Deepwater Horizon: New NASA images from space show oil invading Louisiana wetlands

Images released today from NASA: "Multiple cameras on JPL's MISR instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft were used to create two unique views of oil moving into Louisiana's coastal wetlands." More details about what we're seeing here:

The left-hand image contains data from MISR's vertical-viewing camera. It is shown in near-true color, except that data from the instrument's near-infrared band, where vegetation appears bright, have been blended with the instrument's green band to enhance the appearance of vegetation.

The Mississippi River delta is located below the image center. The slick is seen approaching the delta from the lower right, and filaments of oil are also apparent farther to the north (towards the top). The oil is made visible by sun reflecting off the sea surface at the same angle from which the instrument is viewing it, a phenomenon known as sunglint. Oil makes the surface look brighter under these viewing conditions than it would if no oil were present. However, other factors can also cause enhanced glint, such as reduced surface wind speed. To separate glint patterns due to oil from these other factors, additional information from MISR's cameras is used in the right-hand image.

(NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team)

• [Anonymous]

  This is exactly like looking at Stage 4 cancer imagery. It breaks my soul.

• [Anonymous]

  Now remind me again why the US government has refused Dutch and other foreign government help from people VASTLY better equipped to deal with this?

• [morganna777]

  It seems to me (correct me if I’m wrong), that we have resources to fix this.BP has told NOTHING but lies throughout this!Dudley tweeted it was an “URBAN LEGAND” that people were not allowed to help out.Yet, on Larry King, two star’s who walked out onto the beach with a video camera asking to help, were turned away.WHY YOU ASK, because they “WERE NOT IN HAZE MATE SUITES!” yet, neither were the the workers they were filming!As soon as they started asking too many questions, poilce were screeching down the beach to ask them to step back so they wouldn’t get sick.HUH!?!OK, look, conspiracy theories, cover up’s, who is in bed with who,but why didn’t BP implode that leaking line when they couldn’t stop it the FIRST TIME!?!Because THE FAT CAT’s would rather roll the dice, and kill off some coast, then lose billons in oil.And OH HOW THEY SPIN IT!Keep spinnin’ kid’s at BP!WE’re NOT buyin’ it!OR YOUR OIL ANYMORE!

• [Anonymous]

  Fracking some of the world’s finest drinking water artesian formations in the U.S. for Natural gas and blowing away whole mountaintop ecosystems for coal make the gulf look less terrorizing. Here is to hoping the powers that be in the U.S. – the corporatists – will come to their senses and go for less destructive Solar, Wind, Wave, Hydro, Tidal, Geothermal and Nuclear energy sources. China has already taken the lead with Nuclear/Electric sourced electric bullet train networks. China has a better reactor too – Google Tsungua Universities Pebble bed reactor – a cheap, high efficiency unit ready to go! Down town Tokyo is already serviced by battery Taxis, with exchangeable batteries, The U.S. Prairies Wind corridor has enough power in it to fuel all sorts of battery vehicles, once oil costs too much to import – which will be soon – soon as the Chinese Yuan is loosened up and the Chinese people have a bid at filling their own gasoline tanks against a weakening fiat U.S. dollar. The desperation that allows ecological destruction in the U,S, for energy – oil, coal, natural gas, shows America’s Achilles heel – we are totally foreign oil dependent and beholden to our foreign suppliers of oil – remember the crisis in the 70′s? Political! America’s not free – just government propaganda! We are owned by the oil barons!This is why the Palestinian problem rages on!