Carbon is the backbone of life on Earth. We are made of carbon, we eat carbon and our civilizations are built on carbon. We need carbon, but that need is also entwined with one of the most serious problems facing us today: global climate change.
Forged in the heart of aging stars, carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the Universe. Most of Earth’s carbon – about 65,500 billion metric tons – is stored in rocks. The rest is in the ocean, atmosphere, plants, soil and fossil fuels.
Over the long term, the carbon cycle seems to maintain a balance that prevents all of Earth’s carbon from entering the atmosphere, or from being stored entirely in rocks. This balance helps keep Earth’s temperature relatively stable, like a thermostat.
Today, changes in the carbon cycle are happening because of people. We disrupt the cycle by burning fossil fuels and clearing land. Our Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite is providing our first detailed, global measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere at the Earth’s surface. OCO-2 recently released its first full year of data, critical to analyzing the annual CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.
The above animation shows carbon dioxide released from two different sources: fires and massive urban centers known as megacities. The animation covers a five day period in June 2006. The model is based on real emission data and is then set to run so that scientists can observe how greenhouse gas behaves once it has been emitted.
All of this extra carbon needs to go somewhere. So far, land plants and the ocean have taken up about 55 percent of the extra carbon people have put into the atmosphere while about 45 percent has stayed in the atmosphere. The below animation shows the average 12-month cycle of all plant life on Earth (on land and in the ocean). Eventually, the land and oceans will take up most of the extra carbon dioxide, but as much as 20 percent may remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years.
Excess carbon in the atmosphere warms the planet and helps plants on land grow more. Excess carbon in the ocean makes the water more acidic, putting marine life in danger. Forest and other land ecosystems are also changing in response to a warmer world. Some ecosystems – such as thawing permafrost in the Arctic and fire-prone forests – could begin emitting more carbon than they currently absorb.
To learn more about NASA’s efforts to better understand the carbon and climate challenge, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/carbonclimate/.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com
A Couple of Friends It’s Not Your Grandmother’s Needlepoint
Assustador!!
Hurricanes are the most violent storms on Earth. People call these storms by other names, such as typhoons or cyclones, depending on where they occur.
The scientific term for ALL of these storms is tropical cyclone. Only tropical cyclones that form over the Atlantic Ocean or eastern and central Pacific Ocean are called “hurricanes.”
Whatever they are called, tropical cyclones all form the same way.
Tropical cyclones are like giant engines that use warm, moist air as fuel. That is why they form only over warm ocean waters near the equator. This warm, moist air rises and condenses to form clouds and storms.
As this warmer, moister air rises, there’s less air left near the Earth’s surface. Essentially, as this warm air rises, this causes an area of lower air pressure below.
This starts the ‘engine’ of the storm. To fill in the low pressure area, air from surrounding areas with higher air pressure pushes in. That “new” air near the Earth’s surface also gets heated by the warm ocean water so it also gets warmer and moister and then it rises.
As the warm air continues to rise, the surrounding air swirls in to take its place. The whole system of clouds and wind spins and grows, fed by the ocean’s heat and water evaporating from the surface.
As the storm system rotates faster and faster, an eye forms in the center. It is vey calm and clear in the eye, with very low air pressure.
Tropical cyclones usually weaken when they hit land, because they are no longer being “fed” by the energy from the warm ocean waters. However, when they move inland, they can drop many inches of rain causing flooding as well as wind damage before they die out completely.
There are five types, or categories, of hurricanes. The scale of categories is called the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale and they are based on wind speed.
How Does NASA Study Hurricanes?
Our satellites gather information from space that are made into pictures. Some satellite instruments measure cloud and ocean temperatures. Others measure the height of clouds and how fast rain is falling. Still others measure the speed and direction of winds.
We also fly airplanes into and above hurricanes. The instruments aboard planes gather details about the storm. Some parts are too dangerous for people to fly into. To study these parts, we use airplanes that operate without people.
To learn more about how we study hurricanes, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/main/index.html
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
Novembro Marrom A cor da Terra A cor das lágrimas De um povo Calado Pela Lama.
Fantástico!!
What’s that green streak in front of the Andromeda galaxy? A meteor. While photographing the Andromeda galaxy last Friday, near the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower, a sand-sized rock from deep space crossed right in front of our Milky Way Galaxy’s far-distant companion. The small meteor took only a fraction of a second to pass through this 10-degree field. The meteor flared several times while braking violently upon entering Earth’s atmosphere. The green color was created, at least in part, by the meteor’s gas glowing as it vaporized. Although the exposure was timed to catch a Perseids meteor, the orientation of the imaged streak seems a better match to a meteor from the Southern Delta Aquariids, a meteor shower that peaked a few weeks earlier
Object Names: Andromeda Galaxy
Image Type: Astronomical
Credit: Fritz Helmut Hemmerich
Time And Space
É lindo quando eles aparecem no meu jardim!!!
Nihon no kotori (Japanese small birds), cute helpful chart by @T_marohiko listing the following species:
First row - 百舌 mozu (bull-headed shrike) / 目黒 meguro (bonin white-eye) / 川蝉 kawasemi (kingfisher) / ツグミ tsugumi (dusky thrush) / 鶯 uguisu (japanese bush warbler)
Second row - 雀 suzume (sparrow) / 燕 tsubame (swallow) / 椋鳥 mukudori (grey starling) / 駒鳥 komadori (japanese robin) / 赤啄木鳥 akagera (great spotted woodpecker)
Third Row - 頬白 hoojiro (meadow bunting) / シマエナガ shimaenaga (silver-throated dasher) / 鷽 uso (japanese bullfinch) / 菊戴 kikuitadaki (goldcrest) / 白鶺鴒 hakusekirei (black-backed wagtail)
Fourth row - 五十雀 gojuukara (eurasian nuthatch) / 四十雀 shijuukara (japanese tit) / 小雀 kogara (willow tit) / 日雀 higara (coal tit) / 山雀 yamagara (varied tit)
Fifth row - 黄鶲 kibitaki (narcissus flycatcher) / 小瑠璃 koruri (siberian blue robin) / 大瑠璃 ooruri (blue-and-white flycatcher) / 瑠璃鶲 ruribitaki (red-flanked bluetail) / 尉鶲 joubitaki (daurian redstart)
BAYAH: O GENOCÍDIO ESQUECIDO – A REVOLTA DOS HEREROS E NAMA NA NAMÍBIA
Hitachi Seaside Park, Japan.