By Jessica Merzdorf Evans // NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER, MARYLAND // When the Landsat 9 satellite launches to space next week, it won't be going alone. NASA is partnering with the U.S. Space Force to launch four CubeSats — miniature satellites — on the same Atlas V rocket that's taking Landsat 9 to …
by Jenny Marder //VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, CALIFORNIA// It's less than four days before the planned launch of Landsat 9, and the perfect time to learn about this amazing satellite and the nearly 50-year-old Landsat program. Did you know: Landsat gives us the longest continuous space-based record of planet Earth. Since the first satellite launched …
By Emily Fischer, NASA's Earth Science News Team /GREENBELT, MARYLAND/ On July 7, 2021, NASA sent two robotic explorers to the Arctic to collect sea surface temperature data and improve estimates of ocean temperatures in that region. Pairing up with Saildrone, a designer and manufacturer of non-crewed surface vehicles or USVs, researchers hope to use …
By Rei Ueyama, NASA Ames Research Center /SALINA, KANSAS/ It's 3 a.m. in Salina, Kansas. The moon is out. Crickets are chirping on this balmy summer night. The light above the door to the hangar softly illuminates the sign that reads "DCOTSS." Most teammates are just waking up. I unlock the door and walk in …
By Shawnee Traylor, PhD student in the joint Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution program in Chemical Oceanography / NORTHERN ATLANTIC OCEAN / Satellites have undoubtedly opened up new ways for scientists to study the ocean, giving us global coverage of the surface of the ocean without ever having to step foot …
By Laetitia Drago, PhD student at Sorbonne Université / NORTHERN ATLANTIC OCEAN / As a child, I used to spend my summers on the rocks near the water in Villefranche-sur-mer, France, my hands busy with a bucket and a small net. I was fascinated by the organisms surrounding me both on the rocks and in …
By Mikayla Cote, Master's student at the University of Rhode Island / UNITED KINGDOM / After flying to the United Kingdom, the EXPORTS scientists were in quarantine for two weeks prior to embarking on a month-long research cruise. While there was still some last-minute work to be done before departure, for most of us this …
By Diana Fontaine, Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography / NORTHERN ATLANTIC OCEAN / We have about one more week of full science fun left in the North Atlantic NASA EXPORTS campaign. It has certainly been a wild ride at sea given that we've experienced about four storms to …
By Delfina Navarro-Estrada and Shannon Burns, oceanography graduate students at the University of South Florida / NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN / In the sunlit portion of the ocean exist single-celled microscopic organisms called phytoplankton. They are called the ‘grass of the sea' because these tiny plants and algae perform many of the same ecological functions as …
