Eyes to the skies as Comet PANSTARRS becomes visible during March

Luis Argerich from Buenos Aires, Argentina, captured Comet PANSTARRS in the sky above Mercedes, Argentina, on February 11, 2013. The comet shone at magnitude 4.5 to the left of an Iridium flare.

The long wait is nearly over. Northern Hemisphere skygazers haven’t seen a bright comet with a long tail since Comet Hale-Bopp graced the night sky in 1997. But if predictions hold, Comet PANSTARRS (C/2011 L4) should be a nice naked-eye object and look impressive through binoculars after sunset starting in the second week of March.

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WORLD FROM SPACE - Condensation Trails over Spain and Portugal

The condensation trails that form behind high-altitude aircraft, or contrails, are one of the most visible signs of the human impact on the atmosphere. On February 15, 2013, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this view of numerous contrails over Portugal and Spain.

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WEATHER ALERT Spain/Southern France - 20/21 October 2012

This weekend looks set to be a very wet one over parts of Spain and southern France as very warm, humid air and an active weather front combine to bring heavy rain and thunderstorms.

The frontal system stretches from Scandinavia, across southeastern Britain to North Africa and it’s on the southern side of this that we are likely to see torrential, thundery downpours bringing the risk of flash flooding.

Southeastern Spain, from Murcia to Valencia and Cuenca, may see some of the heaviest rain on Saturday, but it’s the north and east of Spain and parts of southern France that are most at risk from the torrential downpours through the weekend. Here there could be 100 to 200 mm of rain falling in a short space of time across quite a wide area, with the risk of up to 300 mm of rain possible in places.

Some severe thunderstorms are also likely across parts of Morocco and Algeria, with gusty winds generating dust storms.

DATA credit: UKMO

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Ireland, UK And Planet Earth From Space, 7 September 2012

Ireland and Britain, as seen from space by the MODIS Terra satellite at 1pm on Friday, 07 September 2012.

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Euro Weather Satellite To Launch From Kazakhstan

Metop-B, the European polar orbiting weather satellite designed and manufactured by Astrium is now ready to launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. 

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Ireland, UK And Planet Earth From Space At Midday, 04-09-12

Ireland and Britain, as seen from space by the MODIS satellite at midday on Tuesday, 04 September 2012.

Planet Earth, as seen in this RGB composite image from Dundee Satellite, at midday on Tuesday, 04 September 2012.

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WORLD FROM SPACE - 22 August 2012

The above image from the NEODAAS Geostationary Archive shows how the planet looked from space at 1pm today (Wednesday, 22 August 2012).  Click on the image for a closer view.

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Gordon Tracks Quickly Eastward Over The Atlantic

A mid-Atlantic Tropical Storm is forecast to approach The Azores late on Sunday before tracking east to affect Spain and Portugal as an extra-Tropical Storm during the middle of next week. The system will not affect the UK or Ireland.

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Atlantic Storm Gordon Could Become Hurricane This Weekend

Tropical Storm Gordon (circled) on Thursday morning. Image NOAA

The U.S. National Hurricane Centre (NHC) has said that a tropical storm that formed overnight in the mid-Atlantic could become a hurricane over the weekend as it tracks toward southern Europe and North Africa.

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WORLD FROM SPACE - Majorca

The Balearic Islands are an archipelago located in the Mediterranean Sea to the southeast of Spain. Catalan—the native tongue—and Spanish are the official languages. 

The islands are an autonomous community and province of Spain, located about midway between the southeastern coastline of Spain and the northern coastline of Algeria.

This astronaut photograph from the International Space Station highlights the large island of Majorca (also known as Mallorca in Spanish), on which the provincial capital of Palma is located. Like the other Balearic Islands, Majorca is a popular holiday destination for Europeans, with tourism forming a major part of the island’s economy. The 5,400 square kilometer (2,100 square mile) island offers many recreational opportunities, with mountainous regions along the northwest coastline and eastern third. The central region of Majorca includes agricultural lands (tan, light brown, and green, image center), forested patches and corridors (dark green, image center), and urban centers (gray). Diving is a popular activity for those visiting the coastal beaches.

In addition to Majorca, the other major islands of the archipelago include Ibiza, Formentera, and Minorca. The small island of Cabrera to the southwest (image lower right) hosts the Parc Nacional de l’Arxipélag de Cabrera.

Astronaut photograph ISS030-E-30290 was acquired on December 31, 2011, with a Nikon D2Xs digital camera using a 60 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 30 crew. Caption by William L. Stefanov, Jacobs Technology/ESCG at NASA-JSC. Instrument: ISS - Digital Camera

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