When wildfires scorch a landscape, the flames are just the beginning. NASA is helping U.S. communities foresee and prepare for what can follow: mudslides, flash flooding, and contaminated water supplies.
Category: Water on Earth
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 […]
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 […]
NASA Sensor on Space Station Eyes Contamination off California Coast
Proof-of-concept results from the mouth of the Tijuana River in San Diego County show how an instrument called EMIT could aid wastewater detection. An instrument built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to map minerals on Earth is now revealing clues about water quality. A recent study found that EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation) […]