Press Releases & Feature Stories Archive - Biospheric Sciences Laboratory

Flooded Rice Fields in Louisiana

03.10.2023

The low-lying alluvial plain of the Mississippi River Valley is home to much of the nation’s rice farms.

NASA To Measure Forest Health from Above

03.07.2023

Using hyperspectral and shortwave IR cameras, uncrewed aircraft and satellites could analyze forest canopy light to investigate the health of forests.

NASA Space Mission Takes Stock of Carbon Dioxide Emissions by Countries

03.07.2023

A NASA Earth-observing satellite has helped researchers track carbon dioxide emissions for more than 100 countries around the world.

Saving a Forest of One

03.02.2023

Overgrazing by deer poses a threat to a giant quaking aspen tree colony in Utah—one of the largest organisms in the world.

NASA-Funded Scientists Estimate Carbon Stored in African Dryland Trees

03.01.2023

With the help of artificial intelligence and high-resolution satellite images, scientists mapped almost 10 billion individual trees in Africa’s drylands to assess the amount of carbon stored outside of the continent’s dense tropical forests. Having an accurate tree carbon estimate is essential for climate change projections.

Snow in Southern California

02.28.2023

A powerful late-February storm brought blizzard conditions to areas near Los Angeles.

Fires Burn in Argentina’s Iberá National Park

02.23.2023

Fueled by a heatwave and prolonged drought, fires burned the protected Argentine oasis, home to capybaras and jaguars.

Mardi Gras Pass

02.21.2023

This free-flowing distributary reconnects the mighty Mississippi to the wetlands of Louisiana.

Fires Scar the Chilean Landscape

02.18.2023

The outbreak of fires in early February 2023 has diminished, but the burned area remained visible from space.

Why Methane Surged in 2020

02.14.2023

Warm, wet weather in the Northern Hemisphere combined with COVID-19 lockdowns pushed the potent greenhouse gas to record levels.

Fires Blaze Through South-Central Chile

02.08.2023

Hot, dry winds fanned the flames of widespread fires in Chile.

NASA Spinoffs Bolster Climate Resilience, Improve Medical Care, More

01.31.2023

The latest edition of NASA’s Spinoff publication features dozens of new commercialized technologies that use the agency’s technology, research, and/or expertise to benefit people around the globe. It also includes a section highlighting technologies of tomorrow.

NCCS Explore/ADAPT Science Cloud Enables Machine Learning-Based Crop Type and Yield Estimates in Burkina Faso, West Africa

01.25.2023

The NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS) Explore/ADAPT Science Cloud enabled NASA Goddard Space Flight Center scientists and collaborators to leverage machine learning models and satellite data to predict crop type and yields in Burkina Faso, West Africa.

Mysteries Remain About Bahama Whiting Events

01.23.2023

Researchers used satellite imagery to reveal where and when the discolored patches of water appeared between 2003 and 2020 and found a puzzling temporary increase in events in some areas.

Kilauea Glows

01.17.2023

After three weeks of rest, lava started flowing again on Kilauea’s summit.

Kaitoku Says Hello

01.14.2023

Swirls of discolored water are signs of activity from the underwater volcano.

Ireland’s Cutaway Peatlands

01.03.2023

Peatlands have been mined in Ireland for centuries, but concern for climate is changing how they are managed.

NASA’s SMCE Team Helps Scientists Develop Collaborative Cloud Computing Projects

12.21.2022

An agile team of computer experts at NASA Goddard helps scientists collaborate and develop Open Science projects in astrophysics, Earth science, biology, and heliophysics by creating the SMCE managed cloud environment for science.

Next up to Continue NASA/USGS’s Landsat Legacy

12.20.2022

With a trio of smaller satellites that can each detect 26 wavelengths of light and thermal energy, the Landsat Next mission is expected to look very different from its predecessors that have been observing Earth for 50 years.

Worst Drought on Record Parches Horn of Africa

12.14.2022

The most severe drought in 70 years of record keeping threatens the Horn of Africa with famine.

Living the Lava Life on Mauna Loa

12.12.2022

A small research station in Hawaii where analog astronauts simulate living and working on the Moon or Mars is out of harm’s way after a lava flow appeared to be headed in its direction.

NASA Press Events at 2022 Fall AGU Meeting

12.08.2022

NASA researchers will be presenting findings on Earth and space sciences Dec.12-16 at the American Geophysical Union's 2022 Fall meeting, being held virtually and in Chicago this year.

NASA Scientists Map Global Salt Marsh Losses and Their Carbon Impact

12.07.2022

Earth has lost 561 square miles of salt marshes over the past 20 years, according to a new NASA-led study of the first consistent global accounting of salt marsh locations and changes.