Latest Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Stories

About half of the oil in the ocean bubbles up naturally from the seafloor, with Earth giving it up freely like it was of no value. Likewise, NASA satellites collect thousands of images and 1.5 terabytes of data every year, but some of it gets passed over because no one thinks there is a use for it.Scientists recently found black gold bubbling up from an otherwise undistinguished mass of ocean imagery. Chuanmin Hu, an optical oceanographer at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg,...

A remotely piloted aircraft carrying a NASA sensor flew over much of California earlier last week, gathering information that will be used to help fight more than 300 wildfires burning within the state. Additional flights are planned for this week.The flights by NASA's unmanned Ikhana aircraft are using a sophisticated Autonomous Modular Scanner developed at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. The flights are originating from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards...

By The Associated Press SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - A new South Dakota State University project hopes to give Internet users better access to satellite information and images collected by a data center near Sioux Falls. Professor David Roy of SDSU's Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence is heading the five-year effort, funded with a $3.29 million grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The project is a collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey through...

Almost every June for 30 years, Terry McEneaney drove around Yellowstone National Park and listed every bird he heard along three routes.Park ornithologist at the time, he would drive to a designated spot and identify the birds there. Then he'd drive another half mile, repeat the process and continue until he had stopped 50 times in 24.5 miles for the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Trying to finish before the birds quit singing, he'd ignore the scenery as best he could and try not to...

Clouds have typically posed a problem to scientists using satellites to observe the lowest part of the atmosphere, where humans live and breathe, because they block the satellite's ability to capture a clear, unobstructed view of Earth's surface. It turns out, however, that these "obstructions" are worth a closer look, as clouds and their characteristics actually serve a valuable role in Earth's climate. That closer look is now available by satellites comprising the Afternoon...

In a new NASA study, researchers taking advantage of improvements in satellite sensor capabilities offer the first measurement-based estimate of the amount of pollution from East Asian forest fires, urban exhaust, and industrial production that makes its way to western North America.China, the world's most populated country, has experienced rapid industrial growth, massive human migrations to urban areas, and considerable expansion in automobile use over the last two decades. As a result, the...

A new NASA study confirms that the surface temperature of Greenland's massive ice sheet has been rising, stoked by warming air temperatures, and fueling loss of the island's ice at the surface and throughout the mass beneath. Greenland's enormous ice sheet is home to enough ice to raise sea level by about 23 feet if the entire ice sheet were to melt into surrounding waters. Though the loss of the whole ice sheet is unlikely, loss from Greenland's ice mass has already contributed in part to...

From the deserts of the American southwest to the pine forests of the Deep South, drought-weary residents have one thing on their minds: "I wish it would rain!"Technically, what they should be wishing for is "more streamflow," says Dr. Ashutosh Limaye, a hydrologist at the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) in Huntsville, Alabama. Streamflow is a term used by water management specialists to mean, very simply, the amount of water in streams and rivers....

When it comes to air pollution, the smallest size can do the most harm. More than a decade ago, a pioneering study by Harvard's School of Public Health showed that one of the most dangerous forms of air pollution is particulate matter 10 microns (about 0.0004 inch) or less in size. Called PM 10, this tiny airborne debris is a product of burning fossil fuels. It can be found wherever there are cars, boilers and power plants. Fires and dust storms are also sources. Exposure to PM 10 leads to...

There seems to be something new under the sun -- in the sky, specifically -- that could complicate scientists' efforts to get a fix on how much the world will warm in the future. Greenhouse gases are not the only things in the air that influence the temperature of our atmosphere. Clouds and small airborne particles called aerosols also play an important and complicated role. And now a new ingredient has been discovered: an extensive and previously unseen "twilight zone" of particles that...