Author Archive
Monday, July 13th, 2026
A unique pairing of ESA’s Sentinel-1 satellites is providing scientists with one of the most detailed views ever assembled of Antarctic ice movement, allowing researchers to compare nearly three decades of glacier flow and ice-sheet dynamics. The new observations improve understanding of how Antarctica is responding to a changing climate and how ice loss may
Monday, June 29th, 2026
Scientists are closely monitoring the return of El Niño conditions as warming sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific begin influencing weather patterns around the world. New satellite observations provide an increasingly detailed view of changes occurring across the Pacific Ocean, offering researchers valuable information for seasonal forecasting. Earth-observation satellites measure sea-surface temperatures, cloud development, rainfall
Monday, June 15th, 2026
New observations from NASA’s TEMPO mission are providing an unprecedented look at how air pollution changes throughout the day across the northeastern United States. Recent imagery captured elevated ozone concentrations stretching from New York City to Washington, D.C., demonstrating the ability of the instrument to track atmospheric conditions with remarkable detail. Unlike previous satellite missions
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026
A new suite of geospatial innovations designed to turn data into actionable intelligence for global food systems was announced on May 27, 2026. The Geospatial Innovation for Food Security (GIFS) Challenge selected three project awardees to develop tools that will aid humanitarian agencies, governments and agricultural specialists to navigate the complexities of agricultural production, climate
Tuesday, May 19th, 2026
Maps can show more than just where things are—they can also show how things change. New maps of artificial light reveal a planet that has been reshaping its nights through patterns of brightening and dimming. The maps are based on a recent analysis of NASA’s Black Marble data, which found that instead of a gradual increase in
Monday, May 4th, 2026
Satellite observations are capturing the rapid retreat of Antarctica’s Hektoria Glacier, where ice loss has accelerated dramatically in recent years. The imagery reveals fractured ice, expanding melt zones and newly exposed terrain as the glacier continues to destabilize. Scientists attribute the retreat to a combination of ocean warming and structural weakening of the glacier’s ice
Monday, April 20th, 2026
Nearly all of Florida faced at least “moderate” drought in April 2026, and nearly 80 percent of the state fell under “extreme” conditions—some of the worst on record. The Floridan aquifer dropped to its lowest levels since 2011, prompting water-management districts to issue mandatory outdoor watering restrictions across multiple regions. The map above combines data
Tuesday, April 7th, 2026
At the top of the planet, the cap of sea ice across Arctic waters grows and shrinks with the seasons, usually reaching its annual maximum extent in March. In 2026, this peak occurred on March 15, when the extent reached 14.29 million square kilometers, matching the lowest maximum observed since satellite monitoring began in 1979. One
Tuesday, March 24th, 2026
From Jan. 19-22, 2026, a particularly strong X-class solar flare caused a geomagnetic storm in Earth’s atmosphere, with some of the most intense radiation storms on record. The cause was an eruption on the Sun’s surface, which released high-energy particles that reached Earth within 25 hours. ESA’s ice mission, CryoSat, had just received an important software update, enabling the mission
Tuesday, March 10th, 2026
In a first, a space mission led by NASA and France tracked Earth’s rivers swelling and shrinking from month to month over the course of a year and found significantly less of a swing than previous model-based estimates. A record drought in the Amazon likely influenced the tally made by the Surface Water and Ocean
