News

NASA Airborne Research Focuses on Andean Volcanoes

The synthetic aperture radar developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory mounted on NASA's C-20A research aircraft captured this image of Peru's Ubinas volcano on April 14, 2014,

Volcanoes in Central and South America were the targets of a NASA airborne synthetic aperture radar imaging mission in late April and early May 2014.

Loss of West Antarctic Glaciers Appears Unstoppable

NASA-UCI Study Indicates Loss of West Antarctic Glaciers Appears Unstoppable

A new study by researchers at NASA and the University of California, Irvine, finds a rapidly melting section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to be in an irreversible state of decline, with nothing to stop the glaciers in this area from melting into the sea.

ACCESS II Alternative Jet Fuel Flight Tests Begin

ACCESS II Alternative Jet Fuel Flight Tests Begin

NASA took to the skies to begin a series of flight tests to gather critical data that may aid in the development of cleaner aircraft fuels.

California Faults Moved Quietly After Baja Quake

NASA G-III

A new NASA study finds that a major 2010 earthquake in northern Mexico triggered quiet, non-shaking motions on several Southern California faults.

NASA Field Campaign to Measure Appalachian Rainfall

Set up on a ranch in Rutherford County, N.C., NASA's Dual-frequency, Dual-polarization, Doppler Radar (D3R) is one of several ground radars measuring rain as it falls from clouds.

The weather of mountain regions -- rain, ice, hail, wind, fog -- is difficult to predict. A NASA field campaign in North Carolina aims to change that.

NASA Set to Premiere High-Flying Sequel

The HU-25C Guardian aircraft will look like this when it flies behind NASA's DC-8 as seen in this image from ACCESS I flights in 2013.

NASA researchers beginning in early May will take to the skies with a DC-8 and other aircraft to conduct a series of flight tests designed to study the effects on emissions and contrail formation of burning alternative fuels in jet engines.

NASA Radar Imaging Mission Travels to Central and South America

Guatemalan volcanoes

NASA Earth Science mission is focusing on surface deformation near volcanos, forest structure, levees and subsidence in Central and South America.

C-23 Departs for 6-month Alaska mission

A C-23 Sherpa airborne science aircraft departed Wallops Flight Facility on a journey to conduct Earth science missions in Alaska from May to mid-November.

A C-23 Sherpa airborne science aircraft departed Wallops Flight Facility on a journey to conduct Earth science missions in Alaska from May to mid-November.

NASA Brings Science to Life in Guam Classrooms

Students and teachers from Guam High School learn about how ATTREX scientists control their instruments on Global Hawk from the Payload Mobile Operations Facility.

In addition to doing cutting-edge atmospheric science, ATTREX team shared the excitement of their scientific mission with students, teachers in Guam.

NASA Completes ATTREX Flights in Search of Climate Change Clues

NASA Global Hawk at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam

Science flights from Guam during the Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment tracked upper atmosphere changes to help researchers understand how they affect Earth's climate.

NASA's Operation IceBridge Begins New Arctic Campaign

Northern Greenland mountains from the NASA P-3

Researchers aboard NASA's P-3 research aircraft left the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va., March 10 for Greenland to begin a new season of collecting data on Arctic land and sea ice.

NASA Radar Demonstrates Ability to Foresee Sinkholes

Aerial photo of a 25-acre sinkhole that formed unexpectedly near Bayou Corne, La., in Aug. 2012. Image Credit:  On Wings of Care, New Orleans, La.

New analyses of NASA airborne radar data collected in 2012 reveal the radar detected indications of a huge sinkhole before it collapsed and forced evacuations near Bayou Corne, La. that year.

NASA Completes First ATTREX Science Flight from Guam

NASA's unmanned Global Hawk is pushed out of a hangar on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, in preparation for an ATTREX science flight over the Western Pacific.

A lengthy science flight over Western Pacific tracked changes in upper atmosphere to help researchers understand how the changes affect Earth's climate.

NASA IceBridge Science Team Plans for Future

Researchers review proposed IceBridge flight lines during mission’s science team meeting at NASA Goddard

Operation IceBridge's science team recently met at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to discuss the upcoming Arctic campaign schedule to start in March 2014.

NASA Radar Maps the Winter Pace of Iceland’s Glaciers

A small part of the Hofsjökull ice cap in Iceland, which encompasses several glaciers.

A high-precision radar instrument from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., left Southern California for Iceland today to create detailed maps of how glaciers move in the dead of winter.

New Laser Technology Reveals How Ice Measures Up

MABEL, short for "Multiple Altimeter Beam Experimental Lidar," serves as an ICESat-2 simulator.

New results from NASA's MABEL airborne campaign demonstrated that a photon-counting technique will allow researchers to track the melt or growth of Earth’s frozen regions.

NASA Global Hawk Ready for 2014 ATTREX Mission

NASA Global Hawk

A NASA Global Hawk recently completed a checkout flight of science instruments to be used in the Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment.

Enormous Aquifer Discovered Under Greenland Ice Sheet

Glaciologist Lora Koenig (left) operates a video recorder that has been lowered into the bore hole to observe the ice structure of the aquifer in April 2013.

Using data from NASA's Operation IceBridge airborne campaign, a large liquid water reservoir buried underneath compacted snow and ice in Greenland has now been mapped.

NASA Snow Mapper Reaps Big Benefits for California

Spatial distribution of snow water equivalent across the Tuolumne River Basin from April 10 to June 1, 2013 as measured by NASA's Airborne Snow Observatory.

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.

NASA Pilots Train for Antarctic Flying

Members of the IceBridge team greet the NASA P-3 after its first landing on McMurdo Station’s sea ice runway.

Before IceBridge's Antarctic campaign, NASA P-3 research aircraft pilots and flight engineers got extra training that simulated landing and taking off on a sea ice runway.

Airborne Science Program Trailer

ER-2 pilot in cockpit at 70K ft

The latest video on the ATTREX mission features footage taken at 70,000 ft from the ER-2 cockpit.  This and other videos on the mission can be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/sciflychannel.

NASA Aircraft Collects Data On Earth's Ecosystems

NASA Aircraft Collects Data On Earth's Ecosystems

NASA's ER-2 high-altitude research aircraft wrapped up the fall 2013 series of flights during the first week in December for the Hyperspectral Infrared Imager, or HyspIRI, airborne campaign.

Airborne Radar Looking Through Thick Ice

A MCoRDS’s underwing radar antenna arrays mounted beneath the wing of NASA’s P-3 aircraft at McMurdo Station’s airfield

The bedrock hidden beneath the thick ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica has intrigued researchers for years. Scientists are interested in how the shape of this hidden terrain affects how ice moves -- a key factor in making predictions about the future of these massive ice reservoirs and their contribution to sea level rise in a changing climate.

NASA's HS3 Hurricane Mission Highlights

NASA Global Hawk

NASA's Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel airborne mission known as HS3 wrapped up for the 2013 Atlantic Ocean hurricane season at the end of September, and had several highlights. HS3 will return to NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va., for the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season.

IceBridge at McMurdo: A Year and a Half of Planning

NASA P-3 flies over Antarctica

Making the current NASA Operation IceBridge campaign – the first to ever operate directly from Antarctica – a reality took a year and a half of planning and coordination, finishing with weeks of intense work both at home and in Antarctica.

Three in a Row for NASA's IceBridge

Antarctic volcano Mount Erebus seen over the NASA P-3's right wing

Researchers with NASA's Operation IceBridge kicked off this year's Antarctic campaign with three consecutive science flights.

NASA Aircraft Images Japanese, Hawaiian Volcanoes

Mt. Fuji was one of the Japanese volcanoes imaged by JPL's UAVSAR

NASA's C-20A Earth science aircraft carrying a specialized synthetic aperture radar system has wrapped up a short mission to image Japanese volcanoes.

IceBridge's First Antarctic Campaign from McMurdo Station

P-3 in Antarctica

The IceBridge mission will conduct daily survey flights through Nov. 26 on a NASA P-3 research aircraft from a base of operations at McMurdo Station.

IceBridge Prepares for Mission of "Firsts"

U.S. Air Force C-17 transport aircraft.

Members of the IceBridge team arrived at McMurdo Station Nov. 12, 2013 aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport aircraft.

NASA's DC-8 Flying Lab Undergoes Major Maintenance

NASA DC-8 flying laboratory

NASA's DC-8 Flying Laboratory will soon undergo "C Check" major maintenance as part of the aircraft’s new Low Utilization Maintenance Plan.