An ESA mission 20 years in the making is set to take off today, launching the first satellite to monitor the planet’s winds directly — and using a giant laser, at that. Aeolus takes off from French Guiana at nearly midnight there, about 2:20 PM Pacific time, and you can watch the launch live here.
View More Watch the launch of ESA’s Aeolus mission to map Earth’s winds with lasersCategory: meteorology
Clouds are complicated, and these fabulous 3D renderings of real weather data prove it
Some people, when they look up at the sky and see a cloud, think “dog” or “fluffy.” And some people think “it’s a waning cumulus with a feathered edge suggesting a pressure system from the north ending in an updraft, which would probably cause turbulence. Also looks a bit like a dog.” Clearly one of those people created these complex, beautiful renderings of weather data.
View More Clouds are complicated, and these fabulous 3D renderings of real weather data prove itNASA’s beautiful snowflake simulations could help predict inclement weather
There’s a lot about snow we don’t know. Where does it come from? Where does it go? What does it taste like? Admittedly there are tentative answers to these questions. But there are yet more complex ones like how exactly, on a microscopic level, snow melts in mid-air. That’s the focus of one project at NASA, the results of which are both practical and beautiful.
View More NASA’s beautiful snowflake simulations could help predict inclement weather