A strong 10 to 20 year ocean temperature pattern has a hold on the Pacific. The pattern is likely to perpetuate unusually dry conditions that have plagued the North American west coast over the last three years, researchers said.

NASA's CERES sensor measures the energy the Earth reflects and emits back into space accurately enough to tell scientists which aspects of the Earth's climate system are changing, and exactly how much these changes affect our planet's total energy budget. These new images demonstrate the first year of CERES' measurements of the Earth's energy budget and what these measurements are teaching us about our changing climate.

The Hawaiian Islands trigger an extraordinary interaction between wind and ocean that extends thousands of kilometers. This island effect is much larger than has ever been observed by scientists before. Using data from Earth-observing satellites, researchers discovered an unusually long island "wake." The scientists' report appears in the journal Science.

Potentially hazardous bacteria and fungi catch a free ride across the Atlantic, courtesy of North African dust plumes. NASA-funded researchers who made the discovery believe the stowaway microbes might pose a health risk to people in the western Atlantic region.