NASA and scientists from 10 tropical countries have used balloon-borne sensors to obtain the first picture of the structure of ozone (pollution) in the tropical troposphere, the atmospheric layer between the surface and 50,000 feet. Under the SHADOZ (Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes) Project, they have found that ozone "piles up" over the south Atlantic Ocean due to natural circulation patterns and that pollution (low-level ozone) from Africa and South America streams into the pile-up region, making the ozone even thicker.

A new environmental satellite, NOAA-M, is being planned for launch June 24 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., NOAA and NASA announced today.

The great majority of the world's glaciers appear to be declining at rates equal to or greater than long-established trends, according to early results from a joint NASA and United States Geological Survey (USGS) project designed to provide a global assessment of glaciers.

Several federal agencies have teamed with universities in the development of revolutionary new fire and smoke monitoring products under a program using satellite data that will help with improving weather and visibility forecasts, firefighting efforts and air quality forecasts as smoke and fire events are happening.

A NASA researcher has found unusually high levels of protective upper atmospheric ozone in the Arctic as a result of a rare sudden warming during the early winter of 1998.

NASA researchers have created a tool that can predict El Nino events months before they occur, by linking variations in rainfall patterns over the Indian Ocean with developing El Ninos.

The atmospheric data from NASA's newest solar spacecraft, TIMED (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics), is providing important new information on the final link in the Sun-Earth Connection chain of physical processes that connect the Sun and Earth.

A soon-to-be-released online tool, developed through NASA funding, provides "Consumer Reports" type evaluations of seasonal forecasts for water, land and agricultural managers. By helping users determine what forecasts are right for their needs, this tool could help users make multi-million dollar decisions.

Every year, children from all over the world gather together and compete in a creative problem-solving competition called "Odyssey of the Mind World Finals," which challenges students to solve long-term problems in topics ranging from science and technology to the creative arts.

NASA-funded study finds that changing rainfall patterns over much of the United States in the last century have allowed plants to grow more vigorously and absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

A region in the western tropical Pacific Ocean may help scientists understand how Venus lost all of its water and became a 900-degree inferno. The study of this local phenomenon by NASA scientists also should help researchers understand what conditions on Earth might lead to a similar fate here.

In the future NASA scientists could enhance current warning systems that update pilots of dangerous icing conditions and provide this information in near real-time.

A new, cost-effective technology based on the venerable global positioning system (GPS) may soon revolutionize the way Earth's atmosphere is monitored.

As communities around the nation prepare for this year's flood season, Earth scientists at NASA's Stennis Space Center are at work on several projects to help communities better understand flood risk.

When the tragic events of September 2001 temporarily halted U.S. commercial air traffic, it created an opportunity to study the relationship between aviation and clouds.

Scientists have unraveled a mystery about hydrogen peroxide that may lead to a more accurate way of measuring a gas that contributes to depletion of Earth's protective ozone layer

NASA's latest Earth observing satellite, Aqua, lifted off from the Western Test Range of Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., aboard a Delta II rocket at 2:55 a.m. PDT on May 4, 2002.

The La Plata tornado's path can be seen clearly in this panchromatic image acquired on May 1 by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI), flying aboard NASA's EO-1 satellite.

A NASA-funded researcher has discovered that tiny airborne particles of pollution may modify developing thunderclouds by increasing the quantity and reducing the size of ice crystals within them. These modifications may affect the cloud's impact on the "radiation budget," the amount of radiation that enters and leaves the Earth.

Microwaves derived from solar power and transmitted by orbiting satellites to electric power stations on Earth may someday enable U.S. energy self-sufficiency, but is this method safe for local plant life?

A team of NASA scientists working at the request of the National Archives has determined why the United States' most important historical documents may be sealed in an atmosphere unhealthy to their future preservation.

Newly-released images from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer capture perhaps the longest cloud vortex, or "cloud street," ever viewed by a satellite.