2022.04.22 : SAGE III Observes ISS Contamination Environment
Operating a science instrument aboard a crewed, frequently visited space station the size of a football field poses many challenges to data collection and quality. The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III instrument, currently on board the International Space Station (ISS), is equipped with the tools necessary to deal with these challenges. + Learn More

2022.04.20 : NASA Scientist Discovers New Means to Measure Snow Depth from Space
Using a concept adapted from the mathematics and biology communities, Yongxiang Hu of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, developed a method to directly measure snow depth using lidar measurements from the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2). Lidar uses pulses of laser light to make measurements, similar to how sonar uses sound. Hu worked with other scientists at NASA, the University of Arizona, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Ball Aerospace. + Learn More

2022.04.06 : NASA, Australian Space Agency Collaborate on Earth Science
NASA and the Australian Space Agency are continuing their 60-year successful partnership to study Earth's changing climate. NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy and Australian Space Agency Head Enrico Palermo signed a joint statement of intent for cooperation in Earth science on April 4, 2022 at the 37th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The partnership highlights complementary Earth observation missions currently in development at both agencies. + Learn More Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

2022.02.08 : SAGE III Instrument Detects Stratospheric Effects of Indonesian Volcanic Eruption.
Dec. 4, 2021, Mount Semeru, one of the largest and most active volcanoes on the Indonesian island of Java, erupted. Ash, avalanches, and rivers of water and volcanic debris called lahars resulted in the tragic deaths of more than 50 people. At the time of the eruption, the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III instrument on the International Space Station (ISS) was observing other areas of the planet. One month later, SAGE III took measurements within the latitude band of Mount Semeru (8°S) and detected an enhancement of aerosols in Earth’s stratosphere at an altitude of approximately 19 km. Because of the orbital path of the ISS, SAGE III observations usually pass through a given geographical area of Earth’s atmosphere once per month. + Learn More

2022.01.12 : NASA GLOBE Cloud Challenge 2022: Clouds in a Changing Climate.
Clouds can give scientists a lot of important information about Earth's climate. That's why NASA and The GLOBE Program, an international science and education program that engages students and the public in data collection and the scientific process, are once again calling on Earth's citizen scientists to help NASA investigate clouds during the NASA GLOBE Cloud Challenge 2022 - Clouds in a Changing Climate. + Read More

2021.12.15 : NASA POWER Team Issues Educational Tool for Potential Users.
The Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resource (POWER) at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, helps ensure that communities have access to reliable energy amid increasing climate variability. POWER accomplishes this by providing analysis-ready data products from NASA Earth observations and modeling to support the research and engineering community. POWER supports three user communities with solar and meteorological data: renewable energy, sustainable buildings and agroclimatology. +Read More

2021.12.07 : Twenty Years On, SABER on TIMED Still Observing the Upper Atmosphere
So much of the well-known science on Earth's atmosphere focuses on what's happening in its lowest two layers — the troposphere down here where we live and work, and above that, the stratosphere, home to the ozone layer. But 20 years ago today, scientists watched a satellite lift off that they hoped would give them a few good years of insight into the workings of two of the highest regions of the atmosphere — the mesosphere and thermosphere. +Read More

2021.12.01 : TEMPO Air Pollution Sensor Integrated with Satellite Host
NASA's Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument was integrated with Intelsat 40e by Maxar's Space Program Delivery team in Palo Alto, California. From its geostationary orbit — a high Earth orbit that allows satellites to match Earth's rotation — TEMPO will take hourly daytime observations of air quality over an area that extends from Puerto Rico to northern Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, encompassing the entire continental United States. +Read More

2021.11.09 : Enhanced Stratospheric Aerosols from Fukutoku-Okanoba Eruption
Did you know active volcanoes lie beneath the ocean’s surface? The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III on the International Space Station (ISS) instrument spotted remnants of the Fukutoku-Okanoba undersea volcanic 2021 eruption in Earth’s stratosphere. Fukutoku-Okanoba erupted vigorously in the Philippine Sea on Aug. 13, 2021. Although the volcano's summit is approximately 80 feet under water, the powerful eruption was still forceful enough to send ash and sulfate aerosol particles high above the sea's surface and well up into the lower stratosphere at an altitude of approximately 16 km. +Read More

2021.11.08 : NASA Tests Sustainable Aviation Fuel Emissions
NASA’s Rich Moore monitoring data feeds inside NASA’s Mobile Lab during the jet engine fuel emissions testing. Photo Credit: Boeing/Liz Wolter. A team of scientists from NASA, Boeing, and Aerodyne Research recently met at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, to measure emissions from the 2021 Boeing ecoDemonstrator aircraft – an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-MAX 9 with low-emitting LEAP-1B engines from CFM International. + Read More

2021.11.01 : NASA Langley Researcher Accepted into STEM Leadership Program
Jessica Taylor, a physical scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, was competitively selected to participate in the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science’s Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Leadership Program, a six-week professional development program. The program targets early and mid-career, U.S.-based STEM professionals. +Read More

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.