2021.10.27 : Langley Group Part of Award-winning Team
Members of the Science Directorate at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia were part of a team that won the 2020 Robert H. Goddard Award in Outreach for exceptional innovation reaching families and the public at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The award was given to team members and scientists involved in the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to benefit the Environment Program) Program's GLOBE Observer app. +Read More

2021.10.22 : Playing with Fire: Life in An Increasingly Flammable World
If it seems to you like fire has been burning hot and bright in the headlines in recent years, it's not all in your mind. Nor is it sensationalized. In the U.S. alone, starting in the 2000s, record-breaking fires have scorched and scarred a growing list of states that includes California, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon, Kansas, Oklahoma, Alaska, Texas, Florida and Montana. +Read More

2021.10.06 : Reading, Writing, and Remote Sensing: NASA Earth Observing Data Go to School
When Sonia Balani returned for her senior year this fall at Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, NJ, NASA Earth observing data went with her. “So far, we’ve used soil moisture and soil temperature data and we’ve also looked at global chlorophyll levels seasonally,” Balani says. “We looked at the change in chlorophyll levels seen in the satellite data and also identified some abiotic factors that could influence those levels of chlorophyll.” Balani is one of thousands of students in grades 3 through 12 using data from NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) collection in resources created by the My NASA Data initiative. + Read More

2021.10.04 : NASA Langley Intern Brings Teaching Expertise to Earth Science Project
NASA interns join the agency for cutting edge, on-the-job training that will shape their future careers, but they also shape the agency with the experiences they bring to the job. One NASA intern used her skills as a teacher to amp up the agency’s Earth science outreach to kids. “One of the best parts of this experience is being able to raise awareness to our educators and scientists that students may need additional support to learn,” said NASA intern Maria Royle. +Read More

2021.09.21 : NASA Study Examines Houston-area Air Quality Issues
NASA scientists are in Houston this month for an intensive air quality study exploring the effects of emissions and weather on air pollution, as well as the relationship between air quality and socioeconomic factors. Tracking Aerosol Convection interactions ExpeRiment-Air Quality (TRACER-AQ) began Sept. 1 and includes both airborne and ground-based measurements of trace gases, aerosols, and weather to help scientists better understand some of the intricacies of air quality in the Houston area. + Read More
Image Credit: NASA/Jayne Boehmler.

2021.09.01 : CLARREO Pathfinder Power Converter Unit Completed
Designed, built, and tested at NASA Langley, the Power Converter Unit (PCU) hardware is a key part of the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) Pathfinder payload. The PCU serves as the power interface between CLARREO Pathfinder and the ISS, ensuring that the right level of power is delivered to the rest of the CLARREO Pathfinder payload. +Read More
Image Credit NASA/David C. Bowman.

2021.08.19 : NASA POWER Project Powers Up with New Version
The latest POWER version enhances its distribution systems to provide the latest NASA EO source data, be more resilient, support users more effectively, and provide data more efficiently. The update will include hourly-based source Analysis Ready Data (ARD), in addition to enhanced daily, monthly, annual, and climatology ARD. The daily time-series now spans 40 years for meteorology available from 1981 and solar-based parameters start in 1984. The hourly source data are from Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) and Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO), spanning 20 years from 2001. + Read More

2021.08.17 : Studying Earth’s Stratospheric Water Vapor
Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III (SAGE III, a and c) is compared to Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS, b and d) for August 2017 (top) and January 2018 (bottom). In August of 2017, SAGE III H2O showed that water vapor over the North American monsoon region was relatively higher than over the Asian monsoon region. While the SAGE III instrument takes about one month to cover the latitude range ∼60N–60S, scientists have found that this monthly sampling captures more localized values of water vapor in the lower stratosphere. Image Credit: NASA +Read More

2021.08.10 : Become an Armchair Cloud Expert and Help NASA Scientists Along the Way
Would you like to help NASA scientists advance their understanding of Earth’s atmosphere and climate from the comfort of your own home? NASA GLOBE CLOUD GAZE allows citizen scientists to look at cloud photographs submitted to GLOBE by students, teachers and the general public through the program’s GLOBE Observer app and identify elements such as the presence or absence of clouds, dust storms, smoke plumes and haze layers. +Learn More

2021.08.10 : Siberia endures ‘nasty burning’ amid worst fire season in decades
“2021 is already the largest fire year in the Republic of Sakha and we don’t even have August yet,” said Amber Soja, an associate research fellow with the National Institute of Aerospace and resident at the NASA Langley Research Center. The Sakha region is covered in permafrost, or frozen soil, that is composed of soil organic matter rich in carbon. Soja explains the organic matter is hundreds to millennia old and consists of partially decomposed vegetation. Each year, trees and plants shed leaves, needles and other materials, and compact on one another year after year. Large quantities of carbon are buried deep into the permafrost and can be released through fires or from other sources of thawing. + View the full Washington Post Feature Story

2021.07.30 : Transformative Tech to Measure Earth's Energy Budget
Even with one technology already in the pipeline to potentially change the way scientists measure Earth's energy budget from space, the transformative minds at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia are still thinking ahead. DEMonstrating the Emerging Technology for Measuring the Earth’s Radiation (DEMETER) offers an advanced approach to measure Earth’s energy budget.
+ Learn More

2021.06.25 : NASA Maps Air Quality in Ozone Hot Spot.
Scientists are flying an airborne campaign out of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia this month to contribute to a joint U.S.-Canadian study on air quality in a region with high surface ozone levels. A community-organized effort led by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy named Michigan Ontario Ozone Source Experiment (MOOSE) is targeting the border region that's home to Detroit on the U.S. side and Windsor, Ontario, in Canada. +Read More

2021.06.15 : Joint NASA, NOAA Study Finds Earth's Energy Imbalance Has Doubled.
Researchers have found that Earth’s energy imbalance approximately doubled during the 14-year period from 2005 to 2019.
Earth's climate is determined by a delicate balance between how much of the Sun's radiative energy is absorbed in the atmosphere and at the surface and how much thermal infrared radiation Earth emits to space. A positive energy imbalance means the Earth system is gaining energy, causing the planet to heat up. +Read More

2021.05.21 : TEMPO Air Pollution Sensor Treks Toward Satellite Integration
A NASA satellite instrument that will measure air pollution over North America has reached another key project milestone. On Tuesday, May 18, The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO), instrument, which will take hourly daytime measurements at an unprecedented spatial resolution shipped from Ball Aerospace in Broomfield, Colorado, to Maxar Technologies' satellite manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, California, for integration onto the Intelsat 40e. +Read More

2021.05.10 : Langley Scientists Observe Storm Clouds in 3D — You Can, Too.
Scientists at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, are breaking out their 3D glasses — not to watch the latest blockbuster movie, but to get a more detailed look at blockbuster storm clouds, and ultimately, a better understanding of severe weather. +Read More

2021.05.05 : Smoke in the Stratosphere
“During sunsets and sunrises, the Sun is close to the horizon, so light has to travel through the atmosphere before reaching the space station,” explained NASA atmospheric scientist Jean-Paul Vernier. “This gives gases and particles opportunities to scatter light in certain parts of the spectrum.” +Read More

2021.04.29 : Langley Scientists Eyeing New Way to Measure Key Climate Indicator
Scientists at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, have set out to transform the way the agency measures Earth's energy budget — a key gauge of climate health. Using spare parts from a program called the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES), Langley scientists recently completed work on an instrument called Athena. +Read More

2021.04.22: Earth Day 2021 Virtual Event
Several NASA Langley researchers contributed presentations to NASA's 2021 Earth Day virtual event. Their presentations highlighted some critical areas of NASA Langley's Earth Science research that supports NASA's mission.
+Access the 2021 Earth Day Science Directorate YouTube Presentations Collection

2021.03.18: SAGE III Carries on Critical Measurements of Stratospheric Aerosols and Ozone
On the fourth anniversary of its first-light measurements, we are taking a look at some of the critical data collected by NASA's Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III (SAGE III) aboard the International Space Station. Launched to the station in February 2017, SAGE III is the most recent in a series of SAGE instruments that have measured stratospheric gases and aerosols from space. The SAGE family of instruments started in 1979 and is one of NASA’s longest-running Earth-observing programs. +View Feature Story

2021.02.25: Langley Scientist Participates in Arizona SciTech Panel Discussion
Marilé Colón Robles, a project scientist for NASA's GLOBE Clouds citizen science program at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, participated in a recent virtual panel discussion on Hispanic leaders in science and space as part of the 2021 Arizona SciTech Festival. +Read More

2021.02.04: ACTIVATE Begins Year Two of Marine Cloud Study
A NASA airborne study has returned to the field for a second year of science flights to advance the accuracy of short- and long-term climate models. The Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE) began the third of six planned flight campaigns — two campaigns each year beginning in 2020 and ending in 2022 — in late January at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. +Read More

2021.01.12 : Sensing Our Earth from Above
How NASA Langley Research Center is Taking Lidar to New Heights​ to Better Understand Our Earth; by the NASA Langley Atmospheric Science Data Center & the Science Directorate. +View The Lidar StoryMap Feature