News

  • Don Blake, (second from left) professor of chemistry and Earth system science at the University of California - Irvine, briefs Student Airborne Research Program interns on the components of the Whole Air Sampler instrument.

    NASA's Student Airborne Research Program: Learning by Doing

    32 college students in the 2013 Student Airborne Research Program were involved in every aspect of a NASA science mission over California.

  • Image of the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf from the German Aerospace Center Earth monitoring satellite TerraSAR-X captured on July 8, 2013.

    Antarctic Glacier Calves Iceberg One-Fourth Size of Rhode Island

    This week a European Earth-observing satellite confirmed that a large iceberg broke off of Pine Island Glacier, one of Antarctica's largest and fastest moving ice streams. The rift that led to the new iceberg was discovered in October 2011 during NASA's Operation IceBridge flights over the continent.

  • Numerous instrument probes protrude from NASA's DC-8 Airborne Science flying laboratory as it flies an instrument checkout flight.

    NASA's DC-8 Flight Helps Validate New Technologies

    Flying laboratory carries several instruments testing new technologies that could aid Earth science missions, GPS accuracy and aviation safety.

  • A well-defined plume of dust swept across the entire Atlantic Ocean on June 24, 2009

    NASA's 2013 HS3 Mission to Delve into Saharan Dust

    NASA's 2013 HS3 mission will investigate whether Saharan dust and its associated warm and dry air, known as the Saharan Air Layer favors or suppresses the development of tropical cyclones.

  • Students climb onboard the NASA DC-8

    College Students Study The Earth From NASA's DC-8 Flying Lab

    College students in NASA's Student Airborne Research Program (SARP) will measure pollution and air quality, study forest ecology and ocean biology around California.

  • NASA SEAC4RS Mission Targets How Pollution, Storms And Climate Mix

    NASA's DC-8 and ER-2 science aircraft will take to the skies over the southern United States this summer to investigate how air pollution and natural emissions, which are pushed high into the atmosphere by large storms, affect atmospheric composition and climate.

  • The MASTER instrument on NASA's ER-2 high-altitude science aircraft captured this infrared image of the Powerhouse wildfire

    California Powerhouse Fire Image from NASA ER-2

    The MASTER instrument on NASA's ER-2 high-altitude science aircraft captured this infrared image of the Powerhouse wildfire in the Angeles Forest near Lake Hughes, Calif., during a nighttime flight May 31-June 1.

  • graphical representation of Antarctic bedrock (vertical scale exaggerated)

    IceBridge Contributes to New Map of Antarctica

    The new map's improved precision will lead to better calculations of Antarctic ice volume and its potential contribution to sea level rise.

  • Technicians securing NASA's Global Hawk unmanned aircraft in the aircraft hangar

    NASA’s HS3 Mission Aircraft to Double Team 2013 Hurricane Season

    NASA's HS3 airborne mission will revisit the Atlantic Ocean to investigate storms using additional instruments and for the first time two Global Hawks.

  • MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a clear view of the Cape Verde islands

    HS3 Mission May Target Cape Verde Island Hurricanes in 2013

    NASA's multi-year Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel, or HS3, mission may explore tropical cyclones of Cape Verde origins when it takes to the skies again this August.

  •  NASA's two Global Hawks line up nose-to-nose on the ramp at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center

    NASA, Northrop Grumman Continue Partnership For Science

    NASA and Northrop Grumman extend a no-cost agreement enabling NASA to continue Earth science research with the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system.

  • Teachers Mark Buesing and Jette Poulsen aboard the NASA P-3B during an IceBridge survey flight

    Science Teachers See NASA IceBridge Research

    NASA's Operation IceBridge hosted three science teachers during their recent Arctic field campaign, giving these educators a first-hand polar science experience that they could use to teach and inspire their students.

  • NASA Wallops Aircraft Office flight engineer Brian Yates meets his children after the P-3B returned from Operation IceBridge’s Arctic campaign.

    NASA IceBridge Returns Home

    The IceBridge team has returned from the Arctic and have started processing collected data and planning for the Antarctic campaign coming up later this year.

  • Mt. Dana and Dana Plateau

    NASA Opens New Era in Measuring Western U.S. Snowpack

    A new NASA airborne mission has created the first maps of the entire snowpack of two major mountain watersheds in California and Colorado, producing the most accurate measurements to date of how much water they hold.

  • Glacier in the Wrangell mountains

    NASA Radar Collects GLISTIN Ice and Glacier Data

    NASA's C-20A-mounted UAVSAR collected data about glaciers, snow and ice during recent flights over Alaska, the Beaufort Sea and the Sierra Nevada.

  • Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Fjord with Kap Atholl in the background seen during an IceBridge survey flight.

    NASA's IceBridge Finishing Up Successful Arctic Campaign

    With several weeks of science flights in the books, researchers with NASA's Operation IceBridge are on the way to completing another successful campaign to maintain and expand a dataset that started with NASA's ICESat in 2003, and gather additional Arctic ice measurements that can improve computer models of sea and land ice.

  • ACCESS Media Day in the Hangar

    Lights, Camera, ACCESS

    At NASA's Langley hangar, Bruce Anderson, project scientist for the ACCESS (Alternative Fuel Effects on Contrails and Cruise Emissions) experiment, stood in between NASA's HU-25C airplane and a group of media visitors armed with cameras, notepads, and smartphones as he explained the recently completed series of flights.

  • NASA ER-2

    NASA's HyspIRI Imager: More Than Meets the Eye

    Prior to flying the Hyperspectral Infrared Imager in space, preparatory science investigations are underway using a similar sensor on NASA's ER-2.

  • AMS Sensor Image

    Media Invited to View Wildfire Sensor On US Forest Service Jet

    Media are invited to view the USFS jet on the tarmac in front of the Moffett Tower and talk to USFS, NASA and CALFIRE personnel.

  • Ice covered fjord on Baffin Island

    Operation IceBridge Continues Arctic Flights

    IceBridge closed out the fourth week of its Arctic campaign with a flight over the striking landscape of eastern Greenland's Geikie Peninsula and a survey of a Canadian ice cap.

  • AMS instrument image

    NASA Imaging Sensor Prepares for Western Wildfire Season

    NASA-developed wildfire imaging sensor has begun test flights onboard a USFS aircraft in preparation for this year's wildfire season.

  • Napo River in Ecuador and Peru

    NASA Flies Radar South on Wide-Ranging Expedition

    A versatile NASA airborne imaging radar system is showcasing its broad scientific prowess for studying our home planet during a month-long expedition over the Americas.

  • RQ-14 Dragon Eye UAVs

    NASA Flies Dragon Eye Unmanned Aircraft Into Volcanic Plume

    NASA Earth science researchers recently traveled to Turrialba Volcano, near San Jose, Costa Rica to study its chemical environment.

  • The NASA P-3B sits in the hangar at Thule Air Base

    NASA Begins New Season of Arctic Ice Science Flights

    NASA's Operation IceBridge scientists have begun another season of research activity over Arctic ice sheets and sea ice with the first of a series of science flights from Greenland completed on Wednesday.

  • NASA Langley's heavily instrumented HU-25 Falcon measures chemical components of the exhaust streaming from the DC-8's engines

    NASA Begins Alternate-Fuel Flight Research Tests

    Heavily instrumented Falcon jet measures soot, gases streaming from NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory using alternative 50/50 JP8-biofuel mix.

  • Students from the Palmdale Aerospace Academy in Palmdale, Calif., got a first-hand look at NASA's two autonomously operated Global Hawk science aircraft during their field trip to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center

    Aerospace Academy Students Explore ATTREX Mission

    Middle schoolers explore how NASA utilizes unmanned aircraft and 21st century technology to investigate the Earth’s atmosphere and climate.

  • The NASA P-3B made low approaches at local airports during the mission, getting as low as 100 feet to make key air quality measurements. Shown here is the Bakersfield regional airport.

    Air Quality Research Campaign Concludes in California

    The DISCOVER-AQ team completed their second destination in a five-year mission to study the air we breathe.

  • Students spelled out "HI" as the NASA P-3B aircraft flew over them during the DISCOVER-AQ field campaign

    NASA/GLOBE Hand Down Pollution Studies to Calif. Students

    Teachers are parlaying interest in the DISCOVER-AQ campaign into science lessons for students.

  • Sea ice ridge at one of the CryoSat-2 validation sites

    NASA Scientists Part of Arctic Sea Ice Study

    NASA data and scientists contributed to a new study out of the United Kingdom that shows Arctic sea ice volume declining in recent years.

  • Media interview a member of the flight crew of NASA's P-3B environmental science aircraft about the DISCOVER-AQ air quality survey mission

    NASA Airborne Science: Studying our Environment

    News media, social media followers and educators learn about NASA's airborne Earth and environmental science program, briefed on current and upcoming missions.

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