Earth Science in Action

We don’t just study climate. We act on it.

NASA collects data to show how our climate is changing from both natural causes and human activities, from documenting impacts on ice sheets, sea level, and Arctic sea ice to monitoring vegetation health and freshwater movement. We are putting decades of research, technology, and innovation to work to improve people's lives on our home planet.

US House of Representatives Columbia Accident Documents

6 min read

House Representative Statements The following are some of the statements made by Representatives regarding the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia. February 1, 2003: Representative Sherwood Boehlert PRESS RELEASEDate Released: Saturday, February 01, 2003House Science Committee Boehlert Statement on Space Shuttle Columbia Tragedy…

The Marshall Star for March 27, 2024

33 min read

Marshall Hosts 37th Small Business Alliance Meeting By Celine Smith NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center hosted its 37th Small Business Alliance meeting March 21 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s Davidson Center for Space Exploration. The event brought together…

A smiling man wearing black rimmed glasses and a blue shirt with the cuffs rolled up is leaning forward, looking at something out of the frame. A young person, whose profiled face appears on the edge of the frame, is also looking at the same place. Three more young people are visible in the back of the room, standing in front of a wall of images.

Eclipse Citizen Science for Educators

3 min read

“Citizen” here refers to citizens of Planet Earth. These projects are open to everyone, regardless of country of birth or legal citizenship status. If you are not already familiar with NASA’s citizen science opportunities or specific projects related to the…

A map of the contiguous U.S. shows the path of the 2024 total solar eclipse stretching on a narrow band from Texas to Maine.

Contribute to NASA Research on Eclipse Day – and Every Day

4 min read

NASA is celebrating the Sun during the Heliophysics Big Year, which extends through the end of 2024. You can get involved to help us learn more about our star and its influence on our planet. With exciting experiments happening during…

Diez maneras en que los estudiantes pueden prepararse para ser astronautas

6 min read

¿Quieres ser astronauta, pero no sabes por dónde empezar? ¡Estas son algunas maneras en las que puedes comenzar tu viaje! Incluso si no aún no reúnes los requisitos para ser astronauta, mediante la Oficina de Participación STEM (ciencia, tecnología, ingeniería…

NASA’s Europa Clipper Survives and Thrives in ‘Outer Space’ on Earth

6 min read

A gantlet of tests prepared the spacecraft for its challenging trip to the Jupiter system, where it will explore the icy moon Europa and its subsurface ocean. In less than six months, NASA is set to launch Europa Clipper on…

Bright orange flames from California’s 2017 Thomas Fire burn a hillside as dark smoke rises. A Forest Service truck and worker is in the foreground.

NASA Data Shows How Drought Changes Wildfire Recovery in the West

4 min read

A new study using NASA satellite data reveals how drought affects the recovery of western ecosystems from fire, a result that could provide meaningful information for conservation efforts. The West has been witnessing a trend of increasing number and intensity…

An image from the SOHO spacecraft shows the Sun covered by a red disk. A white circle within that disk shows the size of the Sun. Around the disk, white and orange streamers in the solar corona extend away from the Sun. In the upper left, a small white box opens up into a larger white box that has “SOHO-5000” written above a faint dot with one short, vertical white line above it and another below it. At the bottom is written “2024/03/25 03:48” and “ESA/NASA SOHO/LASCO C2.”

ESA, NASA Solar Observatory Discovers Its 5,000th Comet

4 min read

On March 25, 2024, a citizen scientist in the Czech Republic spotted a comet in an image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, which has now been confirmed to be the 5,000th comet discovered using SOHO data. SOHO…

IXPE Operations Update

1 min read

On March 23, NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) stopped transmitting valid telemetry data. The only previous interruption of IXPE science observations was due to a similar issue in June of 2023. On March 26, using procedures developed following that…

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission Awarded Collier Trophy

4 min read

NASA and the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) mission team have won the National Aeronautic Association’s (NAA) Robert J. Collier Trophy. NAA awards the trophy annually for what it determines is “the greatest achievement…

Order Up: High School Students Compete to Launch Their Food into Space with NASA HUNCH Culinary Competition

4 min read

On Monday, Feb. 26, visitors to the Integrated Engineering Services Building at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, were greeted by the mouthwatering smell of roasted garlic, sautéed peppers and onions, fragrant herbs, and the unexpected discovery that the…

University Teams Selected as Finalists to Envision New Aviation Responses to Natural Disasters 

1 min read

Eight teams participating in the 2024 Gateways to Blue Skies: Advancing Aviation for Natural Disasters Competition have been selected to present their design concepts to a panel of industry experts at the 2024 Blue Skies Forum, May 30 and 31,…

Tech Today: Cutting the Knee Surgery Cord

2 min read

After Eugene Malinskiy saw a physician assistant trip over arthroscopic camera cords during a medical procedure, he and his brother, Ilya, set out to develop a wireless arthroscopic camera. Early in the development process, the Malinskiys got a boost from…

Global map; different colored areas on each continent show the varying levels of freshwater

New NASA Software Simulates Science Missions for Observing Terrestrial Freshwater

4 min read

From radar instruments smaller than a shoebox to radiometers the size of a milk carton, there are more tools available to scientists today for observing complex Earth systems than ever before. But this abundance of available sensors creates its own…

A rocket launches against a blue sky. A cloud of dust gathers below the rocket.

NASA to Launch Sounding Rockets into Moon’s Shadow During Solar Eclipse

5 min read

NASA will launch three sounding rockets during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, to study how Earth’s upper atmosphere is affected when sunlight momentarily dims over a portion of the planet. The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP)…

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission Awarded Robert Goddard Memorial Trophy

4 min read

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx team was selected as the winner of the National Space Club and Foundation’s 2024 Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy for their tremendous work on the first U.S. mission to bring an asteroid sample to Earth. The winning…

Antarctic Sea Ice Near Historic Lows; Arctic Ice Continues Decline

6 min read

Sea ice at both the top and bottom of the planet continued its decline in 2024. In the waters around Antarctica, ice coverage shrank to near-historic lows for the third year in a row. The recurring loss hints at a…

The image is a satellite view, peering down on the ocean. The background of the image is the dark blue color of the ocean, but centered in the image is a swirling shape of light blue, milky substance – phytoplankton making up a bloom. In the foreground of the image are bright white clouds, seen in the top left corner and along the bottom of the image.

Early Adopters of NASA’s PACE Data to Study Air Quality, Ocean Health

5 min read

From the atmosphere down to the surface of the ocean, data from NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) satellite benefits ecosystems, human health, and underrepresented communities. Years before the launch in February 2024, mission leaders from NASA teamed with…

Optical Fiber Production

4 min read

Science in Space: March 2024 Optical fibers are used on Earth and in space for applications in medicine, defense, cybersecurity, and telecommunications. Parabolic research showed that optical fibers produced in microgravity can be higher quality than those made in normal…

Partnerships that Prepare for Success: The Research Institution Perspective on the M-STTR Initiative

4 min read

Originally published in 2022 Editor’s Notes (March 2024): Oakwood University and its small business partner—SSS Optical Technologies, LLC—were awarded a STTR Phase II in November 2023 to continue their work. Also in 2023, M-STTR awards became part of what is…