On a typical day in August, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites detect approximately 10,000 active fires, as well as huge swaths of freshly charred land in ecosystems ranging from boreal forests to savanna to tropical forests.
Prodigious phytoplankton growth can be toxic to an ecosystem, suffocating marine life (by depleting the oxygen in the sea) or producing toxins that can sicken and sometimes kill the creatures (including humans) who ingest them.
Space enthusiasts can contribute to NASA’s exploration goals through the next round of the agency’s CubeSat Launch Initiative.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, currently on a year-long mission on the International Space Station, took this photograph of a sunrise and posted it to social media on Aug. 10, 2015.
Scientists are swapping topographic maps for satellite images as part of a new NASA mission to create the first global inventory of Earth's surface waters.
NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the habitable zone around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable-zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another Earth.
New research using NASA satellite data and ocean biology models suggests tiny organisms in vast stretches of the Southern Ocean play a significant role in generating brighter clouds overhead. Brighter clouds reflect more sunlight back into space, affecting the amount of solar energy that reaches Earth's surface, which in turn has implications for global climate.
Some underserved Virginia patients were among the first to be officially helped by an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), more commonly known as a drone, during research flights to a medical clinic in Wise County during July 2015.
This Blue Marble image is the first fully illuminated snapshot of Earth captured by the DSCOVR satellite, which will capture and transmit full images of Earth every few hours. The information will help examine a range of Earth properties, such as ozone and aerosol levels, cloud coverage, and vegetation density, supporting a number of climate-science applications.
By Steve Cole, public affairs officer, Earth Science Division, NASA (www.nasa.gov), Washington, D.C. Four new NASA Earth-observing missions are collecting data from space—with a fifth newly in orbit—after the busiest year of NASA Earth science launches in more...
