The remotely controlled Sally Ride EarthKAM aboard the International Space Station acquired this photograph on July 14, 2016, as the orbiting laboratory flew over Lake Powell and the border of Utah and Arizona.
Peeking Under Greenland's Ice Sheet
Greenland's thick ice sheet insulates the bedrock below from the cold temperatures at the surface, so the bottom of the ice often is tens of degrees warmer than at the top.
Wildfires Blaze in Portugal
Since early August 2016, hundreds of fires have been raging in Portugal and Spain. More than 4,000 firefighters and 30 aircraft battled blazes on mainland Portugal, but heat and strong winds hampered the firefighting efforts.
Study Maps Hidden Water Pollution in U.S. Coastal Areas
Coastal waters and nearshore groundwater supplies along more than a fifth of coastlines in the contiguous United States are vulnerable to contamination from previously hidden underground transfers of water between the oceans and land.
Scene from Space: Aurora Over Impact Crater
An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured an aurora that spanned thousands of kilometers over Quebec, Canada, and a conspicuous circle of ice in the Manicouagan impact crater.
Bonus Result: CryoSat Accurately Measures Coastal Sea Levels
Scientists from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences report that the European Space Agency's CryoSat satellite and its radar altimeter can map coastal sea levels much closer than previous satellite-based methods.
Acadia National Park Celebrates 100th Anniversary
Acadia National Park, one of the most visited parks in America with more than 2.5 million visitors per year, is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2016.
Satellites Find Source of Aurora Explosions
An international team led by Hiroshi Hasegawa and Naritoshi Kitamura (ISAS/JAXA) analyzed data taken by the U.S.-Japan collaborative GEOTAIL mission and NASA's MMS satellites, finding that the interaction between the magnetic fields of Earth and the Sun, or more precisely the phenomenon known as magnetic reconnection, can feed aurora explosions.
DOI, UAS Industry Partnering to Reduce Firefighting Interference
To address the growing problem of unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) impeding wildland firefighting efforts, the U.S. Department of the Interior and industry partners activated a prototype warning system that provides real-time alerts and geofencing alarms to prevent drone pilots from interfering with firefighting operations.
Tonga's Beautiful Beaches, Reefs and Lagoons
The Kingdom of Tonga in the southern Pacific Ocean has a population dispersed across 36 of its 169 islands, but about 70 percent of the people live on the main island captured in this image from the European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-2A satellite.