Between the leaking BP oil well and the ash-spewing Eyjafjalljokull volcano in Iceland, there is plenty of crud in the air and water to catch the eye of high-flying satellites.
NASA today released new images of both events. The shot of the undulating oil slick off the southeast coast of Louisiana (above) shows a J-shaped smear just south of the Mississippi/Alabama border. It was shot by the space agency's Terra Earth-observing satellite at 12:35 EDT Monday afternoon.
The ash plume from Iceland is shown (below) streaming off the island in a nearly straight line to the south southeast. Farther downstream, NASA says, the ash has now reached North Africa and Turkey. The image was taken at 9:25 a.m. EDT Monday, also by Terra.