Dr. Compton J. Tucker – a senior researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) – joins 149 newly elected members to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) – see Photo. NAS is one of the highest honors in American science. Compton gave a virtual presentation at GSFC on July 21, 2025, in which he […]
Category: Earth Science
A Tapestry of Tales: 10th Anniversary Reflections from NASA’s OCO-2 Mission
When woven together, the tapestry of experiences of staff and scientists provide the complete picture of OCO-2. Breathe in… Breathe out. This simple rhythm sets the foundation of life on Earth – and it’s a pattern that a NASA satellite has been watching from space for over a decade. On July 2, 2024, NASA’s Orbiting […]
NASA Supercomputers Take on Life Near Greenland’s Most Active Glacier
As Greenland’s ice retreats, it’s fueling tiny ocean organisms. To test why, scientists turned to a computer model out of JPL and MIT that’s been called a laboratory in itself. Runoff from Greenland’s ice sheet is kicking nutrients up from the ocean depths and boosting phytoplankton growth, a new NASA-supported study has found. Reporting in […]
STEM Educators Are Bringing Hands-On NASA Science into Virginia Classrooms
Professional learning experiences are integral to the enhancement of classroom instruction. Teachers, at the forefront of Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (STEM) education, play a key role in the advancement of STEM learning ecosystems and citizen science. On June 24-25, 2025 – despite a major east coast heat wave – twenty-four educators from eight school […]
NASA-ISRO Satellite Lifts Off to Track Earth’s Changing Surfaces
Carrying an advanced radar system that will produce a dynamic, three-dimensional view of Earth in unprecedented detail, the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite has launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, India. Jointly developed by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and a critical part of the United States […]
How NASA Is Testing AI to Make Earth-Observing Satellites Smarter
A technology called Dynamic Targeting could enable spacecraft to decide, autonomously and within seconds, where to best make science observations from orbit. In a recent test, NASA showed how artificial intelligence-based technology could help orbiting spacecraft provide more targeted and valuable science data. The technology enabled an Earth-observing satellite for the first time to look […]
How NASA Is Testing AI to Make Earth-Observing Satellites Smarter
A technology called Dynamic Targeting could enable spacecraft to decide, autonomously and within seconds, where to best make science observations from orbit. In a recent test, NASA showed how artificial intelligence-based technology could help orbiting spacecraft provide more targeted and valuable science data. The technology enabled an Earth-observing satellite for the first time to look […]
NASA Launches Mission to Study Earth’s Magnetic Shield
NASA’s newest mission, TRACERS, soon will begin studying how Earth’s magnetic shield protects our planet from the effects of space weather. Short for Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, the twin TRACERS spacecraft lifted off at 11:13 a.m. PDT (2:13 p.m. EDT) Wednesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 […]
GLOBE-Trotting Science Lands in Chesapeake with NASA eClips
On June 16-17, 2025, 50 students at Camp Young in Chesapeake, Virginia traded their usual summer routines for microscopes. The NASA eClips team from the National Institute of Aerospace Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) taught two engaging lessons focused on macroinvertebrates and plankton, with a surprising star of the show – mosquitoes! Camp Young, […]
5 Things to Know About Powerful New U.S.-India Satellite, NISAR
Data from NISAR will map changes to Earth’s surface, helping improve crop management, natural hazard monitoring, and tracking of sea ice and glaciers. A new U.S.-India satellite called NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) will provide high-resolution data enabling scientists to comprehensively monitor the planet’s land and ice surfaces like never before, building a detailed record […]