NASA's 60th Birthday. NASA Satellites View California Wildfires. ECOSTRESS. TESS Begins Operating.

NASA celebrates it's 60th birthday NASA Satellites View California Wildfires. NASA's Terra satellite is viewing Northern California' raging wildfires with its Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument. Terra passed over California July 27 and July 29, observing the Carr Fire on July 27 and the Ferguson Fire on July 29. MISR's 9 cameras view Earth at different angles, and is able to measure the height of the fire's plumes. The plumes don't go up a very great height, so the air quality closer to the Earth is affected more. The drought from 2012 on is a major reason for the ferocity of the fires. ECOSTRESS can see 4 other things. What's ECOSTRESS? Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station is designed to study how plants respond to heat and water stress. ECOSTRESS" precise temperature measurements of the Earth ES monitors fires, volcanoes, urban heat and coastal and inland waters. NASA's TESS Spacecraft has started its science operations on July 25, 2018. TESS will transmit ifs first data to Earth beginning August, and after that, data will be sent back to Earthy every 13.5 days. TESS will search for exoplanets in our Milky Way neighborhood. by monitoring periodic dips in light intensity from a star, as a planet (or planets) pass in front of the star. https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2774/nasas-misr-views-raging-fires-in-california/https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2758/four-things-ecostress-can-see-from-space-in-addition-to-plants/https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-s-tess-spacecraft-starts-science-operations