Point n' shoot from space

The Patagonian icefields on a cloudless day

The MODIS sensor onboard the TERRA satellite platform captured this unusual cloudless day in Patagonia the 8 November 2011. The highlights of this image are the two great Patagonian Icefields of South America. These powerful ice masses have been experiencing several changes, including ice thinning and repeated episodes of glacier outburst floods.

Heavy snow at Northern Chilean Andes

MODIS satellite image from 1th August 2011 showing a a heavy snowfall in Northern Chile.

Atacama desert in bloom

Atacama desert in bloom as seen from Landsat TM using the standard false colour band combination 432 (RGB). The image below was taken during August 2010 as a reference and the upper image corresponds to September 2011. The bloom can be clearly distinguished from the "red" areas in the 2011 image depicting the sprouting of seeds after this rainy and snowy winter.

Recent volcanic activity at the Southern Volcanic Zone

Fumarolic activity at Volcán Planchón-Peteroa (35°14'24"S/70°34'12"W - 4107 m a.s.l) Subset of a Landsat TM image (path232/row84) acquired on September 5th 2011

IPY 2012

I took this photo at the close of the IPY 2010 Oslo Science Conference, Dr. Olav Orheim, the Norwegian IPY Secreteriate/Research Council of Norway (chair) gives a Viking budstikke (message stick) to Dr. Peter Harrison, Chair of the next and final IPY event, the “From Knowledge to Action” Conference, to be held in Montreal in April 2012. (http://www.ipy2012montreal.ca) The man pointing to the buddstikke is Eloy Feria a Venezuelan artist living in Paris He was at the Oslo Conference presenting with his partner Francoise the Manifest of the Wedell Sea. It's an example of how broad is the range of interested people attending IPY conferences. It is expected that the conference From Knowledge to Action will bring together over 2,000 Arctic and Antarctic researchers, policy- and decision-makers, and a broad range of interested parties from academia, industry, non-government, education and circumpolar communities including indigenous peoples.