Explore Our Planet

Ice shelves are much thicker than sea based ice like the Arctic ice shield. The thickness of modern-day ice shelves ranges from about 100 to 1000 meters. They consist of former land based ice up to thousands years old floating on the oceans now but still conne ...>>

Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. About 20,000-25,000 polar bears live around North Pol in the Arctic and suf ...>>

More than 40,000 travellers are affected by heavy fog descended on the capital. BA cancelling a further 174 flights today. The Met Office says the current radiation fog, caused by a clear skies in recent days followed by a large high pressure front and ver ...>>

An art science collaboration starts today on the Ross Ice Shelf. 99 blue spheres varying in size from ten inches to four feet across represent the stars as of 2006-12-22. This temporary monument with about 800 feet in diameter is conducted by internationall ...>>

Earlier this month german government announced, it will be assisted during its presidencies of the EU and G8 by two climate change experts, Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber and Lars Göran Josefsson the president of Swedish energy giant Vattenfall. Schel ...>>

In recent years, scientists who work for and advise the federal government have seen their work manipulated, suppressed, distorted, while agencies have systematically limited public and policy maker access to critical scientific information. To document th ...>>

World Meteorological Organization's 4 pages press release No. 768 from December 14th summarizes year 2006 and counts reords. Averaged separately for both hemispheres, 2006 surface temperatures for the northern hemisphere (0.58°C above 30-year mean of 14.6 ...>>

The Arctic Post reports of Global Warming in Lapland, due to higher temperatures the runway is still not frozen and Santa Claus may cancel an expected to be dangerous lift-off... green-santa-com is a carbon-free non-profit website ...>>

As an impressive part the forest gallery presents photos of the biggest 18 forests on Earth from leading photograpers. Moreover the documentation explains the importance of forests and trees for humans and biodiversity. Take some time, enjoy the ambien ...>>

Since yesterday the OnEarth server of Jet Propulsion Laboratory is not working and the Daily Aqua and Terra satellite photos are not available. Hopefully all technical problems get solved and the archive will be online soon. However latest level 2 images ...>>

About 1800 firefighters are battling fifty bushfires ignited by lightning in the Alpine National Park north of Licola and Dargo. The resort is discouraging tourists and others from making non-essential trips up the mountain. Seen by Daily Terra, 2006-12-06 ...>>

WMO reports cancelled sports events in Austria, Czech Republic, France, Slovakia and Switzerland caused by warm weather in these countries. With temperatures above 10°C and heavy rain even artificial snow is not an option. Picture above shows the Alps last ...>>

Met Office in UK continues current series of reported temperature records in Europe and according to Guardian it faces a budget cut of at least £5m over next 3 years in climate research. Quoted from press release: The Met Office confirms that the autumn ...>>

Midwest's first big snowstorm of the season left hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without electricity. The storm was blamed for at least 13 deaths as it spread ice and deep snow from Texas to Michigan. Photo captured by Daily Terra, 2006-12-02 ...>>

According to Postdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) this meteorological fall (September to November) was 1°C warmer than 1982 the last record holder and 2.5 degree warmer than the average. In Oberstdorf, Bavaria, the thermometer reached a maximum ...>>

Since March 10th, 2006, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) orbits planet Mars. On board are six instruments and one is the HiRISE camera. The HiRISE Operations Center (HiROC) at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory started to publi ...>>

Filmmaker Geoff Mackley published impressive photos on his website. Up to 400 deaths are reported. With gusts of 265kph typhoon Durian prompted the evacuation of around 14,000 people, caused ramping floods and landslides, damaged transmission lines and ...>>