Start Date: End Date: Published Date Data Date
Data acquired September 7, 2007 540 x 649 JPEG
Data acquired September 7, 2007 5352 x 6838 5 MB - JPEG
Data acquired September 7, 2007 14112 x 17308 430 MB - GeoTIFF
Data acquired September 7, 2007 38 KB - KML/KMZ
342 x 228 JPEG
For many atmospheric scientists, the Amazon Rainforest is a natural cloud laboratory. The vegetation exhales tremendous amounts of water vapor that drapes over the forest as a thick mist. The mist blends with layers of clouds that can reach from the treetops to altitudes of 10 kilometers. When the air over the Amazon is clear, the clouds that form over the forest are so like maritime clouds that scientists have referred to the Amazon as “the Green Ocean.” But increasingly, the air over the Amazon is not clear, at least not during the annual dry season.
NASA image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, based on data from MODIS. Graph by Robert Simmon, based on MODIS data from Ilan Koren. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.
Published March 11, 2008 Data acquired September 7, 2007