Monsoon - Blog Posts

The Smoke From a (Not-so) Distant Fire

Flying directly through thick plumes of smoke may seem more harrowing than exciting. But for members of the CAMP2Ex science team, the chance to fly a P-3 Orion straight through clouds of smoke billowing off fires from Borneo this week was too good an opportunity to pass up.

CAMP2Ex stands for the Cloud, Aerosol and Monsoon Processes in the Philippines Experiment. The 2, by the way, is silent.

It’s a field campaign based out of Clark in the Philippines, flying our P-3, a Learjet and collaborating with researchers on the research vessel Sally Ride to understand how tiny particles in the atmosphere affect cloud formations and monsoon season.

The tiny aerosol particles we’re looking at don’t just come from smoke. Aerosol particles also come from pollution, billowing dust and sea salt from the ocean. They can have an outsized effect on weather and climate, seeding clouds that bring rain and altering how the atmosphere absorbs the Sun’s heat.

The smoke we were flying Monday came from peat fires, burning through the soil. That’s pretty unusual — the last time Borneo had these kind of fires was in 2015, so it was a rare opportunity to sample the chemistry of the smoke and find out what’s mixing with the air.

The planes are loaded with instruments to learn more about aerosol particles and the makeup of clouds, like this high-speed camera that captures images of the particles in flight. 

One instrument on the plane collects droplets of cloud water as the plane flies through them, and on the ground, we test how acidic and what kind of particles form the cloud drops. 

All of these measurements are tools in improving our understanding of the interaction between particles in the air and clouds, rainfall and precipitation in the Pacific Ocean.

Learn more about the CAMP2Ex field campaign, here! 

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Land is Sliding, Tell Us Where!

Summer in the northern hemisphere brings monsoon season, causing heavy rains and flooding that trigger landslides. Next time you see a landslide in the news, online, or in your neighborhood, submit it to our citizen science project Landslide Reporter to build the largest open global landslide catalog and help us and the public learn more about when and where they occur.

Rainfall is the most common cause of landslides.

After a storm, the soil and rock on a slope can become saturated with water and begin to slide downwards, posing a danger to people and destroying roads, houses and access to electricity and water supplies.

We have been monitoring rainfall from space for decades.

Orbiting the Earth right now, the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission is a group of 10 satellites that measure rain, snow, sleet and other precipitation worldwide every three hours. This data tells us where and when heavy rain is falling and if it could lead to disasters.

What can rainfall data tell us about landslides?

We're using GPM data to understand where and when landslides are happening. A global landslide model uses information about the environment and rainfall to anticipate where landslides are likely to happen anytime around the world every three hours.

To improve the global landslide model and other landslide research, NASA is looking for citizen scientists like you!

If you find a landslide reported online or in your neighborhood, you can provide the event details in Landslide Reporter, our citizen science project.

Your detailed reports are added into an open global landslide inventory available at Landslide Viewer. We use citizen science contributions along with other landslide data to check our prediction model so we can have a better picture of how rainfall, slope steepness, forest cover, and geology can trigger a landslide.

Because the data is open, anyone can use the data for research or response.

When you report a landslide, you improve our collection of landslide data for everyone.

Help support landslide efforts worldwide by contributing to Landslide Reporter, and you can help inform decisions that could save lives and property today! Learn more about the project at https://landslides.nasa.gov. You can also follow the project on Twitter and Facebook.

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Earth: Your Home, Our Mission

We pioneer and support an amazing range of advanced technologies and tools to help us better understand our home planet, the solar system and far beyond.

Here are 5 ways our tech improves life here on Earth...

1. Eyes in the Sky Spot Fires on the Ground

Our Earth observing satellites enable conservation groups to spot and monitor fires across vast rainforests, helping them protect our planet on Earth Day and every day.

2. Helping Tractors Drive Themselves

There has been a lot of talk about self-driving cars, but farmers have already been making good use of self-driving tractors for more than a decade - due in part to a partnership between John Deere and our Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Growing food sustainably requires smart technology - our GPS correction algorithms help self-driving tractors steer with precision, cutting down on water and fertilizer waste. 

3. Turning Smartphones into Satellites

On Earth Day (and every day), we get nonstop "Earth selfies" thanks to Planet Labs' small satellites, inspired by smartphones and created by a team at our Ames Research Center. The high res imagery helps conservation efforts worldwide.

4. Early Flood Warnings

Monsoons, perhaps the least understood and most erratic weather pattern in the United States, bring rain vital to agriculture and ecosystems, but also threaten lives and property. Severe flash-flooding is common. Roads are washed out. Miles away from the cloudburst, dry gulches become raging torrents in seconds. The storms are often accompanied by driving winds, hail and barrages of lightning.

We are working to get better forecasting information to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Our satellites can track moisture in the air - helping forecasters provide an early warning of flash floods from monsoons.

5. Watching the World's Water

Around the world, agriculture is by far the biggest user of freshwater. Thanks in part to infrared imagery from Landsat, operated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), we can now map, in real time, how much water a field is using, helping conserve that precious resource.

We use the vantage point of space to understand and explore our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. Our observations of Earth’s complex natural environment are critical to understanding how our planet’s natural resources and climate are changing now and could change in the future.

Join the celebration online by using #NASA4Earth. 

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