Tuesday, September 17th, 2013
NASA will host a two-day NASA Social for 100 of its social media followers on Monday, Nov. 4, and Tuesday, Nov. 5, at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The event will highlight NASA and JPL’s role in studying Earth and its climate and will preview three missions JPL is preparing for launch
Wednesday, August 28th, 2013
The Rim Fire burning in and near Yosemite National Park in California continues to grow and move its way up in the record books. As of Aug. 27, CAL FIRE (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) reports that the fire, which started Aug. 17, had consumed nearly 180,000 acres, making it the seventh largest
Wednesday, July 31st, 2013
NASA has selected the University of Colorado Boulder for the management and operations of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System Snow and Ice Distributed Active Archive Center. This cost, no-fee completion contract is worth about $42 million. The base performance period is from Aug. 1 through May 31, 2014, with four one-year extension
Monday, July 29th, 2013
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has named planetary geologist Ellen Stofan the agency’s chief scientist, effective Aug. 25. Stofan will be Bolden’s principal advisor on the agency’s science programs and science-related strategic planning and investments.
Friday, July 26th, 2013
Plants grow and thrive through photosynthesis, a process that converts sunlight into energy. During photosynthesis, plants emit what is called fluorescence – light invisible to the naked eye but detectable by satellites orbiting hundreds of miles above Earth. NASA scientists have now established a method to turn this satellite data into global maps of the
Wednesday, July 24th, 2013
Climate data can help predict some crop failures several months before harvest, according to a new study from an international team, including a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Scientists found that in about one-third of global cropland, temperature and soil moisture have strong relationships to the yield of wheat
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013
In Indonesia, land-clearing blazes dot the countryside. Fires for clearing land have been outlowed for all but the smallest landowners, but the “slash-and-burn” practice still persists despite cloaking Southeast Asia in toxic pollution for weeks. Better and more available satellite technology is helping identify culprits behind land-clearing blazes in Indonesia. Unprecedented levels of air pollution
Friday, July 19th, 2013
The International Space Station (ISS) partner agencies released a statement Wednesday on the benefits of the space station during natural disasters on Earth. Flying 250 miles above the planet and circling it every 90 minutes, the orbiting outpost provides a unique vantage point from which images of Earth can play an important role in helping
Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013
The curtain has come down on a superstar of the satellite oceanography world that played the “Great Blue Way” of the world’s ocean for 11-1/2 years. The successful joint NASA and Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) Jason-1 ocean altimetry satellite was decommissioned this week following the loss of its last remaining transmitter.
Monday, July 1st, 2013
Having looked back at Earth from outer space, I have seen just how fragile our home planet is – and I’m committed to doing everything I can to help protect it.Yesterday, President Obama announced an ambitious Climate Action Plan to cut carbon pollution and put us on a more environmentally sustainable course. At NASA, where
