Friday, September 23rd, 2022
If global warming persists, blue lakes worldwide are at risk of turning green-brown, according to a new study which presents the first global inventory of lake color. Shifts in lake water color can indicate a loss of ecosystem health. While substances such as algae and sediments can affect the color of lakes, the new study
Monday, September 12th, 2022
In early September 2022, a long-lasting heat dome settled over the U.S. West and brought scorching temperatures that set all-time record highs. The extreme heat fueled wildfires and stressed the power grid before an eastern Pacific tropical storm moved into the region and broke the warm spell. On Sept. 7, 2022, more than 61 million
Friday, August 26th, 2022
The second-largest reservoir in the United States now stands at its lowest level since it was filled in the mid-1960s. The view from above is sobering. Lake Powell, a key component of the western U.S. water system, is currently filled to just 26 percent of capacity, its lowest point since 1967. On August 22, 2022,
Friday, August 12th, 2022
New research on Antarctica, including the first map of iceberg calving, doubles the previous estimates of loss from ice shelves and details how the continent is changing. The greatest uncertainty in forecasting global sea-level rise is how Antarctica’s ice loss will accelerate as the climate warms. Two studies published Aug. 10, 2022, and led by
Monday, August 1st, 2022
Water is life, but for all its importance, humanity has a surprisingly limited view of Earth’s freshwater bodies. Researchers have reliable water-level measurements for only a few thousand lakes around the world, and little to no data on some of the planet’s important river systems. The upcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite will
Monday, July 18th, 2022
With the 2022 hurricane season upon us, the importance of using science-backed solutions for hurricane preparedness is brought to the foreground. Since Colombia’s Caribbean islands were devastated by hurricanes Eta and Iota within a two-week period back in November 2020, government-funded researchers have been using wave and current data measured by Nortek’s ocean sensors to
Friday, July 1st, 2022
A very small instrument has a big job ahead of it: measuring all Earth-directed energy coming from the Sun and helping scientists understand how that energy influences our planet’s severe weather, climate change and other global forces. About the size of a shoebox or gaming console, the Compact Total Irradiance Monitor (CTIM) is the smallest
Monday, June 20th, 2022
Greenland’s fjords harbor a unique group of polar bears that rely on glacial ice, a NASA-funded study reports in Science. Polar bears throughout the Arctic depend on sea ice as a platform for hunting seals. As human-caused climate change warms the planet and Arctic sea ice melts away, polar bears are scrambling to find ice
Tuesday, June 7th, 2022
Each year, strong winds carry more than a billion metric tons—the weight of 10,000 aircraft carriers—of mineral dust from Earth’s deserts and other dry regions through the atmosphere. While scientists know that the dust affects the environment and climate, they don’t have enough data to determine, in detail, what those effects are or may be
Tuesday, May 24th, 2022
A relentless heat wave has blanketed India and Pakistan since mid-March 2022, causing dozens of deaths, fires, increased air pollution and reduced crop yields. Weather forecasts show no prospect of relief any time soon. NASA’s Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station instrument (ECOSTRESS) has been measuring these temperatures from space, at the highest
