Science is for Sharing

Our long awaited publication exploring the Descending Cirrus clouds over Gadanki. Int'l. Journal of Remote Sensing It is the story of Cirrus clouds which descends / ascends altitude ..... their characteristic properties ....using NARL's long term Lidar data. Nellore Manoj Kumar, Kannan Venkatramanan, Anish Kumar M. Nair & Shekatam Satheesh Kumar   (2020)   On the characterization of descending nature of cirrus clouds over a tropical site, Gadanki,   International Journal of Remote Sensing,   41:17,   6550-6569,   DOI:  10.1080/01431161.2020.1742942 https://t.co/vpReYZZZsY https://t.co/3zJDq2KNjM https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01431161.2020.1742942 The interesting feature of Cirrus cloud's descending & ascending are well characterized using ~6 years of lidar observations. The study roots back to the inspiration from my earlier work published in J.Geophysicsl Research in 2012 Nair,  A. K. M.   ,  K....

An Equinox is the astronomical event when both the hemispheres have equal duration and amount of sunshine. Sun would be exactly overhead of the equator. It happens twice in a year Spring (Summer) equinox (20 March) and Vernal (Autumnal) equinox (22 September) . Here is the view of the beautiful event from space for 22 September 2016. I have animated it (time series for the day). Watch the day-night solar terminator move through the earth. Observe the equal area of sunshine and night on either hemisphere. The visible imagery is from MeteoSat VISSR (IODC) stationed at 57deg.E longitude above equator in a geostationary orbit. For a typical comparison of Equinoxes with Solistices, you may go through this link http://akmnscience.blogspot.in/2012/07/equinox-solstice-better-view.html Image Courtesy: Dundee Satellite Receiving Station http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/

Satellite images are are rich with useful and interesting information. It is not difficult to interpret them... here are some tips and stratergies....    They can show us how much a city has changed, how well our crops are growing, where a fire is burning, or when a storm is coming.  Here is a practical approach as given by Nasa Earth Observatory. Look for a scale Look for patterns, shapes, and textures Define the colors (including shadows) Find north Consider your prior knowledge Read more.... Check this link..... http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/ColorImage/?src=eorss-features Courtesy: Nasa Earth Observatory

Equinox & Solstice (view from Space).  Doesn't it convey better information than the usual cartoons.....?  I have taken the Satellite images from Meteosat via. Dundee satellite Receiving Station and made the matrix using GIMP.

Lyrids Meteor Shower is round the corner..... Look up in the sky  to watch the Lyrids brighten the skies. On Saturday, April 21.  For the 2012 Lyrids meteor shower, a new moon will set darker skies that are ideal for meteor watching.  rid meteor shower will be viewable all over the world, with best rates seen just before dawn at the location where you're watching the skies. The Lyrids are very unpredictable, with peak meteor rates between 10-100 per hour.  Lyrids are pieces of debris from the periodic Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher and have been observed for more than 2,600 years. In mid-April of each year, Earth runs into the stream of debris from the comet, which causes the Lyrid meteor shower. Read More:  http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/lyrids2012_chat.html

Physicists on the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS)  have announced the first results  from their collaboration, revealing  the most precise measurements  ever made of the large-scale structure of the universe between five to seven billion years ago. They achieved this by observing the primordial sound waves that propagated through the cosmic medium a mere 30,000 years after the Big Bang. Read in detaill:  Most Precise Measurement of Scale of the Universe : Discovery News http://news.discovery.com/space/whos-the-boss-most-accurate-measurement-of-scale-of-the-universe-120406.html

The Hubble Space Telescope has produced the most detailed image so far of Messier 9, a globular star cluster located close to the center of the galaxy. Beautiful glittering jewels....! Click on the Image or the following link to read more. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2204.html Credit: NASA and ESA

My colleague Mr.Sobhan Kumar Kompalli, Scientist in Space Physics Laboratory has clicked more than 100 snaps of the beautiful 'Lunar Eclipse' that entertained earthlings on 10-Dec-2011. Here is a matrix of few selected snaps by the  amateur  photographer. Also have a view of the Simulated Lunar Eclipse ( animation)  which I generated using the open source software 'Stellarium'. You are welcome to watch  the drama unfold......! Photograph by Mr.Sobhan Kumar Kompalli (sobhan1urs@gmail.com)

First images of the Asteroid which came close to earth has been released... You can watch the video Team of astronomers decided to animate an entire sequence of their high-resolution radar images of YU55 to make a short movie clip from the data from  Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, California. you can watch it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIwX0Qeid9o&feature=colike Courtesy: Nasa You can download the first images video http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=119737731

I am sharing a beautiful video uploaded by NASA yesterday 26th Sep. in youtube. It was a real observation from the International Space Station on 17th of this month. First you see the beautiful 'Aurora Australis' and then you can see forest fires in land. If you look more keen, you can see also the air-glow too.... You can find more information here. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=52287 http://t.co/gbfh7Zhk

                World Space Week  Resource Material prepared by our Team has been uploaded in the official WEBsite. here is it . http://www.vssc.gov.in:8080/ wsw2011/index.jsp http://www.vssc.gov.in:8080/ wsw2011/wswatschools.html Download PDF http://www.vssc.gov.in:8080/ wsw2011/downloads/WSW_2011_ Resourcematerial.pdf http://www.vssc.gov.in:8080/ wsw2011/downloads/WSW_ Handbook.pdf Materials for Media already sent...  ...... will be published/ relayed soon...! Celebrate the 'Golden jubilee of Human Space Flight'

This is how Solstice and Equinox look like ....... ....... a wider perspective.... ......view from space. Equinox ------ Sun overhead equator ---- sunlight falls equally in both Hemispheres. Solstice  ------ Sun is overhead northern/ southernmost position ---- sunlight falls maximum in Summer Hemispheres. I have taken the selected days visible imagery from Meteosat and arranged them in a 2x2 matrix..... Image courtesy: Dundee Satellite Receiving Station. (Isn't it better and give real information than the long used Inspiration obtained from: Seeing Equinoxes and Solstices from Space http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=52248

Have a look at these Astronomical photography which won the awards recently...! Marvelous indeed...! click on the image to reach the Nature's website (slide show)with all those snaps.! courtesy: http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110909/full/news.2011.529/slideshow/1.html?identifier=1

See this magnificent image taken from the International Space Station few days back..... See the flood lit border line between India and Pak. U can also see the air glow (greenish) occuring in the ionosphere.... click on the image to zoom. Image courtesy: Nasa Earth Observatory You can read the full description in this link... http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=52008