Gallery: Satellite view of Bahamas Ocean sands

Though you would be forgiven for thinking this picture a work of abstract art, it is actually a photograph of the Bahamas Ocean Sands captured by the Earth-orbiting Landsat 7 satellite.

Ocean currents in the Bahamas made the sand-and-seaweed sculpture in much the same way that winds create sand dunes in the Sahara.

NASA’s Earth Observatory has announced the ten most popular pictures of our home planet from its Image of the Day catalog, the culmination of a user-voted contest marking the tenth anniversary of the observatory’s Web site.

From “The best pictures of Earth: Reader pics of NASA Shots” Gallery, NationalGeographic.com

For full gallery, click HERE

Video: Jason2 satellite luanched to track Oceans, climate change

A new NASA-French space agency oceanography satellite launched June 20 on a globe-circling voyage to continue charting sea level, a vital indicator of global climate change. The mission will return a vast amount of new data that will improve weather, climate and ocean forecasts.

Measurements of sea-surface height, or ocean surface topography, reveal the speed and direction of ocean currents and tell scientists how much of the sun’s energy is stored by the ocean. Combining ocean current and heat storage data is key to understanding global climate variations.

OSTM/Jason 2’s expected lifetime of at least three years will extend into the next decade the continuous record of these data started in 1992 by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, or CNES, with the TOPEX/Poseidon mission. The data collection was continued by the two agencies on Jason 1 in 2001.

The mission culminates more than three decades of research by NASA and CNES in this field. This expertise will be passed on to the world’s weather and environmental forecasting agencies, which will be responsible for collecting the data. The involvement of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) as mission partners on OSTM/Jason 2 helps establish this proven research capability as a valuable tool for use in everyday applications.

From Science Daily: Read article
From National Geogrphaic: Watch video

Video: Satellites tracking the global melt

Fascinating video explaining how environmental monitoring satellites are tracking global warming by watching polar ice melt.

A study of polar bears in the south Beaufort Sea, which spans the northern coasts of Alaska and western Canada, found that adult males weigh less and have smaller skulls than those captured and measured two decades ago.

The study does not directly blame the changes on a decline in sea ice. However, fewer cubs and smaller males are consistent with other observations that suggest changes in sea ice may be adversely affecting polar bears.

From LiveScience: Watch the video