Sunday, June 30th, 2013
History tends to look fondly upon trailblazers, even if they don’t necessarily stick around. From musicians and actors to politicians and inventors, our lives are immeasurably enriched by the contributions of visionaries who left us. So when NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., launched an experimental satellite called Seasat to study Earth and its seas
Thursday, June 20th, 2013
NASA’s communications experts have begun flight testing a prototype radio as part of the agency’s contributions toward fully integrating civil and commercial Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS).
Thursday, June 20th, 2013
In 2012, the continental United States suffered through one of its worst droughts in decades. Nearly 80 percent of the nation’s farm, orchard, and grazing land was affected in some way, and 28 percent experienced extreme to exceptional drought. As another summer arrives in North America, surface water conditions have improved in many places, but drought has persisted or
Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013
For decades, Landsat satellites have documented the desiccation of the Aral Sea in Central Asia. Once one of the largest seas in the world, it shrunk to a tenth of its original volume after Russia diverted its feeder rivers in the 1960s. Scientists studying the Aral Sea’s changing ecology and retreating shoreline have looked to
Friday, May 17th, 2013
A new study of glaciers worldwide using observations from two NASA satellites has helped resolve differences in estimates of how fast glaciers are disappearing and contributing to sea level rise. The new research found glaciers outside of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, repositories of 1 percent of all land ice, lost an average of
Friday, May 10th, 2013
Google released more than a quarter-century of images of Earth taken from space Thursday compiled into an interactive time-lapse experience. Working with data from the Landsat Program managed by the U.S. Geological Survey, the images display an historical perspective on changes to Earth’s surface over time.
Wednesday, May 8th, 2013
On the beautifully clear Monday morning of Feb. 11, 2013, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission made its way from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base to low Earth orbit. The more than 1,000 Landsat scientists, engineers, data users, and fans gathered to watch the launch breathed a collective sigh of relief as the bright orange light
Tuesday, May 7th, 2013
As the Landsat Data Continuity Mission satellite flew over Indonesia’s Flores Sea April 29, it captured an image of Paluweh volcano spewing ash into the air. The satellite’s Operational Land Imager detected the white cloud of smoke and ash drifting northwest, over the green forests of the island and the blue waters of the tropical
Thursday, May 2nd, 2013
NASA’s newest scientific rover is set for testing May 3 through June 8 in the highest part of Greenland. The robot known as GROVER, which stands for both Greenland Rover and Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research, will roam the frigid landscape collecting measurements to help scientists better understand changes in the massive
Friday, April 26th, 2013
In the 1960s, climate science took a quantum leap forward when researchers at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, N.J. developed the first computerized model of Earth’s climate that could account for both atmospheric and oceanic processes. For the first time, scientists could see how the complex interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere
