Recent Earth News and Articles

Stay up-to-date with the latest news and articles from NASAEarth as we discover more about our home planet.

NASA Returns to Arctic Studying Summer Sea Ice Melt

5 min read

What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic, and a new NASA mission is helping improve data modeling and increasing our understanding of Earth’s rapidly changing climate. Changing ice, ocean, and atmospheric conditions in the northernmost part of…

Article4 hours ago
ICON, shown in this artist’s concept, studied the frontiers of space, the dynamic zone high in our atmosphere where terrestrial weather from below meets space weather above.

NASA’s ICON Mission Ends with Several Ionospheric Breakthroughs

5 min read

After contributing to many important findings on the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space — an area where space weather can interfere with both satellites and communications signals — NASA’s ICON (Ionospheric Connection Explorer) mission has come to an end.…

Article2 days ago
This is a still of a data visualization of global carbon dioxide that orbits Earth from a distance.

Watch Carbon Dioxide Move Through Earth’s Atmosphere

5 min read

What we’re looking at This global map shows concentrations of carbon dioxide as the gas moved through Earth’s atmosphere from January through March 2020, driven by wind patterns and atmospheric circulation.  Because of the model’s high resolution, you can zoom…

Article3 days ago

NASA-Funded Studies Explain How Climate Is Changing Earth’s Rotation

6 min read

Researchers used more than 120 years of data to decipher how melting ice, dwindling groundwater, and rising seas are nudging the planet’s spin axis and lengthening days. Days on Earth are growing slightly longer, and that change is accelerating. The…

Article1 week ago
Editor's Corner Figure

The Earth Observer Editor’s Corner: Summer 2024

8 min read

NASA’s third EOS mission—AURA—marked 20 years in orbit on July 15, with two of its four instruments—MLS and OMI—still collecting quality datasets.

Article1 week ago

The Earth Observer’s 35th Anniversary

3 min read

Welcome to a new era for The Earth Observer newsletter! Our 35th anniversary also marks the official public release of our new website. Over the past year and a half, The Earth Observer has migrated from a print publication (the last printed issue was November–December 2022)…

Article1 week ago
A photp showing everal participants in NASA's Space Apps Challenge.

Registration Opens for the 2024 NASA International Space Apps Challenge

3 min read

NASA invites innovators, technologists, storytellers, and problem solvers to register for the 2024 NASA Space Apps Challenge, the largest annual global hackathon.

Article1 week ago
Sun Climate Group Photo

Summary of the 2023 Sun – Climate Symposium

18 min read

Introduction Observations of the Sun and Earth from space continue to revolutionize our view and understanding of how solar variability and other natural and anthropogenic forcings impact Earth’s atmosphere and climate. For more than four decades (spanning four 11-year solar…

Article1 week ago
A teacher wearing a hat sits in an open forest with the GLOBE observer app, showing a tree, in front of him.

Science Activation’s PLACES Team Facilitates Second Professional Learning Institute

3 min read

The NASA Science Activation Program’s Place-Based Learning to Advance Connections, Education, and Stewardship (PLACES) team successfully led their second Professional Learning (PL) Summer Institute (SI) at Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff, Arizona from June 11-13, 2024. The team led…

Article1 week ago
This image is an animated version of the Aura satellite in orbit. The satellite, seen centered in the image, is made up of silver and gold box-like shapes and instruments. Spanning out to the right of the satellite is a long sheet of solar panels. In the background of the image at the bottom is a portion of Earth seen with clouds and a blue haze surrounding it. The top of the background is the deep black of space, with a cluster of green colored stars to the left.

NASA Celebrates 20 Years of Earth-Observing Aura Satellite

4 min read

A few of the many highlights from the last 20 years since Aura Launched.

Article1 week ago

Surfing NASA’s Internet of Animals: Satellites Study Ocean Wildlife

5 min read

Anchoring the boat in a sandbar, research scientist Morgan Gilmour steps into the shallows and is immediately surrounded by sharks. The warm waters around the tropical island act as a reef shark nursery, and these baby biters are curious about…

Article2 weeks ago
Randi Neff of the NASA SciAct-funded Smoky Mountains STEM Collaborative presents at the National Rural STEM Learning Summit.

NASA Science Activation Teams Present at National Rural STEM Summit

1 min read

NASA Science Activation (SciAct) teams participated in the National Rural STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) Summit held June 4-7, 2024 in Tucson, Arizona. Hosted by Kalman Mannis of the Rural Activation and Innovation Network (Arizona Science Center) and the…

Article3 weeks ago

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