The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to track the health of the world's vegetation by detecting and measuring the faint glow that plants give off as they convert sunlight and the atmosphere's carbon dioxide into energy.
Tundra Fires Change Permafrost Landscape
According to a study led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), large tundra fires cause top-down permafrost thaw, playing a major role in altering Arctic landscapes.
Space Agencies Worldwide Contribute to Ice-Loss Study
Scientists studying Greenland's glaciers used satellite observations and aerial survey measurements from a wide variety of space agencies, including ESA, the Canadian Space Agency, NASA, the German Aerospace Center, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Italy's ASI.
Study Maps Earth's Hidden Groundwater
An international group of hydrologists produced the first data-driven estimate of Earth's total supply of groundwater.
Hungary Joins European Space Agency
On Nov. 4, 2015, Hungary became the 22nd Member State of the European Space Agency (ESA).
Remote-Sensing Scholarship Introduced
The U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) partnered with Riverside Research to create the Ken Miller Scholarship for Advanced Remote Sensing Applications, which will be awarded for the first of three times in fall 2016.
Satellite Archaeologist Wins 2016 TED Prize
Sarah Parcak, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and founder of the Laboratory for Global Observation, won the $1 million TED Prize grant, given annually to a bold leader with a wish to spark global change.
Kathmandu University Students Learn to Use Drones for Disaster Response
Humanitarian UAV Network founder Patrick Meier led a weeklong UAV training mission in Nepal, teaching engineering students at Kathmandu University how to use drones and image-processing software for humanitarian and disaster-response scenarios.
ESA Offering Free Course on EO for Monitoring Climate Change
The European Space Agency (ESA) introduced a free online course, featuring scientists and experts from ESA and other European research centers, to educate people about the science behind Earth observation (EO), and how it can help detect and monitor global climate change.
CubeSat Competition Unveiled on White House Astronomy Night
Cornell University, The Museum of Science Fiction and NASA Space Grant consortia grantees are hosting a competition for high-school students to get CubeSat projects they develop launched into space.
