E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Jeff Schmaltz / NASA MODIS / GSFC
This outer-space view of southwest Alaska was captured on Nov. 21 by the MODIS imager on NASA's Aqua satellite.
This satellite picture captures a broad view of southwest Alaska just as Jack Frost is nipping at the northernmost state's "nose."
NASA's Aqua satellite took aim at the region with its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, on Nov. 21. Even though that's a month before the official start of winter, Arctic sea ice is beginning to form, creating white tendrils that spread out from the Alaska Peninsula (a geological feature that always reminds me of an elephant's nose).
If you take a close look at the picture, you can trace the snow-covered volcanoes on the peninsula, the tan patches of bare land, the bright reflections from Alaska's frozen rivers and the deep green boreal forests breaking through a white blanket of frost. Need a closer look? Check out this 4-megabyte, 250-meter-resolution version from NASA's MODIS website. To get your bearings, compare the recent view with this annotated satellite picture from Google Maps.
This frosty look at Alaska serves as today's offering from the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, which features a fresh view of Earth from space every day from now until Christmas. Follow the links below to feast your eyes on more visual goodies for the holiday season:
- 2012 Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar
- Day 1: A fantastic Chinese fan
- Day 2: Satellite shows a Grander Canyon
- Day 3: Typhoon stirs awe — and alarm
- Day 4: Glittering nighttime view of Riyadh
- Day 5: Night lights shine on 'Black Marble'
- Day 6: Holy sites seen at night
- Day 7: Blue Marble still leaves its mark
- Day 8: Satellites look into a volcano's hell
- 2011 Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar
- 2010 Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar
- The Atlantic: Hubble Advent Calendar
- Zooniverse Advent Calendar
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other science and space news coverage, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered via email. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Looks like winter is on the move.
huh? what was the point of this story??
If you would actually read the story, it is part of a series of pictures of the earth made from space. And if you click on the links at the end, you'll get some more great views of the earth. You know - it doesn't all have to be some earth-shaking news event. I personally like seeing some pics that I would never otherwise see.
Coming from "roadlesstraveled" I expect this kind of retort from him/her. Have read posts on other threads. This is a great article about a great state with some amazing photography.. Sorry there isn't any death and dismemberment or politics.. move along......
It's a photo blog. What would expect to find in a photo blog other than photos?
The two brown areas are from global warming.....
They try so hard to convince us that global warming is real and then they release images like this one. That sea ice travels all the way to the north pole, that is way its called the polar ice pack. Global warming is a scam and this image helps to prove that fact.
this image proves global warming is a scam huh?
No...no this image doesn't prove anything of the sort to anyone with any critical thinking ability.
Yeah the temperature right now is 72 on December 10th in Alabama. No such thing as global warming huh?
What part of the word GLOBAL do you not understand?
What part of the word TREND do you not understand?
Gee... every one knows and science proves that the Globe is warming.... It true.. really.. Snow only came early because... err... the "warming" caused a unnatural downdraft like in Day After Tomorrow... Doesn't anyone remember Sandy... Help Al Gore.. your our only Hope....
The snow hasn't come early. Nobody said the snow has come early. Nobody has even mentioned global warming except the deniers. Al Gore has nothing to do with the science of global warming. And you have never shown any indication of understanding science when it comes up.
actually I have... as a matter of fact I pointed out the same facts as Jwright.. (ty by the way) I am having a little fun with the HCGW guys is all.. Merry Christmas... Have a happy New Year and lighten up and enjoy the the snow..... Be for my carbon footprint melts it all.
The Earth goes through cycles of warm and cold periods. This is a well documented fact. The Earth was quite a bit warmer even just 1000 years ago than it is today. What we are experiencing is just part of a natural cycle. Storms like Sandy, while rare, have happened in the past and will continue to happen. Doesn't anyone think its all a bit convenient how all the scientists spouting this man-made global warming nonsense seem to have been hired by the same individuals who started the global warming craze in the first place?
The scientists writing these reports have questionable credibility. On the other hand we have visual confirmation of record polar ice packs. I'd rather side with the visual evidence than the contradictory reports. I'm not saying humans don't have an impact on the environment, that would be an absurd claim. I am saying that we aren't having nearly the impact that these global warming nut-jobs would like everyone to believe. They have an agenda and that agenda will make these individuals VERY wealthy, but only if people believe in the nonsense they are spouting.
On the contrary, Arctic ice plummeted to record lows this year. Antarctica is also losing ice - as is the entire globe.
Every other statement you make is equally false, J. If you want to speak on a scientific issue, it's best to familiarize yourself with the facts, which are not disputed, and quite easy to link here.
Actually, there's a bit of truth to both of you.
The Earth does go through warming and cooling cycles. There have been a number of glaciations (ice ages) in the last million years or so, followed by periods of warming and glacial melting.
What isn't well established is how much of the current activity of humans is contributing to the current warming. With all the stuff we pump into the air and all the forests we continue to clear for human development, no one can say we are not affecting climate.
Actually Earth is considered to be in an ice age as long as there is permanent ice anywhere on the planet. Earth has been in an ice age for around 2.5 million years now.
Consider the bazillions of trillions of gadzillions ( scientific terminology ) of tons coal and oil and minerals man has removed from the earth and burned, the mass of the Earth would seem to have to be decreasing.
Physics says as the mass decreases the centrifulgal force of the Earth swinging around the Sun should cause the Earth to move gradually away from the Sun as the Earth gets lighter and lighter.
The Earth should be getting colder by a degree or two over the centuries and that chilling effect helps to counter global warming ( which is a misnomer itself ).
But climate change ( the correct term for global warming ) is causing the Earth to lose ice at both poles anyway.
Mankind is doomed if we don't get off this planet in the fairly near future. The Earth's resources are limited. We have already burned up half of the world's oil reserves. When oil becomes even scarcer mass starvation will hit the planet as we can no longer have a petroleum based agriculture and man will go back to riding horses and plowing with mules.
Physics also says mass can be neither created nor destroyed. Where do you figure all your supposed loss of mass is going?
As we burn the products the mass is converted into heat and light both of which radiate into space and are lost.
Nothing is destroyed as you point out -- just converted and once converted into energy there is NOTHING to keep it confined to Earth.
I suspect that if you were sitting on the Moon and pointed an infra red camera at Earth you would see a bright heat signature, even on the nightside.
The Earth has been losing mass since day one really but since the Industrial Revolution that relatively insignificant loss has been increased several thousandfold with the burning of petroleum and coal.
I would just about bet a pension check that the distance from the Sun to the Earth has increased since the year 1000.
Not by much ... maybe a few inches.
Not likely to freeze your grand kids.
But they will likely be riding horses down the remains of the freeways because in 50 years petroleum will be so expensive it can't be used for transportation anymore. In only 125 years we have used half of the known oil reserves and consumption is accelerating as China demands more and more.
Mankind has been on Earth for thousands of years and the Industrial Revolution began less than 400 years ago which, in geological terms, is less than the blink of an eye. Yet in that short span man has been raping the Earth of resources and stripping the land bare.
We have gone from feudalistic societies in rural settings to massive city states and the population has ballooned due to petroleum based agriculture. Petroleum is used not only for the machines we farm with but in the fertilizers and insecticides we use to create huge harvests to feed the worlds masses.
If we don't expand to other planets man is doomed because we are using up our finite resources at an ever increasing rate.
Climate change is the LEAST of our problems ... and that is a huge problem in itself.
Well, if petroleum gets that expensive, say goodbye to Tupperware.
Everybody come on up to Point Lay AK. Its a pleasant -27 today.
It looks quite normal for November in Alaska.
Today is not normal, it's been above zero in Fairbanks since Sunday morning. Quite nice actually!
Jack Frost nipping at Alaska's nose...Hummm sound realy outta place for ALASKA to be so whats that word..Oh yea COLD ...In December even ..It must be ..Whats that other word oh yea WINTER..In the Northen Hemisphere...Could be a real disaster if Alaska was not balmy this season..Perhaps next winter with the warming trend we can plant some palm tree's in Nome or Anchorage...A place like Alaska used to be the HOME of Jack Frost...What a Joke....How the News plays with reality to convince us .....EVERYTHING...IS...OK....Look see it still gets cold in Alaska.....ITS ALL NORMAL......yea right....
Did anyone suggest that it wasn't normal?
It's cold in Alaska. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.
It's just a nice pic of the earth, alright? Not a mention in the story of global warming at all. It's just a picture. Enjoy it.
Snow in Dallas. Here comes another ice age. Polar bears are happy.
Yes, but no ice, therefore I'm at work.
MSNBC - Alaska does get COLD in the winter. I know that you love listening to Al Gore and his global warming @#$%^$$#. Get a life and talk about something else!
There is nothing in the article about global warming or anything that would even suggest implicit support for it. Someone had a cool picture and wanted to share it with us. Get a life and stop looking for excuses to attack people.
Even though that's a month before the official start of winter, Arctic sea ice is beginning to form
http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/globe_seized_by_bitter_cold_arctic_record_refreeze_uk_faces_100_year_winter/
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2012/12/winds-and-warmth-influence-freeze-up/
http://www.polarbearalley.com/blog/index.php/2012/11/15/polar-bear-blog-hudson-bay-ice/
Yes, genius, it does tend to ice up in the Arctic in the winter. And nobody is stupid enough to think the arctic winter begins on Dec. 21.
Hey it's above 20 this morning in Eagle River Ak we are having a heat wave!! ;-)
This just in- It is cold in Alaska
I can't believe people really think there are such things as satellites. It's all photoshop, suckers
Lovely photos, just right for the holiday season!
Alaska is beautiful , but i like Hawaii better been there done seen that (both places and more)on my tax payer funded comedy cruise.
What purpose would scientists have to "create" the global warming "hoax?" What is Al Gore's ulterior motive for his movie and activism? I don't think he, or any scientists, get kick-backs from hybrid car sales. I really don't understand all of these negative reactions to people who are just trying to save the world.