Advanced Weather Satellite Detects Search at South Korea Ferry Disaster Site

The Suomi NPP weather satellite, which is part of NASA's next generation of earth-observing satellites, detected the nighttime recovery operations underway to find victims and survivors of the deadly ferry accident off the coast of South Korea

According to the University of Wisconsin's satellite blog, a specialized light-sensitive instrument aboard the satellite picked up the bright lights of the nighttime search operations on April 22

The instrument, known as the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS, which is a scanning radiometer that collects visible and infrared imagery and radiometric measurements of the Earth, has also captured unique images of everything from Hurricane Sandy at night to the natural gas drilling boom in North Dakota. Read more...