Waking to the smell of a wet ashtray (which, as a Child of the Seventies, I can still remember), I knew the wind had shifted. Wildfire smoke hung in the neighborhood. This is not a reason for alarm: The nostalgic scent of vaporized spruce and willow trees is a normal summer sensation here in middle […]
This GIF shows the flash of an asteroid impacting Earth’s atmosphere over the Caribbean Sea on June 22, 2019. It was captured by the Geostationary Lightning Mapper instrument aboard GOES-16, an Earth-monitoring satellite operated by NOAA and NASA. CIRA/CSU, RAMMB/NOAA/NASA › Larger view When a lightning detector on a NOAA weather satellite detected something […]
The Alaska Volcano Observatory reported today that the Pavlof Volcano, which erupted abruptly on Sunday afternoon, has now exhibited reduced emissions, and has lessened to the degree that is is now difficult to observe. The Pavlof volcano, situated to the west of the entrance to Pavlof Bay, in the Aleutians, was observed by a […]
Eight summers ago, a bolt of lightning struck a dry tundra hillside in northern Alaska. Fanned by a warm wind that curled over the Brooks Range, the Anaktuvuk River fire burned for three months, leaving a scar visible from the International Space Station. The charred area was larger than Cape Cod. While northern Alaska’s treeless […]