Seattle and Portland, Oregon, are among the cloudiest cities in the United States. But that infamous cloud cover is no match for the U.S.-Indian Earth satellite NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), which is designed to peer straight through clouds. Doing so allows scientists to study the Pacific Northwest’s natural landmarks and bustling port cities like […]
Category: Water on Earth
US-French Satellite Takes Stock of World’s River Water
Rivers rise and fall throughout the year, but by how much? Perhaps less than previously thought, according to new data from the SWOT mission. Hidden riverbed contours are also emerging. In a first, a space mission led by NASA and France has tracked Earth’s rivers swelling and shrinking from month to month over the course […]
Icy Hudson River
During a stretch of frigid weather in late January 2026, ice choked the Hudson River along Manhattan’s western shore. The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 captured this image of the wintry landscape around midday on Jan. 28. This image uses representational color to distinguish ice (light blue) from open water and snow. Vegetation appears red. Much of […]
NASA’s GUARDIAN Tsunami Detection Tech Catches Wave in Real Time
A massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami off Russia in late July tested an experimental detection system that had deployed a critical component just the day before. A recent tsunami triggered by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula sent pressure waves to the upper layer of the atmosphere, NASA scientists have reported. While the […]