A plume of smoke stretched across the Bering Sea on May 11, 2012, as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite passed overhead. This natural-color image shows part of the Bering Sea, just off of far eastern Russia. The smoke appears dull blue-gray and darker than the surrounding clouds.
The smoke may have arisen from wildfires in the region around Lake Baikal, where numerous wildfires burned in early May. A model from the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory suggests that smoke from the Lake Baikal region would take just a few days to reach the Bering Sea.
In a study published in 2004, scientists tracked the movement of smoke from Russian wildfires, finding that it typically travels in one of two directions: northwest towards Scandinavia or east toward the Okhotsk Sea. The smoke blowing east often crosses the Bering Sea towards Alaska and Canada.
Smoke from the Lake Baikal region also appeared to be hampering air quality over China, as shown in this image.
Despite being one of the most active volcanoes in Papua New Guinea, Bagana is poorly monitored. Located on the mountainous spine of Bouganville Island, it is both far from any cities or large towns and hard to reach due to the rough terrain. Bagana emits volcanic gases (including water vapor and sulfur dioxide) almost continuously, and frequently extrudes thick lava flows. Satellites provide the most reliable way to watch this activity.
This natural-color image reveals a fresh lava flow on Bagana’s eastern flank. The image was collected by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite on May 16, 2012. Imagery from Landsat 7 shows that the flow was established some time between March 2011 and February 2012. The fresh lava is dark brown, while lighter brown areas were likely stripped of vegetation by volcanic debris or acidic gases. Older lava flows are covered in light green vegetation, and the surrounding forests are dark green. The volcanic plume and clouds are both white.
In early May 2012, a dust storm blew over the Middle East, particularly east of Damascus. The storm covered most of Syria, and extended into Iraq, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image on May 11. The dust was thickest in the west, especially over Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia, and thinning toward the east.
Source points for this storm aren’t obvious in this image, but the vast sand seas of the Arabian Peninsula provide plentiful material for dust plumes. In addition, impermanent rivers and salt lakes occur throughout the region. The fine sediments from these features, as well as from the Tigris and Euphrates floodplains, can feed dust storms.
In a study published in 2012 by researchers from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, scientists analyzed the particulate matter found in dust storms over Iraq from December 2008 to March 2009 and found that the particles were (from most to least abundant) silt, clay, and sand. As clay and silt particles are much smaller than sand grains, they can be lofted into the air by lighter winds and may occur more frequently in dust storms.
Days of torrential rain caused widespread flooding in southern China in May 2012. Heavy rain fell from May 8 to 16, 2012, the Flood Observatory reported. The International Business Times reported that more than 5 million people in more than 10 provinces had been affected by the downpours. As of May 14, authorities had evacuated nearly 200,000 residents.
This image shows rainfall totals in the region from May 10 to 16, 2012. The heaviest rainfall—more than 350 millimeters, or 14 inches—appears in dark blue. The lightest rainfall—less than 50 millimeters or 2 inches—appears in light green. Trace amounts appear in pale yellow.
Particularly heavy rain fell in southern China, just inland from the South China Sea, and along the China-Burma (Myanmar) border. Lighter amounts of rain fell throughout parts of southern China, Vietnam, Laos, and southern Thailand.
This map is based on data from the Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis produced at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, which estimates rainfall by combining measurements from many satellites and calibrating them using rainfall measurements from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite.
The Atlantic hurricane season officially starts June 1, but the 2012 season’s first storm arrived a little early. On May 19, 2012, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that Tropical Storm Alberto had formed off the South Carolina coast. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image the same day.
Although Alberto sported the spiral shape typical of tropical storms, it lacked a distinct eye, and had not reached hurricane strength. Storm clouds did, however, extend far inland over the Carolinas. As of 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) May 19, the storm packed maximum sustained winds of 45 miles (75 kilometers) per hour. An update issued later that evening indicated wind speeds of 60 miles (95 kilometers) per hour, and wind speeds were at 50 miles (85 kilometers) per hour the next morning. As of 5 p.m. EDT May 20, the NHC discontinued the tropical storm watch along the U.S. East Coast.
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