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ICESat-2 Resumes Data Collection After Solar Storms

2024.07.02

NASA’s ICESat-2 satellite returned to science mode on June 21 UTC, after solar storms in May caused its height-measuring instrument to go into a safe hold. The ICESat-2 team restarted the mission’s instrument, a lidar called the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), which is once again collecting precise data on the height of Earth’s ice, water, forests and land cove

ICESat-2, in Safe Hold From Solar Storms, to Return Mid-June

2024.06.11

After going into a safe hold on May 10 due to impacts from the strongest solar storm to hit Earth in two decades, the lidar instrument on NASA’s ICESat-2 satellite is scheduled to resume collecting data around June 17. The storm did not cause any detectable damage to the satellite or its instrument.

Earth Day Toolkit Available

2024.04.18

NASA’s fleet of satellites see the whole Earth, every day. This year, you can celebrate Earth Day with NASA wherever you are! Host your own Earth Day event—supported by NASA science—with activities, demonstrations, handouts, posters, videos, and more.

Voices in the Field with Dr. Rachel Tilling

2024.04.01

Dr. Rachel Tilling (615/UMD) was featured in the ICESat-2 Mission’s “Voices in the Field” series. In the feature, Dr. Tilling shares her story at sea (ice), where she and her team take measurements to compare with satellite data. Dr. Tilling recalled her time in the field where she met penguins, camped on the ice, and slept in three sleeping bags to stave off the cold.

Bliss Interviewed by ICI Radio-Canada

2024.01.04

Angela Bliss (615) was interviewed by ICI Radio-Canada for a web and radio story on recent sea ice conditions. The story reports unusually mild temperatures and a lack of snow and sea ice floes reported by local residents in Nunavik, Northern Quebec. Angela provided comments on the unusually low sea ice conditions in waters of Northern Quebec and the overall reduction of Arctic sea ice cover, especially after the warmest recorded Arctic summer in 2023.
Available in French.

Shuman Discusses Iceberg's Escape

2023.11.26

Christopher Shuman (615/UMBC) was interviewed by ‘Live Science’ to discuss the world's biggest iceberg 3 times the size of New York City is finally escaping Antarctica after being trapped for almost 40 years.

2023 Hydrosphere, Biosphere, and Geophysics (HBG) Awards Announced

2023.10.20

It is a pleasure to announce the selections for the 2023 Hydrosphere, Biosphere, and Geophysics (HBG) Annual Peer Awards!

Administrative/Business Support
• Deborah Brasel – Code 610HBG
• Kitty Sanchez – Code 616
• Kathy Regul – Code 617
• Kishawn Sutton – Code 617
• Sandra Bussard – Code 618
• Barret Einfalt – Code 618
• Amy Scully – Code 618
• Shina Dave – Code 61A

Career Achievement
• Jan McGarry – Code 61A

Outreach
• Sara Blumberg – Code 616
• Ian Carroll – Code 616
• Genevieve de Messieres – Code 618
• Ayia Lindquist – Code 618
• Nyssa Rayne – Code 618

Scientific Achievement
• Rachel Tilling – Code 615
• Andrew Sayer – Code 616
• Weston Anderson – Code 617
• Augusto Getirana – Code 617
• Goutam Konapala – Code 617
• Timothy Lahmers – Code 617
• Bailing Li – Code 617
• Fadji Maina – Code 617
• Elijah Orland – Code 617
• Thomas Stanley – Code 617
• Carrie Vuyovich – Code 617
• Shane Coffield – Code 618
• Liz Hoy – Code 618
• Elisabeth Larson – Code 618
• Tempest McCabe – Code 618

Scientific/Technical Support
• Rodney Coleman – Code 610
• Charlie Seljos – Code 610
• Jeff Lee – Code 615
• LeeAnne Roberts – Code 615
• Christine Sadlik – Code 615
• Patricia Vornberger – Code 615
• Albert Wu – Code 615
• Sean Bailey – Code 616
• Ivona Cetinic – Code 616
• David Norris – Code 616
• Emerson Sirk – Code 616
• OCI Technical Leadership Team – Code 616
- Gerhard Meister (Team Lead), Joseph Knuble, Leland Chemerys, Ulrik Gliese
• PACE SDS Prelaunch Data Processing Team – Code 616
- John Wilding (Team Lead), Joel Gales, Liang Hong, Tommy Owens, Don Shea, Fred Patt
• Hiroko Beaudoing – Code 617
• Rajat Bindlish – Code 617
• Abheera Hazra – Code 617
• Thomas Holmes – Code 617
• Eric Kemp – Code 617
• Justin Pflug – Code 617
• Melissa Wrzesien – Code 617
• Emery Bacon – Code 618
• Boryana Efremova – Code 618
• Nathan Kelley – Code 618
• Jason Kraft – Code 618
• Aaron Pearlman – Code 618
• Timothy Shuman – Code 618
• Jennifer Beall – Code 61A
• Marshall Finch – Code 61A
• Evan Hoffman – Code 61A
• Joseph Nicholas – Code 61A
• Katherine Pazamickas – Code 61A
• Xu Yang – Code 61A

Best Publication – First Author Civil Servant
• Brooke Medley – Code 615 – for the October 2022 publication – “Simulations of firn processes over the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets: 1980-2021”

Best Publication – First Author Non-Civil Servant
• Anthony Campbell – Code 618 – for the November 2022 publication – “Global hotspots of salt marsh change and carbon emissions”

Goddard Monitors Smoke from Canada Wildfires

2023.06.07

An unusually intense start to Canada’s wildfire season filled skies with smoke in May 2023. Then, at the beginning of June, scores of new fires raged in the eastern Canadian province of Quebec. NASA’s Aqua satellite, operated at Goddard, has captured imagery of the smoke. The Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) based at Goddard has computed models of where the smoke may travel in coming days.

Terra, Aqua, and Aura Data Continuity Workshop Dates Announced and Questions and Answers Posted

2023.04.03

NASA’s Terra, Aqua, and Aura Data Continuity Workshop will be held virtually on May 23-25, 2023. Sessions will run daily from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time/10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Central Time/8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES) has posted a questions and answers document on the Request for Information’s (RFI) Landing Page. When they become available following the close of the RFI, NSPIRES will post on the RFI’s landing page under “Other Documents” 1) a Workshop Agenda, 2) Registration link and 3) Webex Information. Agenda suggestions and additional questions or comments may be emailed to david.b.considine@nasa.gov; please include "NNH23ZDA010L" in the subject line. Request for Information: NASA’s Terra, Aqua, and Aura Data Continuity Workshop Number: NNH23ZDA010L Release Date: March 1, 2023 Response Date: April 4, 2023 Short Direct URL to the RFI: https://go.nasa.gov/TAARFI4VCW

Photon Phrightday: Mount Terror

2022.10.28

NASA’s ICESat-2 mission measures the height of land, ice, and water by bouncing photons of light off their surfaces and timing how long it takes them to return to the spacecraft. Take a closer look at this fearful photon cloud … if you dare!

GLOBE Observer: ICESat-2 and GLOBE Trees Challenge 2022

2022.09.14

What do trees, tree height, lasers, and a NASA satellite called the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 have in common? Brian Campbell (610/GST) discusses this in his recent blog post “Four Years of ICESat-2 and the Upcoming NASA GLOBE Trees Challenge 2022: Trees in a Changing Climate.”

NASA GLOBE Land Cover Challenge 2022: Land Cover in a Changing Climate

2022.07.26

The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program invites you to take part in our upcoming Land Cover Challenge: “Land Cover in a Changing Climate.”

The photos you take using The GLOBE Program’s GLOBE Observer app document the current land cover and may also show evidence of land cover or land use change in the area. We especially encourage you to look for places you know have changed (or where you know change is coming), and put any information about the reasons or timing for that change in the field notes section. While existing land cover databases (such as the 50-year record from the Landsat satellite) may be able to indicate where change is happening, they don’t always include the reasons why those changes occurred, so any local, on-the-ground knowledge you share with us can be especially helpful.

Earth Expeditions Blog: An Arctic Treasure Hunt

2022.07.22

It was a duck that led me to treasure. And a plane that led me to the duck.

Earth Expeditions Blog: Rocking and Rolling Over Summer Sea Ice

2022.07.21

The thickness of melting Arctic sea ice, seen here north of Greenland on July 11, 2022, is tricky to measure from space, but a NASA campaign is designed to improve height measurements from the ICESat-2 satellite.

Aqua Turns 20

2022.05.04

Aqua Project Scientist Claire Parkinson (610), Deputy Project Scientist Lazaros Oreopoulos (613), and others reflect on the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Aqua satellite.

Earth Expeditions Blog: Skier, Mountaineer, Snow Scientist – In the Field with the Women of SnowEx

2022.03.08

Women in cryosphere sciences – whether on the path of data scientist, glacier researcher, or avalanche forecaster – are few and far between.

Parkinson Discusses Sea Ice in Podcast

2022.01.23

Claire Parkinson was interviewed by Taylor Ganis in “Let’s Talk About the Arctic Ice: From a NASA Climate Scientist.” Claire talks about Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, the tone of the discussion about climate change, and topics related to career sequence and mentoring.

NASA's Curious Universe Podcast

2021.07.26

With Earth’s recent record-breaking temperatures, the pace of sea level rise has accelerated. NASA scientists take us on a trip into their research right here on our home planet. Join us as we fly over Antarctic ice sheets and consult with orbiting satellites on this exploration of our changing Earth.

NY Times Interviews Shuman for Iceberg Article

2021.05.20

Christopher Shuman (615/UMBC) was interviewed by Claire Fahy of The New York Times for the story “Iceberg Splits From Antarctica, Becoming World’s Largest” (also included in the Sunday print edition).

Paper Selected for IEEE Award

2021.05.07

The article "An active–passive microwave land surface database from GPM" was selected as the winner of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society 2020 Transactions Prize Paper Award. The Award will be presented at IGARSS 2021 in Brussels, Belgium. Congratulations to authors S. Munchak (612), S. Ringerud (612/UMD), L. Brucker (615/USRA), Y. You, I. de Gelis, and C. Prigent.

Shuman Quoted in BBC News Feature

2021.04.17

Chris Shuman was quoted in a recent BBC News feature about the melting of the social media star Iceberg A68.

Study Investigates Glacier Slope

2020.12.18

Denis Felikson is lead author on a study looking at how gentler bed topography, may have a greater impact on glacier flow than previously thought.

Notes from the Field Blog: Polarstern at the North Pole

2020.09.23

Sea ice geophysicist Melinda Webster is blogging from the RV Polarstern, an icebreaker ship locked in Arctic sea ice for the MOSAiC expedition. Webster will use MOSAiC data as a blueprint to evaluate and extend the seasonal capability of data from NASA’s ICESat-2 satellite for sea ice research.

Earth Expeditions: An Active Arctic – Where Sea Ice Meets the Midnight Sun

2020.07.24

In the early 1900s, Ernest Shackleton attempted to travel across Antarctica, but as they neared the continent his ship became stuck in an pack of sea ice and was slowly crushed before it reached the landmass. Over 100 years later and on the opposite side of the globe in the Arctic, researchers in the massive, double-hulled icebreaker, Polarstern, are also stuck in a pack of sea ice – but this time on purpose. And this ship isn’t sinking any time soon.