Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features an astronaut view of the bright rocks and deep canyons of the Mojave Desert in southern Nevada.

The Muddy and Virgin Rivers are visible in the photo, carrying water across the desert to Lake Mead reservoir.&nbsp;

The Muddy River, which flows through Moapa Valley, is bordered by agricultural fields and towns. By contrast, Virgin River, is bordered by dark vegetation.

Both of the rivers empty into the northern part of Lake Mead - known as the Overton Arm - which ultimately merges with the Colorado River to the south.

The reddish orange rocks near the center of the photo represent the Valley of Fire State Park, which is located approximately 40 miles northeast of Las Vegas.&nbsp;

At sunset, valley outcrops made of bright, rust-colored Aztec sandstone appear to be on fire. This sandstone formed from ancient sand dune fields dating back to the Jurassic Period.

According to NASA, significant archaeological artifacts have been found throughout Moapa Valley, with some dating back to 300 BCE. During that time, the region was occupied by Anasazi Native Americans, hunter-gatherers who built pueblo villages.&nbsp;

The southern part of the Moapa River Indian Reservation is also visible in this photograph, which was captured by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station.

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;

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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The Mojave Desert in southern Nevada

Today's Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features...

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features Hurricane Ian, which has tied the record for the strongest hurricane to make landfall on the west coast of the Florida peninsula. The storm made landfall on Wednesday near Cayo Costa with winds speeds of up to 155 miles per hour.



Even after Ian was downgraded to a tropical storm on Thursday, it was still dumping heavy rainfall across Florida. The threat of catastrophic flooding and dangerous storm surges will continue as Ian moves across the state and north toward South Carolina and Georgia.&nbsp;



More than 2.6 million people are without power today. Rescue efforts are underway in Fort Meyers, where the Florida National Guard is pulling people off roofs. Search and rescue teams are also active in many other areas along the western coast, including Tampa.&nbsp;



"Hurricane Ian grew substantially as it charged across the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico in late September 2022. After damaging parts of Cuba and leaving much of the country in the dark, forecasters expected more destruction as the storm reached Florida’s west coast on the afternoon of September 28," says NASA.



"In Cuba, about 11 million people were left without power, according to news reports. Winds and floodwaters destroyed buildings, farms, and left many roads impassable. As the storm approached Florida, the U.S. hurricane center warned of potentially catastrophic storm surges and wind damage along the southwest coastline and life-threatening flooding across some central parts of the state."



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Hurricane Ian unleashed catastrophic conditions in Florida

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features a map of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) on September 26 as Hurricane Ian moved through the Gulf of Mexico. The sea surface temperatures were measured by NASA scientists using a combination of satellite and ocean instruments.



"Though tropical cyclones are atmospheric phenomena, much of their fearsome power comes from the ocean. The seas are abundant sources of moisture to feed growing storm clouds. Just as critically, they are vast repositories of thermal energy that can move from the sea to the sky," says NASA.



"As Hurricane Ian lashed western Cuba and headed for the west coast of Florida on September 27, 2022, it moved over an abundant fuel source in the Gulf of Mexico. While sea surface temperatures are just one of the factors influencing hurricanes, they are a fair predictor of the readiness of the ocean to sustain them."



"Meteorologists generally agree that SSTs should be above 27.8° Celsius (82.04° Fahrenheit) to sustain and intensify hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons. Surface waters above that threshold are represented in red on the map."



Ian is expected to make landfall in western Florida today as a Category 4 storm with winds of up to 155 mph. As of 10 a.m., the center of Ian was located about 60 miles west of Naples and 65 miles southwest of Punta Gorda and 180 miles south-southwest of Orlando, according to the National Hurricane Center.



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Hurricane Ian will hit the western coast of Florida today

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features Super Typhoon Noru, which made landfall in the Philippines on September 25 after reaching category 4 strength in less than 24 hours. Noru first hit the Polillo Islands before making a second landfall on the island of Luzon. At least six people were killed, and tens of thousands have evacuated their homes.



"The technical definition of 'rapid intensification' of a tropical cyclone is a storm with winds that increase by at least 55 kilometers (35 miles) per hour in a 24-hour period. In the Western Pacific, Super Typhoon Noru blew past that threshold," says NASA.



"The storm’s winds accelerated from 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour on September 24 to 250 kilometers (155 miles) per hour the next day. Meteorologists have only recorded a handful of storms that have ever intensified so much so quickly."



"The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi NPP acquired this image of Noru on September 25, 2022, a few hours after landfall. Clouds are shown in infrared brightness temperature data, which is useful for distinguishing cooler cloud structures (purple) from warmer surfaces below (yellow). The coolest temperatures (white) are generally associated with the tallest clouds."



Noru is expected to make landfall in central Vietnam, where authorities are urging 400,000 people to evacuate before the storm arrives.



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Super Typhoon Noru intensified at a shocking pace

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features the Brahmaputra, also known as the Yarlung Tsangpo, in northern India. The photo was captured by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station.



"The mighty river appears as two major channels; several small islands sit within them and a large island separates them. Together they form a Brahmaputra floodplain that measures fully 10 kilometers (6 miles) in width. The channels appear brighter than those of the other rivers in this photo because they are near the Sun’s glint point," reports NASA.



The Dibang and Lohit Rivers flow nearby and join the Brahmaputra, which merges with the Ganges River in Bangladesh and ultimately dumps into the Bay of Bengal.&nbsp;



"South Asia’s monsoon rainfall regime brings heavy rain to this part of India from March through June, feeding the river and floodplain. Tropical forest is the natural vegetation of this landscape," says NASA.



"Human-built features seem minuscule here compared to the river channels. Most of the area includes land under cultivation, which appears as numerous small and irregular plots. Farms along the riverbanks are especially prone to damage and destruction by floods and by the persistent erosion of the banks."



On the other hand, there are no agricultural plots in the Brahmaputra floodplain, as this is a protected natural area within the Daying Ering Memorial Wildlife Sanctuary.



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The Brahmaputra river in northern India

Although many studies have investigated how a mother’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-do-whales-avoid-brain-damage-while-swimming/">brain</a> changes after the arrival of her first child, little research has been done on whether the brain of a first-time father changes in any way. In a new study led by the <a href="https://www.usc.edu/">University of Southern California</a>, experts have used MRI scans of men’s brains before and after the birth of their first baby.



“Becoming a parent entails changes to your lifestyle and your biology,” said study senior author Darby Saxbe, a professor of psychology at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “And it requires new skills like being able to empathize with a nonverbal infant, so it makes sense but has not been proven that the brain would be particularly plastic during the transition to parenthood as well.”



In their study, published in the journal&nbsp;<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhac333">Cerebral Cortex</a>, the researchers describe the procedure they followed with two groups of men who were shortly to become fathers. In Spain, the researchers scanned the brains of 20 expectant fathers before their partners became pregnant and then again two to three months after their partners gave birth. The 20 U.S. participants had their brains scanned when their partners were in the third trimester of pregnancy (around 30 weeks along), and then again seven to nine months after the birth of their child. As a control to the experiment, the researchers also scanned the brains of 17 male volunteers who did not sire children.



The scientists identified that the most significant changes, both in the Spanish and American fathers, occurred in the cortex – the brain's outer layer that is involved with attention, planning and executive functioning. Comparisons of the fathers’ scans before the babies were born and afterward showed changes in portions of the cortex that have a role in processing visual information and in areas that are part of the brain's default mode network, which is thought to be involved with exercising empathy – being able to consider other people's thoughts and feelings.&nbsp;



The changes in new fathers’ brains involved slight shrinkage in certain areas. Such a loss of volume, the researchers reassure us, suggests the brain is becoming more dense and streamlined in those areas, which makes it more efficient. New fathers learn the skills of recognizing their child and responding to its needs, as well as to empathizing with the non-verbal and fairly helpless child. The researchers suggest that the brain changes contribute to neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to create and form new synaptic connections in order to adapt to new experiences. The childless men exhibited no such changes to their brains.



Prior studies of the brains of new mothers also identified changes in the default mode network of the cortex. However, mothers showed the greatest changes in their limbic system, which are subcortical areas buried deep within the brain. These areas are linked with emotion, threat and reward processing. The researchers found little to no change in the&nbsp;<a href="https://medicalxpress.com/tags/limbic+system/">limbic system</a> of the new fathers, this being the key difference between the brain changes of mothers and fathers after a new baby arrives.&nbsp;



“It’s too soon to speculate with such a small sample but it might suggest that more, higher-order cognitive processing is involved in fatherhood specifically, whereas mothers are also showing change at the more basic mammalian level. In any case, the fact that we have found changes in the cortex both for fathers and mothers suggests that there is some remodeling of the social brain taking place," said Professor Saxbe.



The study provides evidence that the transition into fatherhood is associated with anatomical changes in brain cortical volume. This suggests that parenthood is a time of neuroplasticity during which the parenting experience can shape the male brain.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New fathers experience slight shrinkage of the brain

Although many studies have investigated how a mother’s brain changes...

Research from <a href="https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/">Lund University</a> shows that bird diversity in forests surrounded by urban areas is less than that in comparable rural <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/trees-are-overheating-in-warmer-rainforests/">forests</a>. To carry out the research, the scientists examined 459 naturally wooded areas near or in 32 cities in southern Sweden.&nbsp;



“Our study demonstrates that you cannot surround nature with urban development and believe that it will remain as it is, there is going to be a negative effect," said William Sidemo Holm, who worked on the study during his time as a doctoral student.



In woodlands near a city center, there were on average 25 percent less bird species compared to woodlands outside the city. Likewise, there were approximately half as many endangered species inside the urban woods.&nbsp;



The scientists emphasize they were looking at natural woodland areas inside cities, not in urban parks. In fact, this is one of the first studies to compare similar natural areas along an urban gradient.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“This way we know that the results are not driven by differences in the actual habitats, which in this scenario was natural forest. Instead, it was the surrounding environment that was different," said Sidemo Holm.



It was already known that urbanization has a negative impact on biodiversity, but this study is important in showing the impact of cities even on protected natural areas in their midst.&nbsp;



“Our results highlight the importance of taking surrounding nature into account in urban planning. Above all, it is important to avoid the expansion of cities adjacent to protected environmental areas where there may be endangered species - we found that these are particularly sensitive to urban surroundings," said Sidemo Holm.



“Our conclusion is that it is important to preserve natural forests both in the cities and outside them in order to maintain local diversity."



While the study may drive greater protection for urban dwelling birds and other creatures, the scientists still believe more research would be of greater benefit.&nbsp;



“In the future, it would be particularly interesting to investigate whether coherent green infrastructure in cities, or between city and countryside, can increase the opportunities for bird species in the city to find the necessary resources," said Sidemo Holm.



The research is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16350">Global Change Biology</a>.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Bird diversity suffers in urban environments

Research from Lund University shows that bird diversity in forests...

In a new study published by the <a href="https://www.aan.com/">American Academy of Neurology</a>, experts have analyzed a potential connection between air pollution and stroke, including subsequent cardiovascular events. The results suggest that air pollution plays a substantial role in the progression of stroke.&nbsp;



The team analyzed data in the UK biobank database for over 300,000 people with no previous history of stroke or heart disease. The participants were followed for an average of 12 years. The researchers looked at exposure to air pollution based on where the individuals lived at the start of the research.



During the study period, nearly 6,000 people had a stroke, 2,985 people developed cardiovascular diseases and 1,020 people later died. Participants with exposure to high levels of air pollution were significantly more likely to have a first stroke, post-stroke cardiovascular disease or death.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The researchers found that for each five micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) increase in fine particulate matter, the risk of transitioning from being healthy to having a first stroke increased by 24 percent. Shockingly, the risk from being healthy to dying increased by 30 percent.&nbsp;



Particulate matter consists of liquids or solids suspended in air. Fine particulate matter, PM2.5 includes fly ash from coal combustion. Those who had a stroke during the study had an average exposure of 10.03 µg/m3 of PM2.5, compared to 9.97 µg/m3 for those who did not have a stroke. Nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide pollutants were also associated with an increased risk of stroke and death.



“More research is needed, but it’s possible that decreasing exposure to heavy levels of air pollution could play a role in reducing the progression of stroke,” said Dr. Hualiang Lin of Sun Yat-sen University School of Public Health.



“People can reduce their exposure by staying indoors on heavy pollution days, reducing their outdoor exercise, wearing masks to filter out particulate matter and using air purifiers.”



It’s important to note that the results do not prove that air pollution causes stroke, as they only show an association. The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.neurology.org/">Neurology</a>.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



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By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Air pollution linked to a higher risk of stroke

In a new study published by the American Academy of...

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Today&#8217;s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the Arctic region of Lapland, which is known for its vast wilderness, ski resorts, and natural wonders such as the Northern Lights.



Lapland is Finland’s northernmost region, and borders Sweden, Norway, Russia, and the Baltic Sea. It is also bound by the Norwegian Sea on the west, the Barents Sea on the north, and the White Sea to the east.



In the winter months, Lapland has temperatures of below zero and the Northern Lights, or the Aurora Borealis, can he viewed in the night sky.



The capital of Lapland, Rovaniemi, is considered the official hometown of Santa Claus. Here, the Arctic Circle runs through Santa Claus Village, which is located eight kilometers north of the city center.&nbsp;



Finland is one of the places in the Arctic Circle where you can experience the Midnight Sun, or 24 hours of sunshine in the summer, as well as the Polar Night, when the sun does not appear in the winter. The northern and western areas were transferred in 1809 to Oulu County, which became Oulu Province. Under the royalist constitution of Finland during the first half of 1918, Lapland was to become a Grand Principality and part of the inheritance of the proposed king of Finland. 



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The northern European region of Lapland