New observations from NASA's Terra satellite were used recently by fire officials battling dozens of blazes in Montana and Idaho. This marked the first time data from the spacecraft were used operationally in a crisis situation.

NASA has given forecasters a new way to peek under the covers and identify storms much faster. The SeaWinds instrument onboard the QuikSCAT satellite can look through the telltale swirl of clouds of a forming storm and measure winds at the ocean's surface.

Earlier this week a NASA instrument detected an Antarctic ozone "hole" that is three times larger than the entire land mass of the United States - the largest such area ever observed.

As the 2000 hurricane season reaches its midpoint this weekend, meteorologists are much better prepared to forecast dangerous storms like the hurricane that slammed into Galveston Island, Texas 100 years ago.

Fires routinely scorch the Southern African landscape at this time of year, but the current burning season could be nearly twice as big as usual, according to researchers taking part in a NASA-supported field experiment studying the impact of these fires on global climate and the region's air quality and ecosystems.