Science News
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A Sea Aswirl With Chlorophyll
2025.08.25
One of NASA’s newest Earth-observing sensors extends and improves the continuous measurement of light-harvesting pigments in ocean surface waters.
Bloom Time in the Barents Sea
2025.08.09
Arctic waters near Norway’s Bear Island teemed with tiny plant-like organisms that painted the seas turquoise-blue and green.
Brilliant Bloom in the Baltic Sea
2025.07.23
An explosion in the numbers of cyanobacteria transformed the Baltic Sea into a swirling canvas of green in summer 2025.
A Booming Bloom Returns to the Gulf of Maine
2025.06.25
A type of phytoplankton called coccolithophores, less common in waters off New England since around 2010, made an impressive appearance in summer 2025.
A Spectacle of Color off the Shetland Islands
2025.06.21
Phytoplankton imparted brilliant blues and greens to North Sea waters near the Scottish archipelago in June 2025.
NASA’s PACE Mission Reveals a Year of Terrestrial Data on Plant Health
2025.06.05
A lot can change in a year for Earth’s forests and vegetation, as springtime and rainy seasons can bring new growth, while cooling temperatures and dry weather can bring a dieback of those green colors. And now, a novel type of NASA visualization illustrates those changes in a full complement of colors as seen from space.
Smoky Skies and Blooming Seas
2025.06.05
Smoke from wildland fires in Canada streamed over colorful seawater east of Greenland.
NASA Data Helps Map Tiny Plankton That Feed Giant Right Whales
2025.05.05
In the waters off New England, one of Earth’s rarest mammals swims slowly, mouth agape. The North Atlantic right whale filters clouds of tiny reddish zooplankton — called Calanus finmarchicus — from the sea. These zooplankton, no bigger than grains of rice, are the whale’s lifeline. Only about 370 of these massive creatures remain.
NASA's Curious Universe Earth Series: The Ocean, Now in Full Color
2025.04.22
Life all over the planet—even far from the coasts—depends on the oceans. A pair of NASA satellites, PACE and SWOT, is giving us a fresh look at Earth’s water. PACE tracks color changes driven by tiny plankton, which give us us a big-picture view of ocean life. By measuring sea level height from space, SWOT shows ocean currents and other features...
Blooming British Isles
2025.04.10
The colorful North Atlantic waters visible around the archipelago in April 2025 are likely due to a mix of phytoplankton and suspended sediment.
A Swirl of a Day for Phytoplankton
2025.03.26
In the Gulf of Oman, eddies drew seasonal phytoplankton blooms into mesmerizing whirls.
Signs of Life in Thawing Lake Erie
2025.03.20
As winter turned to spring, ice cover on the lake diminished to reveal colorful billows of sediment and phytoplankton.
Whorls of White off Greenland
2025.02.26
Bright snow topped the island’s thick ice sheet, while a swirling display of sea ice hugged the southeast coast.
La Niña Is Here
2025.02.07
Cool water has welled up in the tropical Pacific in winter 2024–2025. But it may not stick around for long.
Phytoplankton Flourish in Patagonian Waters
2025.01.04
Microscopic floating organisms proliferated to turn surface waters bright green and milky blue around the Falkland Islands.
NASA’s PACE, US-European SWOT Satellites Offer Combined Look at Ocean
2024.12.09
The ocean is an engine that drives Earth’s weather patterns and climate and sustains a substantial portion of life on the planet.
Annual Science Conference to Highlight NASA Research
2024.12.06
NASA researchers will present findings on Earth science, planetary science, and heliophysics at the upcoming American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2024 annual meeting in Washington, DC, beginning on Monday, Dec. 9.
Patagonian Shelf Waters Abloom
2024.12.04
Colorful swirls of water reveal the presence of phytoplankton in the South Atlantic Ocean near the Falkland Islands.
Signs of Sea Level Rise in the Bahamas
2024.11.18
Rising seas have redistributed cyanobacterial mats blanketing part of Andros Island and restructured the island’s marshes and mudflats.
The Earth Observer Editor’s Corner: Fall 2024
2024.11.14
On September 18, 2024, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shared the first images of the Western Hemisphere from the GOES-19 satellite, its newest geostationary satellite launched on June 25, 2024...
Inia Soto Ramos, From the Mountains of Puerto Rico to Mountains of NASA Earth Data
2024.11.12
Dr. Inia Soto Ramos became fascinated by the mysteries of the ocean while growing up in Puerto Rico’s mountains. Today, she works at NASA as an oceanographer and data manager, where she can uncover these enigmas from space.
Pyramid Lake in Bloom
2024.10.18
Blooms of cyanobacteria develop in the brackish waters of this Nevada lake nearly every year.
NASA Goddard Hosts Former VP Al Gore to Mark 10 Years of DSCOVR Mission
2024.10.17
Environmentalist and former Vice President Al Gore visited NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Oct. 16, 2024, to commemorate the upcoming 10th anniversary of the DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) mission.
Hurricane Helene Stirs Up Gulf Coast Waters
2024.10.04
The heavy rains, high winds, and storm surge that devastated land also left a mark on the ocean.
Showing 1 to 24 of 352.