the GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument." For for information read article HERE. Click on image to see enlarged view. Image courtesy of NASA (all rights reserved).

Titanic Touchdown

Tonight on Twitter I noticed a tweet linking to this article and read it and watched its accompanying video which is above. I find this otherworldly footage fascinating and wondrous. I'm surprised I missed seeing this before now, but better late than never. In case you're wondering and haven't yet clicked on the link, this is about Saturn's moon Titan.

Streaming Pyrocumulus in Oz

Above: Here is a view from orbit (Landsat-8) of the wind-driven 30,000-acre Cocklebiddy wildfire in Western Australia's Nuytsland Nature Reserve featuring some rather spectacular pyrocumulus clouds. Image courtesy of NASA. For more on this image go HERE.

Below: Here is a thermal infrared image of the same scene from the same source.
(Updated 12/09/16)

Songda the Stormy Dragon

I saw this image Tweeted last night in reference to its likeness to a dragon. It shows the first large-scale batch of moisture from the late Typhoon Songda encased in an upper level low pressure system rotating across the Pacific Northwest and environs. This interesting coincidental likeness to a cultural reference brings to mind the recent Hurricane Matthew skull likeness I shared HERE.

Death's Head Storm

I intended to post this sooner but got cramped for time this week. Long-time meteorologist Stu Ostro tweeted this image last Tuesday. It is an infrared satellite image of Hurricane Matthew as it slammed into Haiti earlier this week. That is strikes the eye as looking like a grimacing skull head is an odd and ominous coincidence and happenstance given that island nation's dark history and association with voodoo and zombies. Thus far the storm has killed nearly 900 people, most of which were citizens of Haiti. Note: for those unfamiliar with storm structure, satellite imagery, or geography, this image is a measure of heat as viewed from orbit and the eye of the skull is the eye of the storm and the eye is just coming ashore at the southwestern tip of the island of Haiti. The "teeth" of the skull are actually towering cumulunimbus storms poking up above the adjacent clouds.

Graphic of the Day - Friday's Smokey Skies

This from the National Weather Service Monterey/San Francisco showing my atmospheric reality today.

Graphic of the Day - 2016 Burn Areas

This graphic was tweeted by NWS Sacramento yesterday and shows cold and hot burn areas this year for the area revealed by this map with the emphasis being on the ongoing Soberanes Fire in coast range of Monterey County.

Picture of the Day - Pavlofian Behavior

The brightest light in this image is actually volcanic lightning generated from an erupting Pavolof Volcano in Alaska a couple of nights ago as seen from satellite. Note the ash cloud drift towards the upper right from the illuminated erupting mountain. Image courtesy of CIMSS, SSEC, University of Wisconsin-Madison (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Equinox 2016 From Space

Enhanced false-color image of yesterday's spring equinox 2016 as viewed from Meteosat-5 in geostationary orbit above Africa and the South Atlantic Ocean. Note equal sun exposure at both poles. For more images of this equinox and one from last December's solstice go HERE. Image courtesy of EUMETSAT (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - Solar Cycles

I'm not sure from when I found this but here it is in all its glory. It shows snapshots of our star from each year from 1996 through last year. Image courtesy unknown.

Giant Case Of Blue Ball

I encountered this ISS video compilation tonight on Youtube quite by accident and was blown away by it.... great ambient soundtrack... even greater footage. It almost makes me want to weep it is so beautiful.... I am thankful to my Creator for creating this place and creating me and placing me on that blue ball despite all the pain and uncomfortableness and loss that comes with it.

Altara From Altitude

I recently found this track while patrolling Youtube for new amazing tracks and appropriate awesome accompanying videos. It is called "Altara" by Swedish trance artist Johan Vilborg which here is remixed by Canadian electronic music artist Nigel Good and was released in 2012. I never grow weary of watching orbital imagery (International Space Station in this case) even when I've seen some of it before as is the case here. However, some of it may be new to me. Turn up your speakers and expand the music player to full-screen.

Graphic of the Day - El Niño From Hell IV

This is what the ongoing El Niño looked like from Jason-2 ten days ago on January 8, 2016. The previous image HERE was captured December 27, 2015. Notice there is a lot more that is above average than below average in regards to ocean surface temperatures and near-surface temperatures. For more on this check HERE.  Image courtesy of NOAA (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Full Earth-Rise

This image was cobbled together from a series of images captured October 12, 2015, by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. This HD image composite was released December 18, 2015. For more about it read HERE. This is stunning and really puts a lot of things in perspective. Image courtesy of NASA (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - El Niño Get's Its MJO

This interesting graphic comes to us courtesy of a Discover Magazine blog post HERE. It refers to the Madden-Julian Oscillation in the Tropical Pacific Ocean that is currently intensifying the ongoing El Niño conditions in the Pacific Ocean. (Earth image: Japan Meteorological Agency. Diagram: Mike Baker, National Weather Service, Boulder, Colorado. Graphics mashup: Tom Yulsman)