Press releases from the NASA centers and from NASA researchers.
Scientific "Fireworks" Explore Space Weather
June 29 NASA will set off its own Independence Day fireworks during a
series of nighttime rocket launches from July 2 to 20 from the Wallops
Flight Facility on the Atlantic coast in Virginia. Designed to study
"space weather" ? the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth's
magnetic field and atmosphere ? the experiments seek to improve our
understanding of electrically charged atoms at the edge of space. More
Ocean Wind Satellite Successfully Launched
June 19 NASA's Quick Scatterometer (QuikScat) was lofted into space at
7:15 p.m. PDT today atop a U.S. Air Force Titan II launch vehicle from
California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. During the next two weeks, QuikScat
will fire its thrusters as many as 25 times to circularize and gradually
fine-tune its polar orbit. The primary mission is scheduled to continue for
two years. More
Scientists Prepare NY City for Future Climate Change
June 4 Scientists and government agencies in New York City have joined forces to meet the challenges climate change is expected to have on the city. Cynthia Rosenzweig of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies says results from a new study will help city agencies make decisions to help mitigate future problems with aging roads, public health, coastal erosion, water supply, and wetlands. More
Ocean-Observing Satellite to Chase the Wind
June 3 The QuikScat satellite, to be launched on June 18, will
be NASA?s next "El Ni�o watcher" and will be used to
better understand global weather abnormalities. The mission will help scientists
determine the location, structure, and strength of severe marine storms, which are
among the most destructive of all natural phenomena. More
Warm, Wet Winters Linked to Greenhouse Gases
June 2 Why are winters warming up so much faster over
Northern Hemisphere continents than over the rest of the globe? A new study by
NASA researchers in the journal Nature is the first to link the
well-documented large degree of North America and Eurasia winter warming and
the associated wind changes to rising greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. More
Space Blobs Create Backward Auroras
June 1 Blobs of electrified particles spew violently from the
Sun, zoom at "warp speed" toward Earth?s magnetic field, and
trigger an unusual form of aurora, scientists have discovered using an ultraviolet
camera on NASA?s Polar spacecraft. These auroras appear at high noon,
when they would usually be obscured by the Sun. More
Forecasting East Asian Monsoon A Step Closer
June 1 New results from the South China Sea Monsoon
Experiment have moved researchers a step closer to being able to forecast the
summer monsoon and help reduce loses of life, livestock, agriculture, and property.
The study has uncovered clues to the cause, timing, and evolution of the massive
East Asian summer monsoon, which has caused devastating floods in southern
China. More
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