5 min read NASA-DOD Study: Saltwater to Widely Taint Coastal Groundwater by 2100 Intrusion of saltwater into coastal groundwater can make water there unusable, damage ecosystems, and corrode infrastructure. Seawater will infiltrate underground freshwater supplies in about three of every four coastal areas around the world by the year 2100, according to a recent study … Read more
The decline in global freshwater reported in the study began with a massive drought in northern and central Brazil, and was followed shortly by a series of major droughts in Australasia, South America, North America, Europe, and Africa. Warmer ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific from late 2014 into 2016, culminating in one of the … Read more
An unusual boost in plant productivity can foreshadow severe soil water loss. NASA satellites are following the clues. Flaring up rapidly and with little warning, the drought that gripped much of the United States in the summer of 2012 was one of the most extensive the country had seen since the yearslong Dust Bowl of … Read more
Flooding on the Souris River inundated this community in North Dakota in 2011. The U.S.-French SWOT satellite is giving scientists and water managers a new tool to look at floods in 3D, information that can improve predictions of where and how often flooding will occur. Source link
A partnership between NASA and the French space agency, the satellite is poised to help improve forecasts of where and when flooding will occur in Earth’s rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Rivers, lakes, and reservoirs are like our planet’s arteries, carrying life-sustaining water in interconnected networks. When Earth’s water cycle runs too fast, flooding can result, … Read more
The novel approach to estimating river water storage and discharge also identifies regions marked by ‘fingerprints’ of intense water use. A study led by NASA researchers provides new estimates of how much water courses through Earth’s rivers, the rates at which it’s flowing into the ocean, and how much both of those figures have fluctuated … Read more
Ural River levels peak in this April 13, 2024, enhanced color image from Landsat 9; here, vegetation appears red, while water is blue-green. After heavy rain and rapid snowmelt, rivers in southern Russia and northern Kazakhstan swelled, flooding homes and displacing thousands of people. Landsat 9, the latest satellite in the Landsat series, contributes a … Read more
Over the course of nearly two decades, its powerful radar provided never-before-seen details of clouds and helped advance global weather and climate predictions. CloudSat, a NASA mission that peered into hurricanes, tallied global snowfall rates, and achieved other weather and climate firsts, has ended its operations. Originally proposed as a 22-month mission, the spacecraft was … Read more
Data from the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission helped researchers to calculate the depth of water in this transient freshwater body. California’s Death Valley, the driest place in North America, has hosted an ephemeral lake since late 2023. A NASA-led analysis recently calculated water depths in the temporary lake over several weeks in … Read more
New findings have revealed a coastal realm highly sensitive to changes in runoff and rainfall on land. After helping stoke record heat in 2023 and drenching major swaths of the United States this winter, the current El Niño is losing steam this spring. Scientists have observed another way that the climate phenomenon can leave its … Read more