“This spectacular “blue marble” image is the most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth to date. Using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer (.386 square mile) of our planet. These images are freely available to educators, scientists, museums, and the public. This record includes preview images and links to full resolution versions up to 21,600 pixels across.”

For more pictures of “blue marble,” check out NASA Goddard’s Flickr stream.

And now on with today’s notes from a rare planet.

Still more evidence — warming to bring stronger hurricanes

• “Overall strength of storms as measured in wind speed would rise by 2 to 11 percent, but there would be between 6 and 34 percent fewer storms in number, a new report from a World Meteorological Organization panel of 10 experts indicates. There would be fewer weak and moderate storms and more of the big damaging ones.”
• “An 11 percent increase in wind speed translates to roughly a 60 percent increase in damage, said study co-author Kerry Emanuel, a professor of meteorology at MIT.”

Marine Protected Areas aid coral reefs

• “Research has shown that marine protected areas (MPAs)-areas where fishing and other potentially destructive activities are regulated-are benefiting, not just the fish habitats they are known to aid, but nearby coral reefs as well.”
• “That is, while coral cover initially continued to decrease in the MPA’s first few years, decline slowed and then eventually stabilized after several years of MPA establishment.”

The Atlantic gets its own great plastic garbage patch

• “More than half of them picked up floating plastic on the water surface, mostly pieces of plastic from consumer products and plastic bags. Most of the pieces were no more than one centimeter across. The maximum density of plastic was found to be 200,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer–which is similar to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”
• More than 80 percent of the plastic pieces were found between 22° and 38° north latitude.

Rare bumblebee species rediscovered in Scotland after 50 years

• The Southern Cuckoo bumblebee has been absent from hives in Scotland for 50 years.
• “At a time when bumblebees up and down the UK are struggling due to a lack of flower-rich habitat, it is heartening to see that at least one species is expanding its range…sadly many other species are threatened with national extinction, with Scotland’s Great Yellow Bumblebee Bombus distinguendus in particular trouble. We very much hope it’s not a case of ‘One in, one out.’”

Life in the valley of death, how Burma came to create a huge area for tiger conservation (podcast)

• Executive Director for Science and Exploration at the Wildlife Conservation Society based at the Bronx Zoo discusses his new book which details his efforts to create the world’s largest tiger reserve in Myanmar’s Hukaung Valley.

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