Cool Geo-Pic: Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee), Northern Israel

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory.

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:
".... Israel’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Tiberias, is also known as the Sea of Tiberias, Lake of Gennesaret, Lake Kinneret, and the Sea of Galilee. The lake measures just more than 21 kilometers (13 miles) north-south, and it is only 43 meters (141 feet) deep. The lake is fed partly by underground springs related to the Jordan sector of the Great Rift Valley

, but most of its water comes from the Jordan River, which enters from the north. The river’s winding course can be seen draining the south end of the lake at image bottom...."

".... Ruins of the famous biblical town of Capernaum, re-discovered in 1838 by the American explorer Edward Robinson, lie just north of Tiberias on the northwestern shore of Lake Tiberias. Excavations have revealed a synagogue from the fourth or fifth century, making it one of the oldest in the world...."

download large image (1 MB, JPEG) acquired August 15, 2009

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References / Credits:

Astronaut photograph ISS020-E-31066 was acquired on August 15, 2009, with a Nikon D2Xs digital camera fitted with an 400 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 20 crew. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson, NASA-JSC.

Instrument:
ISS - Digital Camera

Cool Geo-Pic: Antarctic Ozone Hole 2009

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory. The news of ozone decade is cautiously optimitistic as the rate of decay seems to be "holding" for now ....

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" ... The annual ozone hole started developing over the South Pole in late August 2009, and by September 10, it appeared that the ozone hole of 2009 would be comparable to ozone depletions over the past decade. This composite image from September 10 depicts ozone concentrations in Dobson units, with purple and blues depicting severe deficits of ozone. The image was made from data collected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument onboard NASA’s Aura satellite...."


"...Recent observations and several studies have shown that the size of the annual ozone hole has stabilized and the level of ozone-depleting substances has decreased by 4 percent since 2001. But since chlorine and bromine compounds have long lifetimes in the atmosphere, a recovery of atmospheric ozone is not likely to be noticeable until 2020 or later.

Visit NASA’s Ozone Watch page for current imagery, data, and animations of the year to date..."

Full Article - Click Here


References / Credits:

Antarctic Ozone Hole: 1979 to 2008
Climate Change and Atmospheric Circulation Will Make for Uneven Ozone Recovery
New Simulation Shows Consequences of a World Without Earth's Natural Sunscreen
Ozone Day 2009
What’s Holding Antarctic Sea Ice Back From Melting?
NASA image courtesy Ozone Watch. Caption by Michael Carlowicz.
Instrument:
Aura - OMI