Study: Quickening Water Cycle Fueling Extreme Weather There’s been no shortage of extreme weather in recent years, from flooding in Australia to record-breaking temperatures in North America to wildfires in Russia. A new study published in Science argues that at least some of the blame should go to global warming for accelerating the water cycle. By measuring changes in […]
This week’s indicator: 76. No, that is not a reference to the return time of Halley’s Comet (76 years) or the atomic number of the world’s densest natural element (the metal osmium). In this case, 76 is a percentage. And it’s a particular percentage that represents how much of the variability in North Atlantic sea […]
The vast majority of content on the Earth Observatory is free and available for anyone to use, commercially or otherwise. Many iPhone users will recognize our Blue Marble image from their welcome screen, and many other people have been using our RSS feeds and other syndication methods to bring EO content to other websites, or […]
Global Warming and Whipsaw Weather Perhaps you’ve noticed that we’ve had a record-shattering heat wave across much of North America in recent months, whereas Europe and Asia have experienced an unusually cold winter. That’s to be expected according to a new report on extreme weather published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The report points […]
Ernie Hilsenrath spent more than 40 years working for NASA, and though he officially retired a few years ago, he is still a great advocate for his employer and for science. The longtime atmospheric chemist is both amazed and troubled by how few people know that NASA works in Earth science. He is equally troubled […]
Our colleague and NASA video producer, Jefferson Beck, offered his own take on the gaping crack in the Pine Island Glacier. He had the privilege of flying over that rift last fall, so he included some film footage from the flights. Jefferson has been to both Antarctica and Greenland with the IceBridge mission, and his crew has […]
For those of you who played geographical detective with the MISR image quiz, here are this month’s clues and answers: 1) Within this country lies a picturesque desert, located at the bottom right of the image. This desert was home to a group of enigmatic ancient people who were known for their skill and resourcefulness. […]
Much of the ice that blankets Antarctica is tied up in glaciers that slide slowly toward the sea. Fed by these glaciers, ice shelves form along the Antarctic coast, floating as thick, frozen plates on the sea surface. Every so often, these ice shelves calve large icebergs. In March 2000, a colossal iceberg calved off […]
A Less Hardy Hardiness Map The USDA has unveiled a new version of its plant hardiness map, which gardeners use to gauge which plants will survive in which climate zone. (Check your nearest seed packet.) In the newest iteration, many zones have shifted northward because winters aren’t as cold as they were 22 years ago […]
It’s been a really active time for the Earth Observatory and volcanoes. In the past three weeks, we’ve posted images of a night-time eruption of Shiveluch, ongoing activity at Puyehue–Cordón Caulle, daytime activity at the Kizimen Volcano, and my own favorite, a brand new island in the Red Sea. And those are just the images […]
