Welcome to the Newsroom, your one-stop source for the latest news on Earth science research. NASA news announcements, summaries of headline news, listings of new published research, and more are here and are updated each week.

Arctic Saw Fastest August Sea Ice Retreat on Record
September 26 — NASA data are showing that for a four-week period in August 2008, sea ice melted faster during that period than ever before. More

Cool Summer, Warm Future: Extreme Heat Days Increase for Southern California
September 23 — Despite a moderate summer, the heat is rising in Southern California. More

Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Lowest Coverage for 2008
September 16 — Arctic sea ice coverage appears to have reached its lowest extent for 2008 and the second-lowest amount recorded since the dawn of the satellite era. More

NASA Satellites Provide Allergy Relief
September 15 — NASA and its partners explore a tantalizing link between pollen and some dangerous health conditions. More

NASA Study Illustrates How Global Peak Oil Could Impact Climate
September 10 — NASA researchers have identified feasible emission scenarios that could keep carbon dioxide below levels that some scientists have called dangerous for climate. More

2008 Hurricane Season Kicks Into High Gear
September 4 — For the first time in the 2008 hurricane season, there are four tropical cyclones active in the Atlantic Ocean basin on one day. More

Changing the World, One Student at a Time
August 27 — For 10 years, the DEVELOP program has pushed the envelope of the traditional summer internship, encouraging students into research projects with big implications for society. More

2007 Hurricane Forecasts Took Blow from Winds and Saharan Dry, Dusty Air
August 18 — A new analysis of environmental conditions over the Atlantic Ocean shows that hot, dry air associated with dust outbreaks from the Sahara desert was a likely contributor to the quieter-than-expected 2007 hurricane season. More

NASA News Archive

The Hills are Alive? How Islands Came to Rise atop the Himalayas
September 28 — Home to hundreds of the world's loftiest mountains, including Everest, the Himalayas take their name from a Sanskrit word meaning "the Abode of Snow," but parts of these lofty mountains were once sun-kissed isles glistening in a now-vanished sea. (USA Today)

Heat-Trapping Emissions Rise Globally
September 26 — Worldwide emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from fuel burning and cement production increased by 3.5 percent per year from 2000 to 2007, nearly four times the growth rate in the 1990s, according to a new report. (The New York Times)

'Chemical Equator' Keeps Polluted Air in the North
September 26 — Wrapping around Earth's equator like a belt, a boundary of air is keeping the polluted atmosphere of the Northern Hemisphere separate from the relatively pristine south. (Discovery News)

Australia Shakier than Many Think
September 25 — An award-winning geologist says Australia is not as geologically stable as many people think and seismic activity, which began millions of years ago, continues to this day. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

World's Oldest Rocks Discovered in Canada
September 25 — Scientists say they have discovered the oldest rocks on Earth in Canada, giving them a glimpse at the origins of the planet. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Could Climate Change Fade Fall Foliage?
September 25 — Biologists are studying how temperature affects the development of autumn colors and whether the warming climate could mute them, prolong the foliage viewing season or delay it. (ABC News)

Why Earth's Magnetic Field Flip-Flops
September 25 — Every so often, Earth's magnetic field flips on its head, turning the magnetic North Pole into the South Pole and vice versa, and a new hypothesis on the origins of Earth's magnetic field could shed light on why the flip-flop occurs. (Discovery News)

NASA Dispatches Rubber Ducks for Science
September 23 — When a sophisticated science probe failed to return any data about whether pools of melted glacial ice were showing up in the ocean, a NASA researcher turned to a decidedly low-tech solution: a brigade of rubber ducks. (Discovery News)

Acidifying Oceans are Brewing Up an Underwater Din
September 23 — The big blue ocean is getting noisier. Sound can now travel further than it did a century ago, thanks to carbon emissions that have made the oceans more acidic. (New Scientist)

In the Headlines Archive

Assessing Land-Atmosphere Coupling Using Soil Moisture from the Global Land Data Assimilation System and Observational Precipitation, Zhang, J., W.-C. Wang, and J. Wei, Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, September 13, 2008 (Vol. 113, D17119, doi:10.1029/2008JD009807)

A Study of AMSU-A Measurement of Brightness Temperatures Over the Ocean, Mo, T., and Q. Liu, Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, September 13, 2008 (Vol. 113, D17120, doi:10.1029/2008JD009784)

An Analysis of the Vertical Structure of the Atmosphere and the Upper-Level Meteorology and their Impact on Surface Ozone Levels in Houston, Rappenglück, B., R. Perna, S. Zhong, and G. A. Morris, Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, September 13, 2008 (Vol. 113, D17315, doi:10.1029/2007JD009745)

Preliminary Comparison of CloudSAT-Derived Microphysical Quantities with Ground-Based Measurements for Mixed-Phase Cloud Research in the Arctic, de Boer, G., G. J. Tripoli, and E. W. Eloranta, Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, September 12, 2008 (Vol. 113, D00A06, doi:10.1029/2008JD010029)

Total Ozone and Tropopause Zonal Asymmetry During the Antarctic Spring, Evtushevsky, O. M., A. V. Grytsai, A. R. Klekociuk, and G. P. Milinevsky, Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, September 12, 2008 (Vol. 113, D00B06, doi:10.1029/2008JD009881)

A Joint Satellite and Global Cloud-Resolving Model Analysis of a Madden-Julian Oscillation Event: Model Diagnosis, Masunaga, H., M. Satoh, and H. Miura, Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, September 12, 2008 (Vol. 113, D17210, doi:10.1029/2008JD009986)

Retrieval of Aerosol Optical Properties from OMI Radiances Using a Multiwavelength Algorithm: Application to Western Europe, Curier, R. L., J. P. Veefkind, R. Braak, B. Veihelmann, O. Torres, and G. de Leeuw, Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, September 12, 2008 (Vol. 113, D17S90, doi:10.1029/2007JD008738)

Atmospheric Warming and the Amplification of Precipitation Extremes, Richard P. Allan and Brian J. Soden, Science, September 12, 2008 (Vol. 321, No. 5895, doi: 10.1126/science.1160787)

Heterogeneous OH Oxidation of Palmitic Acid in Single Component and Internally Mixed Aerosol Particles: Vaporization and the Role of Particle Phase, McNeill, V. F., Yatavelli, R. L. N., Stipe, C. B., and Landgrebe, O., Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, September 12, 2008 (Vol. 8, No.17)

Comprehensive Airborne Characterization of Aerosol from a Major Bovine Source, Sorooshian, A., Murphy, S. M., Hersey, S., Gates, H., Padro, L. T., Nenes, A., Brechtel, F. J., Jonsson, H., Flagan, R. C., and Seinfeld, J. H., Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, September 12, 2008 (Vol. 8, No.17)

Buffered, Lagged, or Cooled? Disentangling Hyporheic Influences on Temperature Cycles in Stream Channels, Arrigoni, A. S., G. C. Poole, L. A. K. Mertes, S. J. O'Daniel, W. W. Woessner, and S. A. Thomas, Water Resources Research, September 11, 2008 (Vol. 44, W09418, doi:10.1029/2007WR006480)

Investigating the Rank-Size Relationship of Urban Areas Using Land Cover Maps, Kinoshita, T., E. Kato, K. Iwao, and Y. Yamagata, Geophysical Research Letters, September 11, 2008 (Vol. 35, L17405, doi:10.1029/2008GL035163)

Causes of Decadal Subsurface Cooling in the Tropical Indian Ocean During 1961–2000, Trenary, L. L., and W. Han, Geophysical Research Letters, September 11, 2008 (Vol. 35, L17602, doi:10.1029/2008GL034687)

A Multi-Model Study of the Hemispheric Transport and Deposition of Oxidised Nitrogen, Sanderson, M. G., et al., Geophysical Research Letters, September 11, 2008 (Vol. 35, L17815, doi:10.1029/2008GL035389)

Aircraft Measurements of Spectral Surface Albedo and its Consistency with Ground-Based and Space-Borne Observations, Coddington, O., K. S. Schmidt, P. Pilewskie, W. J. Gore, R. W. Bergstrom, M. Román, J. Redemann, P. B. Russell, J. Liu, and C. C. Schaaf, Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, September 11, 2008 (Vol. 113, D17209, doi:10.1029/2008JD010089)

A Nonsteady-State Firn-Densification Model for the Percolation Zone of a Glacier, Reeh, N., Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, September 10, 2008 (Vol. 113, F03023, doi:10.1029/2007JF000746)

Satellite Observations of High Nighttime Ozone at the Equatorial Mesopause, Smith, A. K., D. R. Marsh, J. M. Russell III, M. G. Mlynczak, F. J. Martin-Torres, and E. Kyrölä, Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, September 10, 2008 (Vol. 113, D17312, doi:10.1029/2008JD010066)

Estimation of Regional Emissions of Nitrous Oxide from 1997 to 2005 Using Multinetwork Measurements, a Chemical Transport Model, and an Inverse Method, Huang, J., et al., Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, September 10, 2008 (Vol. 113, D17313, doi:10.1029/2007JD009381)

Comparison of New and Existing Global Digital Elevation Models: ASTER G-DEM and SRTM-3, Hayakawa, Y. S., T. Oguchi, and Z. Lin, Geophysical Research Letters, September 10, 2008 (Vol. 35, L17404, doi:10.1029/2008GL035036)

A Comparison of In Situ Bottom Pressure Array Measurements with GRACE Estimates in the Kuroshio Extension, Park, J.-H., D. R. Watts, K. A. Donohue, and S. R. Jayne, Geophysical Research Letters, September 10, 2008 (Vol. 35, L17601, doi:10.1029/2008GL034778)

Stereo Observations of Polar Stratospheric Clouds, Mueller, K. J., L. Di Girolamo, M. Fromm, and S. P. Palm, Geophysical Research Letters, September 10, 2008 (Vol. 35, L17813, doi:10.1029/2008GL033792)

A Multi-Model Assessment of Pollution Transport to the Arctic, Shindell, D. T. and Chin, M. et. al, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, September 10, 2008 (Vol. 8, No.17)

Photolysis Frequency Measurement Techniques: Results of a Comparison Within the ACCENT Project, Bohn, B. and Corlett, G. K. et. al, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, September 10, 2008 (Vol. 8, No.17)

Satellite Remote Sounding of Mid-Tropospheric CO2, Chahine, M. T., L. Chen, P. Dimotakis, X. Jiang, Q. Li, E. T. Olsen, T. Pagano, J. Randerson, and Y. L. Yung, Geophysical Research Letters, September 9, 2008 (Vol. 35, L17807, doi:10.1029/2008GL035022)

Relative Contributions to Surface Shortwave Irradiance Over China: A New Index of Potential Radiative Forcing, Kawamoto, K., and T. Hayasaka, Geophysical Research Letters, September 9, 2008 (Vol. 35, L17809, doi:10.1029/2008GL035083)

Historical Reconstruction of Monthly Oceanic Precipitation (1900–2006), Smith, T. M., M. R. P. Sapiano, and P. A. Arkin, Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, September 9, 2008 (Vol. 113, D17115, doi:10.1029/2008JD009851)

Evaluation of Satellite Estimates of Downward Shortwave Radiation Over the Tibetan Plateau, Yang, K., R. T. Pinker, Y. Ma, T. Koike, M. M. Wonsick, S. J. Cox, Y. Zhang, and P. Stackhouse, Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, September 9, 2008 (Vol. 113, D17204, doi:10.1029/2007JD009736)

Satellite-Based Model Detection of Recent Climate-Driven Changes in Northern High-Latitude Vegetation Productivity, Zhang, K., J. S. Kimball, E. H. Hogg, M. Zhao, W. C. Oechel, J. J. Cassano, and S. W. Running, Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences, September 9, 2008 (Vol. 113, G03033, doi:10.1029/2007JG000621)

Combined Simple Biosphere/Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach Terrestrial Carbon Cycle Model, Schaefer, K., G. J. Collatz, P. Tans, A. S. Denning, I. Baker, J. Berry, L. Prihodko, N. Suits, and A. Philpott, Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences, September 9, 2008 (Vol. 113, G03034, doi:10.1029/2007JG000603)

Increased UV Radiation Due to Polar Ozone Chemical Depletion and Vortex Occurrences at Southern Sub-Polar Latitudes in the Period [1997–2005], Pazmiño, A. F., Godin-Beekmann, S., Luccini, E. A., Piacentini, R. D., Quel, E. J., and Hauchecorne, A., Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, September 8, 2008 (Vol. 8, No.17)

Rates of Southeast Greenland Ice Volume Loss from Combined ICESat and ASTER Observations, Howat, I. M., B. E. Smith, I. Joughin, and T. A. Scambos, Geophysical Research Letters, September 9, 2008 (Vol. 35, L17505, doi:10.1029/2008GL034496)

Research Highlights Archive

Media Alerts are press releases from different institutions, that either address climate research, or are NASA-funded.

Researchers Attribute Thinning of Greenland Glacier to Ocean Warming Preceded by Atmospheric Changes
September 28 — The sudden thinning in 1997 of Jakobshavn Isbræ, one of Greenland's largest glaciers, was caused by subsurface ocean warming, according to new research. (New York University press release) More

Lava Flows Reveal Clues to Magnetic Field Reversals
September 26 — Ancient lava flows are guiding a better understanding of what generates and controls the Earth's magnetic field -- and what may drive it to occasionally reverse direction. (University of Wisconsin-Madison press release) More

Scientist Proposes Explanation for Puzzling Property of Night-Shining Clouds
September 25 — An explanation for a strange property of noctilucent clouds -- thin, wispy clouds hovering at the edge of space -- has been proposed, possibly laying to rest a decades-long mystery. (California Institute of Technology press release) More

Oldest Known Rocks Discovered
September 25 — Canadian bedrock more than four billion years old may be the oldest known section of the Earth's early crust. (Carnegie Institution press release) More

Study Suggests Air Quality Regulations Miss Key Pollutants
September 24 — A new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder reveals that air quality regulations may not effectively target a large source of fine, organic particle pollutants that contribute to hazy skies and poor air quality over the Los Angeles region. (University of Colorado at Boulder press release) More

Climate Change, Human Activity and Wildfires
September 21 — Climate has been implicated by a new study as a major driver of wildfires in the last 2,000 years, but human activities, such as land clearance and fire suppression during the industrial era have created large swings in burning, first increasing fires until the late 1800s, and then dramatically reducing burning in the 20th century. (University of Oregon press release) More

Global Warming's Ecosystem Double Whammy
September 17 — Plants and soils act like sponges for atmospheric carbon dioxide, but new research finds that one abnormally warm year can suppress the amount of carbon dioxide taken up by some grassland ecosystems for up to two years. (Rice University press release) More

Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Lowest Extent in 2008, Second Lowest Ever Recorded
September 16 — The Arctic sea ice cover appears to have reached its minimum extent for the year, the second-lowest extent recorded since satellite record-keeping began in 1979, according to the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center, or NSIDC. (University of Colorado at Boulder press release) More

Media Alerts Archive

These are resources to assist reporters in understanding NASA's missions and science.

Earth Science Expert Directory
A resource connecting reporters with NASA Earth science experts from across the agency.

Science Writers' Guide to CloudSat-CALIPSO-GRACE (Oct. 2005)
Highlights of the earth science research planned with NASA's CloudSat, CALIPSO and GRACE spacecraft. Includes mission overview and media contacts and background science information.

Science Writers' Guide to Aura (May 2004)
Highlights of the earth science research planned with NASA's Aura spacecraft, launched in June 2004. Includes mission overview and media contact information.

Science Writers' Guide to SORCE (Jan. 2003)
Highlights of the earth science research planned with NASA's SORCE spacecraft, to be launched in January 2003. Includes mission overview and media contact information.

Science Writers' Guide to Aqua (Apr. 2002)
Highlights of the earth science research planned with NASA's Aqua spacecraft, launched in May 2002. Includes mission overview and media contact information.

SAFARI 2000 Media Guide (May 2000) [PDF]
The Southern African Regional Science Initiative brings together U.S., African, and international scientists in a multidisciplinary effort to study the sustainability of the region's sensitive and pressured ecosystems. An intensive field campaign begins this August in South Africa.

NASA's Earth Observing System
An overview of the EOS program, the centerpiece of NASA's Office of Earth Science, which includes multiple spacecraft missions and interdisciplinary science investigations to provide a data set of key parameters needed to understand global climate change.

• Overview of EOS Program
• NASA's Earth Science Enterprise
• EOS Project Scientists

Science Writers' Guide to Terra (Nov. 1999)
Highlights of the earth science research planned with NASA's Terra spacecraft, launched in December 1999. Includes mission overview and media contact information.

Science Writers' Guide to Landsat 7
Landsat 7 will advance several areas of Earth science, including monitoring croplands and mapping Antarctic ice streams. This guide profiles several Landsat 7 research projects and provides extensive background and contact information.

Terra Science Fact Sheets (pdf)
Overviews of the major science questions that NASA's Terra spacecraft (formerly EOS AM-1) will address.

• Aerosols
• Changing Global Cloudiness
• Changing Global Land Surface
• Earth's Energy Balance
• The Roles of the Ocean in Climate Changes

EOS Science Writer's Workshop, June 24, 1999
Topics at the workshop included global warming, the health of the oceans, and regional land and water impacts of climate change.

Follow NASA earth scientists as they take to the field — and the oceans and the air — to better understand our complex planet. (Updated: March 8, 2002)

March 2006
Cloud Land Surface Interaction Campaign (CLASIC)—The Cloud Land Surface Interaction Campaign (CLASIC) will study cumulus convection and associated thunderstorm formation. Both processes are strongly controlled by land surface conditions but also influence the land surface itself through rain-induced changes in soil moisture and photosynthesis. Project Summary

2005-2007
Tropical Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling Experiment (TC-4)— The Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC-4) experiment will take scientists to the extreme environment of the upper troposphere to measure the movement of gases and tiny particles called aerosols. By closely examining the chemical and physical processes that occur in this region, researchers will gain valuable insight on issues involving global climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and global tropospheric chemistry. Project Summary

To keep up-to-date with what is new in the Earth Observatory, subscribe to the weekly EO Announcements listserv!

In Data & Images:

Updated Datasets:
Chlorophyll (April 11)
Biosphere (April 11)
Rainfall (April 11)
Sea Surface Temperature (April 11)

Latest Features:
Devastating Drought Settles on the High Plains (August 11, 2008)
Siberia Blog 2008 (July 10, 2008)
American Carbon: Vulcan Project Maps Nation's Fossil Fuel Emissions in Detail (July 9, 2008)
The Ocean's Carbon Balance (July 1, 2008)

New References:
Global Warming (May 7)