The desert takes to the skies in these images of eastern China from
NASA’s Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR). A hazy summer view from
last summer compares with a spectacularly dusty spring view from April 7,
2001. A high- resolution view of this flying desert reveals fingerprint-like
ridges and valleys. Airborne dust clouds from this April 2001 storm blew
across the Pacific Ocean and were carried as far as North America.
The images are available at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pictures/misr
Analyses of images such as these constitute one phase of MISR’s
participation in the Asian-Pacific Regional Aerosol Characterization
Experiment, an international campaign aimed at studying the offshore
transport of airborne particles from the Asian continent. More information
about this international endeavor is available online at
http://saga.pmel.noaa.gov/aceasia/ .
MISR, built and managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., is one of several Earth- observing experiments aboard
Terra, launched in December 1999. MISR acquires images of the Earth at nine
angles simultaneously, using nine separate cameras pointed forward,
downward, and backward along its flight path. More information about MISR is
available at http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov .
JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena.
