Earth Science

Linking Satellite Data and Community Knowledge to Advance Alaskan Snow Science – NASA Science

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Linking Satellite Data and Community Knowledge to Advance Alaskan Snow Science – NASA Science

Seasonal snow plays a significant role in global water and energy cycles, and billions of people worldwide rely on snowmelt for water resources needs, including water supply, hydropower, agriculture, and more. Monitoring snow water equivalent (SWE) is critical for supporting these applications and for mitigating damages caused by snowmelt flooding, avalanches, and other snow-related disasters. … Read more

Meet Mineral Mappers Flying NASA Tech Out West – NASA

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Meet Mineral Mappers Flying NASA Tech Out West – NASA

NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey have been mapping the planets since Apollo. One team is searching closer to home for minerals critical to national security and the economy. If not for the Joshua trees, the tan hills of Cuprite, Nevada, would resemble Mars. Scalded and chemically altered by water from deep underground, the rocks … Read more

Polar Tourists Give Positive Reviews to NASA Citizen Science in Antarctica – NASA Science

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Polar Tourists Give Positive Reviews to NASA Citizen Science in Antarctica – NASA Science

Citizen science projects result in an overwhelmingly positive impact on the polar tourism experience. That’s according to a new paper analyzing participant experiences in the first two years of FjordPhyto, a NASA Citizen Science project..   The FjordPhyto citizen science project invites travelers onboard expedition cruise vessels to gather data and samples during the polar summer … Read more

NASA Mission Monitoring Air Quality from Space Extended  – NASA

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NASA Mission Monitoring Air Quality from Space Extended  – NASA

Since launching in 2023, NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution mission, or TEMPO, has been measuring the quality of the air we breathe from 22,000 miles above the ground. June 19 marked the successful completion of TEMPO’s 20-month-long initial prime mission, and based on the quality of measurements to date, the mission has been extended … Read more

By Air and by Sea: Validating NASA’s PACE Ocean Color Instrument – NASA

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By Air and by Sea: Validating NASA’s PACE Ocean Color Instrument – NASA

In autumn 2024, California’s Monterey Bay experienced an outsized phytoplankton bloom that attracted fish, dolphins, whales, seabirds, and – for a few weeks in October – scientists. A team from NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, with partners at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), and the Naval Postgraduate School, spent two weeks … Read more

NASA Tech to Use Moonlight to Enhance Measurements from Space – NASA

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NASA Tech to Use Moonlight to Enhance Measurements from Space – NASA

NASA will soon launch a one-of-a-kind instrument, called Arcstone, to improve the quality of data from Earth-viewing sensors in orbit. In this technology demonstration, the mission will measure sunlight reflected from the Moon— a technique called lunar calibration. Such measurements of lunar spectral reflectance can ultimately be used to set a high-accuracy, universal standard for … Read more

Studying Storms from Space Station – NASA

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Studying Storms from Space Station – NASA

Scientists use instruments on the International Space Station to study phenomena in Earth’s ionosphere or upper atmosphere including thunderstorms, lightning, and transient luminous events (TLEs). TLEs take many forms, including blue jets, discharges that grow upward into the stratosphere from cloud tops, and colorful bursts of energy above storms called Stratospheric/Mesospheric Perturbations Resulting from Intense … Read more

The Earth Observer Editor’s Corner: April–June 2025 – NASA Science

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The Earth Observer Editor’s Corner: April–June 2025 – NASA Science

NASA’s Earth science missions have continued to demonstrate remarkable adaptability and innovation, balancing the legacy of long-standing satellites with the momentum of cutting-edge new technologies. The Terra platform, the first of three Earth Observing System flagship missions, has been in orbit since December 1999. Over a quarter-century later, four of its five instruments continue to … Read more

NASA’s TROPICS Mission: Offering Detailed Images and Analysis of Tropical Cyclones – NASA Science

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NASA’s TROPICS Mission: Offering Detailed Images and Analysis of Tropical Cyclones – NASA Science

Introduction Tropical cyclones represent a danger to life, property, and the economies of communities. Researchers who study tropical cyclones have focused on remote observations using space-based platforms to image these storms, inform forecasts, better predict landfall, and improve understanding of storm dynamics and precipitation evolution – see Figure 1. The tropical cyclone community has leveraged … Read more

NASA’s Ready-to-Use Dataset Details Land Motion Across North America – NASA

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NASA’s Ready-to-Use Dataset Details Land Motion Across North America – NASA

An online tool maps measurements and enables non-experts to understand earthquakes, subsidence, landslides, and other types of land motion. NASA is collaborating with the Alaska Satellite Facility in Fairbanks to create a powerful web-based tool that will show the movement of land across North America down to less than an inch. The online portal and … Read more