NASA and the perspective over the oil spill

By now, everyone on earth should know that an oil rig, the Deepwater Horizon, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. This rig is owned by British Petroleum. To date it is the biggest oil spill in history. It also seems as if right now there is a conglomeration of confusion surrounding not only how to cap this spill but also how to clean it up.

NASA of course has satellites in space that take pictures of the earth as well as space. Are you wondering yet what this has to do with the oil spill? NASA has two particular satellites that are equipped with MODIS ( Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ) called Terris and Aqua. Both of these satellites travel around the earth on a daily basis and cover most of the world from top to bottom. These MODIS equipped satellites have been taking pictures of the Deepwater Horizon spill since it happened.

NASA has put the most clearly defined of these images together to create a time lapse video of the spill and how it is spreading. The video has images dating from right before the spill all the way up until May 24 and is fantastic in that it can give you a perspective of the magnitude that you will not get from being at beach level with it.

The thing is, from this perspective, you get to see what it is doing to the water. This is a view that you will not get from anywhere else. Sure you can see the daily satellite images on the local weather but you will not see the time lapse of the whole thing anywhere else. It is an amazing and enlightening thing to watch and the variances enable you to see how the currents and winds have affected this situation.