Vast Portions of Today’s Sahara Desert Were Green Thousands of Years Ago
Past River Activity in Northern Africa Reveals Multiple Sahara Greenings The analysis of sediment cores from the Mediterranean Sea combined with Earth system models tells…
Earth News
NASA RainCube – A Pioneering Mini Weather Satellite – Ends Its Mission
RainCube, designed to study storms, was the first to fly a radar science instrument on a CubeSat. After nearly 2 1/2 years in orbit, a…
NASA’s OMG: Warming Seas Are Accelerating Greenland’s Glacier Retreat
Scientists with NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland mission are probing deep below the island’s warming coastal waters to help us better predict the rising seas of…
Using Whale Songs and Seismometers to Reveal Deep Secrets of the Oceanic Crust
The songs of fin whales can be used for seismic imaging of the oceanic crust, providing scientists a novel alternative to conventional surveying, a new…
Bolts of Blue: International Space Station Helps Scientists Characterize Elusive “Blue Jets”
Cameras and sensors on the International Space Station have been helping scientists to characterize the natural light shows produced at the tops of thunderstorms. What…
How Rocks Rusted on Earth and Turned Red – Important Phenomenon Could Help Assess Future Climate Change
How did rocks rust on Earth and turn red? A Rutgers-led study has shed new light on the important phenomenon and will help address questions…
Trading Surfboards for Snowboards: Storms Have Left Abundant Snow Atop Hawaii’s Tallest Volcanic Mountains
Three storms in three weeks have left abundant snow atop Hawaii’s tallest volcanic mountains. Snow is not as rare as you might think in the…
Better Understanding Aerosols and the Reasons Behind Arctic Amplified Warming
It’s clear that rising greenhouse gas emissions are the main driver of global warming. But on a regional level, several other factors are at play….
Biochemical Clues Reveal How Some Corals Resist Bleaching From Climate Change That Is Killing Coral Reefs
Climate change is bleaching and killing corals, but researchers from Michigan State and the University of Hawaii are investigating how some can stand up to…
Iodine Oxoacids Formed in Oceans Have Major Impact on Climate and Human Health
Molecular iodine, a major emission from the ocean, can quickly convert to iodic oxoacids even under weak daylight conditions. These oxoacids lead rapidly to aerosol…
A Billion Years in 40 Seconds: Mesmerizing Video Reveals the Evolution Our Dynamic Planet
New research helps understand how plate tectonics powers life on Earth. Plate tectonics are responsible for the deep-carbon and deep-water cycles. Arrangement of continents has…
Fallstreak Holes: Unusual Atmospheric Phenomenon Wows People in the Southern United States
In January 2020, the sky over Sweden delivered an early valentine to people on the ground in the form of a heart-shaped hole in the…
Half of Global Wastewater Untreated – Equivalent to 70 Million Olympic-Sized Swimming Pools Each Year
A new study by scientists at Utrecht University and the United Nations University concludes that about half of global wastewater is treated, rather than the…
Mapping the Most Mysterious Planet of All: Earth
Humanity knows more about the surface of the Moon than we know about our own planet’s seafloor. Ocean explorer Vicki Ferrini is on a mission…
Gold Rush in the Peruvian Amazon Leads to Deforestation
An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) took this photograph of numerous gold prospecting pits in eastern Peru. The pits—usually hidden from an astronaut’s…
Aeolus Mission Shines a Light on Complex Phenomenon of the Polar Vortex
As this winter’s polar vortex currently sends extreme icy blasts of Arctic weather to some parts of the northern hemisphere such as the northeast of…
Hybrid-Electric Plane Concept May Reduce Aviation’s Air Pollution Problem
Proposed design could reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 95 percent, a new study finds. At cruising altitude, airplanes emit a steady stream of nitrogen oxides…
Exploring Earth From Space: Japan in Bloom [Video]
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the algal blooms swirling around the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Japan. Algae blooms refer to…