ICESat-2 Stories
That’s No Meteor: NASA Satellite’s Elusive Green Lasers Spotted at Work
For the first time, NASA’s ICESat-2 team has seen footage of the satellite’s green laser beams streaming from orbit to Earth
Phytoplankton May Be Abundant Under Antarctic Sea Ice, Study Suggests
A decade ago, scientists on a NASA-sponsored ocean expedition found massive populations of phytoplankton blooming beneath sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. Now scientists using underwater instruments and a NASA satellite have found evidence of potentially significant blooms beneath the…
NASA Ice Scientists Take Flight from Greenland to Study Melting Arctic Ice
Over the next two weeks, a handful of NASA scientists will be living very different lives from the rest of us: they will board a research plane in Greenland alongside laser instruments to help calibrate NASA’s space-based measurements of Arctic ice. …
NASA Approves Continuation of ICESat-2 After 3+ Years of Big Results
Melt Ponds, Summer Ice, and More: Space Laser Measures Changing Earth Arctic sea ice has lost about a third of its volume since 2003. At the other pole, new glacial lakes were discovered deep below the surface of Antarctic ice.…
NASA Scientist Discovers New Means to Measure Snow Depth from Space
A NASA scientist is adding a new dimension to the climate-observing powers of a satellite instrument whose main mission is to measure the height of Earth’s ice sheets and sea ice. And the inspiration for this new method comes from…
NASA Engineer Receives Ralph Coats Roe Medal for Education, Mentorship
NASA’s Dr. Aprille Ericsson has received the Ralph Coats Roe medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), honoring her international work encouraging young people, women, and people from other underrepresented groups to pursue STEM careers. The Ralph Coats…
Five Facts to Help You Understand Sea Ice
One way that scientists monitor climate change is through the measure of sea ice extent. Sea ice extent is the area of ice that covers the Arctic Ocean at a given time. Sea ice plays an important role in reflecting…
NASA Space Lasers Map Meltwater Lakes in Antarctica With Striking Precision
From above, the Antarctic Ice Sheet might look like a calm, perpetual ice blanket that has covered Antarctica for millions of years. But the ice sheet can be thousands of meters deep at its thickest, and it hides hundreds of…
Earth’s cryosphere is vital for everyone. Here’s how NASA keeps track of its changes.
Everything on our planet — the land, the water, the air, people — is connected by the various chemical, physical and biological processes that make up what we call the Earth system. One of the key components of that huge…
Earth Day Connections: NASA Investigates Vegetation
From the vantage point of space, NASA’s fleet of Earth-observing satellites joins with those of partner interagency and international agencies to investigate and illuminate connections between ecosystems that are continents apart, or right next door. With a global perspective, scientists…