Blogs

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 […]

The NASA Meteoroid Environment Office can confirm a bright fireball observed by several eyewitnesses in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee on Mar. 7, 2012 at 10:19:11 p.m. EST. The fireball was observed by three NASA cameras located at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., Tullahoma Tenn., and Cartersville, Ga. The meteor was first recorded at …

The next full Moon is on Thursday, March 8, 2012.  The Moon will be 180 degrees away from the Sun in Earth-based longitude at 4:40 am EST, and will appear full for about three days around this time, from Tuesday evening through Friday morning.The full Moon in March is known by many names: the Worm …

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. […]

By Lora Koenig I am feeling a little sad as I write this post. I always do when writing the last post of a research season.  Being able to share my science is one of my favorite parts of my job. I assume some of you looked at our blog’s photos and thought “they’re crazy,” […]