Ocean Surface Salinity Influences El Niño Forecasts
January 29 — NASA sponsored scientists have discovered by knowing the salt content of the ocean's surface, they may be able to improve the ability to predict El Niño events. Scientists, studying the western Pacific Ocean, find regional changes in the saltiness of surface ocean water correspond to changes in upper ocean heat content in the months preceding an El Niño event. Knowing the distribution of surface salinity may help predict events. More

NASA Joins Snow Study Over The Sea of Japan
January 29 — NASA and two Japanese government agencies are collaborating on a snowfall study over Wakasa Bay, Japan. Using NASA's Earth Observing System Aqua satellite, research aircraft and coastal radars to gather data, the joint effort is expanding scientific knowledge about where precipitation falls. More

NASA's SORCE Satellite Soars Into Space to Catch some Rays
January 25 — NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) successfully launched today aboard a Pegasus XL rocket over the Atlantic Ocean. Dropped from the wing of a L-1011 carrier aircraft at 3:14 p.m. EST, separation of the spacecraft from the rocket occurred 10 minutes and 46 seconds after launch at about 3:24 p.m. Initial contact with the satellite was made seven seconds after separation via a NASA communications satellite network. More

NASA Administrator Announces Out-of-this-World Opportunity for Teachers
January 21 — Administrator Sean O'Keefe and Florida First Lady Columba Bush today outlined a unique NASA program designed to show learning in a whole new light by giving students and teachers across the country an out-of-this-world experience. More

NASA Mission Will Look at Clouds from Both Sides
January 16 — CloudSat, the most advanced radar designed to measure the properties of clouds, will provide the first global measurements of cloud thickness, height, water and ice content, and a wide range of precipitation data linked to cloud development. More

NASA Scientists Take First "Full-Body Scan" of Evolving Thunderstorm
January 15 — A doctor gets a better view inside a patient by probing the body with CAT and MRI scanning equipment. Now, NASA meteorologists have done a kind of "full-body scan" of an evolving thunderstorm in the tropics, using advanced radar equipment to provide a remarkable picture of the storm's anatomy. The observations are expected to help double-check satellite rainfall measurements, improve computer models of storms, and make the skies safer for airplanes to navigate. More

Lightning Really Does Strike More Than Twice
January 14 — NASA-funded scientists have recently learned that cloud-to-ground lightning frequently strikes the ground in two or more places and that the chances of being struck are about 45 percent higher than what people commonly assume. More

NASA Successfully Launches The ICESAT / CHIPSAT Satellites
January 13 — NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation satellite (ICESat) and Cosmic Hot Interstellar Spectrometer (CHIPS) satellite lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 4:45 p.m. PST aboard Boeing's Delta II rocket. Separation of the ICESat spacecraft occurred 64 minutes after launch at 5:49 p.m. PST. Initial contact with ICESat was made 75 minutes after launch at 6 p.m. PST as the spacecraft passed over the Svalbard Ground Station in Norway. More

NASA Instrument Captures Early Antarctic Ice Shelf Melting
January 13 — An international research team using data from NASA's SeaWinds instrument aboard the Quick Scatterometer spacecraft has detected the earliest yet recorded pre-summer melting event in a section of Antarctica's Larsen Ice Shelf. More

Earth Likely Spared From One Form of Cosmic Doom
January 8 — While the cosmic debris from a nearby massive star explosion, called a supernova, could destroy the Earth's protective ozone layer and cause mass extinction, such an explosion would have to be much closer than previously thought, new calculations show. More

L.A.'s Blustery Days
January 7 — The ferocity of the damaging Santa Ana winds that have raked Greater Los Angeles this week is illustrated in this ocean surface wind data from NASA's QuikScat spacecraft. Even though the winds lost much of their speed as they headed over the ocean, they were still well in excess of 30 knots (34 miles per hour). Red arrows denote the highest wind speeds. More

NASA Begins New Year With International Arctic Ozone Study
January 6 — NASA researchers, and more than 350 scientists from the United States, European Union, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Poland, Russia and Switzerland, are working together this winter to measure ozone and other atmospheric gases. The scientists will use aircraft, large and small balloons, ground-based instruments and satellites. More

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