The most volcanically active region in the world, the Pacific Rim, is center stage for a NASA airborne Earth-observing mission that got underway today. The program will collect data in more than 15 countries around the Pacific Ocean, including Cambodia's Angkor Wat Temple, French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Australian coastal wetlands.

Early results from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA's Terra satellite show a lot less snow cover than normal this past winter. The MODIS composite snowcover map was derived from data taken over an 8-day period between March 5 and 12, 2000.

A new NASA study reveals the coastal ice around Greenland is thinning, in some places, at a rate of more than three feet per year. The ice mapping was completed by NASA has been mapping the Greenland ice sheet for nearly seven years.

Hurricane Carlotta, the second strongest eastern Pacific June hurricane on record, was captured in 3D by NASA's Terra spacecraft. Data from the Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) show the hurricane at its peak activity on June 21.