2000 EARTH SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| NASA SCIENTIST TO STUDY SOUTHERN AFRICA'S ECOSYSTEM AND ATMOSPHERE | G00-073 | 08/9/00 | 00:09:19 | NASA's Earth Observing System program is supporting an intensive field experiment in southern Africa beginning in August 2000. Satellite, airborne, and ground data will be used to gain new insights into the region's environment and its impact on global change. The Southern African Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000) will study air pollution, ecosystems, land use, meteorology, ozone and trace gases, and water resources.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): Flight Over Southern Africa - This SeaWiFS data animation zooms over Cape Town, the Namibian Desert, the Kuiseb River, and past the Etosha Pan National Park in Nambibia.. Note the long streamers of red/orange tinged sand being blown out over the sea from the desert, the smoke plumes from biomass burning, and the extensive burning through Angola and Zambia. This data was collected on June 6, 2000.
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| ITEM (2): Etosha Pan, Namibia - LANDSAT 7 natural color data reveals an evaporated lake. Moving north and around the salt pan, it can be seen where winds blowing across the salt pan pick up fine dust and salt and blow it across the countryside. Dust and
salt plumes occasionally reach the ocean shore hundred of kilometers away. SAFARI-2000 will study this type of fine aerosol. This data was collected on July 31, 1999.
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| ITEM (3): Land Cover In South Africa - This Landsat 7 image show different types of land cover between Wannbad and Pietersburg, South Africa. Vegetation is green, arid or uncultivated land is pink, water bodies are blue or black. Pietersburg's Gateway International Airport is the operations center for the SAFARI 2000 intensive field campaign in August - September 2000.
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| ITEM (4): A Year Of Global Fires -
SAFARI-92 studies found that biomass burning in Southern Africa left its signature over the Atlantic Ocean. Scientists monitored fires over the entire planet from 1992 to 1993 to better understand the patterns created
by biomass burning. Data was collected by NOAA's Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instrument.
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| ITEM (5): Closer Look At Smog Over The Atlantic -Due to a strong circulation pattern over the southern Africa, smoke and atmospheric gases from industrial activities, fires, and natural processes are transported hundreds of kilometers. Here is a closer look at ozone monitored in 1997 and 1998 by NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer
(TOMS) processes.
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| ITEM (6): Global Smog - Ozone, although protective in our atmosphere, it is a pollutant on the ground, from large African savanna fires were seen over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and even Brazil. Scientists tracked this tropical ozone pollution in 1997 and 1998 with NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS). By monitoring "trans-boundary pollution" where emissions from fires drift over countries many miles away, ozone from Brazilian fires led to ozone over the Atlantic and the Pacific.
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| ITEM (7): Fires - SAFARI 2000 researchers will use daily images such as these of fires over Southern Africa to plan the six-week field campaign. These images of Mozambique from NOAA's AVHRR instrument pick out high-temperature sources. The second image of the same time and place in AVHRR's visible range shows clouds and smoke haze (lower right and upper left).
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| ITEM (8): Terra Satellite Animation - NASA's Terra spacecraft, launched in September 1999, is a multinational orbiting research platform. By synchronizing a sophisticated suite of sensors and instruments, Terra will help scientists pursue some of the most complex questions about our planet.
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| ITEM (9): The Many Facets of Terra -Terra is more than just the next incarnation of Earth's observing researching satellites. The five instruments on the platform will allow scientists the opportunity to explore synergistic avenues of research in new and novel ways. This animation shows a succession of layers, each one highlighting a different type of observed data.
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| ITEM (10): Collecting Pollultion Data - These initial images from Terra's MOPITT instrument survey carbon monoxide levels around the world earlier this year. In this visualization, red indicates high carbon monoxide areas and blue indicates low level areas.
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| ITEM (11): Terra Disects Clouds - NASA's Terra spacecraft provides new capabilities for measuring the properties of clouds, cloud types, and the sizes of the particles that make up clouds. This latter measurement allows scientists to distinguish clouds made of water droplets from those made of ice crystals. In this image from Terra's MODIS instrument, , blue represents ice clouds, pink indicates snow clouds, and green shows water clouds.
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| ITEM (12): The ER-2 in Flight "B" Roll - NASA's ER-2 high altitude aircraft join several other planes in the SAFARI 2000 experiment. These planes carry many different instruments to study the atmosphere, land surface, clouds, aerosols, and solar radiation. This is a view of NASA's single-pilot ER-2.
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