What On Earth
- 2010
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Here is the list of entries for What On Earth based on the selected criteria.
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Snapshots from AGU
Dec 17, 2010 01:00:42 PM | Adam Voiland
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- The annual gathering of Earth and space scientists in San Francisco at the American Geophysical Union meeting draws thousands of researchers, including many involved with NASA research.
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Flying High with MABEL
Dec 16, 2010 04:23:24 PM | Adam Voiland
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- In a poster to be presented Thursday at the 2010 fall AGU meeting, NASA scientists describe a series of high-altitude flights that demonstrated the scientific feasibility of surface elevation measurements to be made by one of the agency's future Earth observing satellites.
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NASA's AVIRIS Instrument Highlighted During AGU Oil Spill Session
Dec 14, 2010 05:47:58 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Some 25 billion tweets were sent in 2010, and surprisingly Lady Gaga didn't dominate the list. Instead, it was the summer's Deepwater Horizon oil spill that inspired the most activity, according to data released by Twitter this week.
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What On Earth is That #6
Dec 07, 2010 01:31:06 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Post your guess in the comments section, and check back next week for the answer
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Flyby Over the South Pole
Nov 16, 2010 12:27:25 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Fly over the South Pole at lunch, back to the tip of Patagonia by supper -- just another day of drudgery collecting scientific data.
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Speaking of Contrails...
Nov 16, 2010 12:19:25 PM | Adam Voiland
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- The prospect of a renegade missile transfixed newscasters last week after a videographer captured imagery of an unusual contrail near the coast of California.
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What On Earth is That? #5
Dec 11, 2010 09:27:36 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Post your guesses in the comments, and check back next week for the answer...
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Volcano Music
Nov 05, 2010 02:59:30 PM | Adam Voiland
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- What on Earth was that sound? Was it a bird? A plane? A humpbacked whale?
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NASA's Pouring Funds, Scientists and Satellites into Pakistan Flood Warning
Oct 28, 2010 12:54:59 AM | Adam Voiland
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- In July 2010, monsoon rains came to Pakistan in a Biblical way. Three months’ worth of rain fell in just one week. Historic flooding ensued in the weeks to follow -- spanning 600 miles along the flood zone of the Indus River Valley -- taking the lives of as many as 1,600 people.
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Some Tunes to Get Into An A-Train State of Mind
Oct 26, 2010 07:37:54 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Each afternoon, some 705 kilometers (438 miles) above the surface, a parade of Earth-observing satellites soars across the equator. Chances are you've never heard of them since the close-flying satellites keeps a far lower profile than, say, attention hogs like the Hubble or the International Space Station.
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Glory Versus the Curse of the Black Carbon
Oct 15, 2010 09:14:58 AM | Adam Voiland
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- Kick back, make yourself some popcorn, and enjoy one of the newe offerings from NASA Television: a tongue-in-cheek trailer about the horrors of aerosols. Black carbon plays the villain and the sooty particle (which comes from wildfires, campfires, various industrial processes, and diesel fumes) gets the blame for “cursing” atmospheric scientists with a “scourge of ignorance”.
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Hungry? Try a Honeypot Ant...
Oct 09, 2010 07:39:06 AM | Adam Voiland
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- If I’ve learned anything as a science writer, it’s that scientists produce such a flood of fantastically odd factoids that boredom isn’t much of an occupational hazard.
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What On Earth is That?
Oct 01, 2010 01:52:44 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Post your guesses in the comments. Check back next week for the answer...
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Lightning Never Strikes Twice, But...
Sep 22, 2010 03:44:17 PM | Gretchen Cook-Anderson
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- Though the old adage that lightning never strikes twice generally rings true, apparently lightning can strike in very short order in more than a dozen points alongside one another as it did near Keota, Colorado on August 6.
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What On Earth (Sound) Is That? #4
Sep 10, 2010 12:06:49 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Regular readers know the drill by now: Every other Friday we post a snippet of one of the many strange and fascinating bits of earth science that passes through our inboxes here at What On Earth, and you all have a week to show off your science savvy by hazarding a guess (or two or three, if you'd like) in the comments.
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Piloting Through Hurricane Earl
Sep 08, 2010 04:26:30 PM | Adam Voiland
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- NASA DC-8 Pilot Dick Ewers talks about flying into nature's strongest storms for the sake of science.
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What On Earth Was That #3 ?
Sep 20, 2010 11:22:07 AM | Adam Voiland
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- Last week, we showed you this mystery image. What was it? As a number of readers—including Brad Halderman (commenter #3), Budi Prasteya (commenter #7), and others—correctly guessed you’re looking at a cropped version of one of the famous “sailing stone” tracks located on the Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, California.
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You're Getting Warmer
Aug 23, 2010 12:02:01 PM | Patrick Lynch
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- Weather is just noise in the system, but the climate is sending a clear signal that it is warming.
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Reading the Sky
Aug 20, 2010 04:40:54 PM | Patrick Lynch
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- Understanding the clouds requires more than just looking up.
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What on Earth was That #2
Sep 20, 2010 11:24:39 AM | Adam Voiland
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- Last week, we asked you to identify the flecks in a What on Earth is That video, and we received all sorts of replies. The correct answer?
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What on Earth is That? #2
Sep 20, 2010 11:25:16 AM | Adam Voiland
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- We are constantly stumbling across all sorts of odd photos, video, and audio clips from our exploration of the Earth (be if from space, the field, or the lab.) Whether it is a satellite image captured from thousands of miles up, the roar of a B-200 research aircraft, or a microscopic view of a cloud droplet, there is always something strange and wonderful passing across our desks.
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Snowpocalypse Revisited
Jul 29, 2010 06:24:00 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Though the summer heat and humidity makes it seem like a lifetime ago, the record-breaking snows in the eastern U.S. last winter are not something we will soon forget.
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Q & A: Michael Lefksy on Measuring Trees From Space
Jul 27, 2010 12:37:33 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Colorado State University researcher Michael Lefsky recently published the first global map of forest heights using data from a radar-like laser instrument. We talked to Michael to learn more about the work behind his work...
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NASA Earth Buzz: Soot, the Big Melt, and More
Jul 27, 2010 12:39:01 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Last week, we asked you to identify the image on the left, and we received all sorts of replies. (Nope, it’s not an ant eating salt, spitting acid, or laying eggs). The correct answer? A microscopic view of soot from a wildfire. Check the original post for more details.
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Plankton on Parade
Jul 27, 2010 12:26:55 PM | Adam Voiland
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- “We are seeing what’s in the water immediately, not after the fact in a lab, so it’s obvious when the water -- and what’s in it -- changes."
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What on Earth is That? #1
Oct 20, 2011 04:41:16 PM | Adam Voiland
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- We are constantly stumbling across all sorts of odd photos, video, and audio clips from our exploration of the Earth (be if from space, the field, or the lab.) Whether it is a satellite image captured from thousands of miles up, the roar of a B-200 research aircraft, or a microscopic view of a cloud droplet, there is always something strange and wonderful passing across our desks.
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The First A in NASA Stands for Aeronautics
Jul 27, 2010 12:39:49 PM | Adam Voiland
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- If you've explored NASA's website, you may have noticed that What on Earth is just one of a network of NASA blogs. You can find many of them on this main index page, but there are also NASA bloggers scattered at numerous other pages.
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Puzzling Over the Pieces
Jul 27, 2010 12:30:13 PM | Adam Voiland
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- NASA satellites, now working for more than ten years, are beginning to allow us to examine changes in the climate. One purpose of ICESCAPE is to look at the ocean with greater detail than the satellites offer, in order to improve and refine the interpretation of the satellite data.
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What to Expect from the Arctic
Jul 27, 2010 12:32:02 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Greg Mitchell reckons he has spent about four years of his life aboard ships. His most recent trip inside the Arctic Circle was 1989. He expects to see change now.
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Beautiful Radiance
Jul 09, 2010 01:32:21 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Here on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, heading north toward sampling stations in the Bering Strait, there’s plenty of light -- a beautiful radiance nearly around the clock.
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What's a Wallops?
Jul 07, 2010 01:47:54 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Wallops is known for rocket launches, but the center also undertakes space and Earth science projects, many of which were on display at an open house celebrating the center's 65th anniversary.
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Satellites Deliver New Watery Truths with Style and GRACE
Jun 16, 2010 06:23:15 PM | Gretchen Cook-Anderson
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- The harmonious GRACE twins have achieved some very big hits. They've racked up unprecedented observations of some of the world's most famous waterways; shed light on ice loss at the coldest reaches of the globe; and rendered first-time measurements of changes in hidden groundwater reservoirs that sustain millions daily.
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NASA Earth Buzz
Jul 09, 2010 01:34:30 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Earth science links, video, and more that caught our eye...
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Jamboree and Jambalaya
Jun 14, 2010 09:12:56 AM | Adam Voiland
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- Employees at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center emerged from their cubicles and offices on June 2 and mingled outdoors, Cajun style, at the center’s second annual Science Jamboree.
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The Glory Initiative
May 22, 2010 05:16:28 AM | Adam Voiland
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- Diehard fans of the hit television show Lost, which will air its final episode this Sunday, know that the Swan (station number 3 of the mysterious Dharma Initiative ) was designed to study strange electromagnetic fluctuations emanating from a mysterious tropical island in the South Pacific.
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Smog Blog Outtakes
Jun 23, 2011 12:10:06 PM | Adam Voiland
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- On Earth Day, we published an interview about the "smog blog" created by Ray Hoff of the University of Maryland – Baltimore County.
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Fun with Aureoles and Aerosols
Apr 30, 2010 03:21:38 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) recently ran a series of photos that illustrates nicely the impact that small airborne particles called aerosols can have on light.
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Extreme Field Campaign
Apr 09, 2010 01:39:44 AM | Adam Voiland
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- Gale-force winds, sub-zero temperatures and altitude sickness...another day at the office.
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Black Carbon's Day on the Hill
Aug 28, 2011 05:31:00 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Leading aerosol scientists, including NASA's Drew Shindell, explained the intricacies of a sooty component of smoke called black carbon to members of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming during a hearing on Capitol Hill last month.
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Soaring for Science
Apr 05, 2010 08:57:44 AM | NASA Earth Science News Team
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- The newest bird in NASA's flock -- the unmanned Global Hawk -- took off from Dryden Flight Research Center today.
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Even in Science, There's More than One Side to Every Story
Mar 26, 2010 01:37:34 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Every tale has more than one side or perspective. And so it is with NASA, which studies Earth science from different angles – from satellites, from aircraft, and sometimes from the ground. But somehow, no matter how many ways there are to view a place, there’s nothing better than being there.
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Working (Very) Remotely
Apr 01, 2010 07:57:20 AM | NASA Earth Science News Team
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- Making sure satellite measurements are accurate sometimes requires going a little out of the way.
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A Revolutionary Way to Observe Earth
Mar 16, 2010 02:09:10 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Science tends to be a conservative profession. Only rarely are "discoveries" made or paradigms upended as most researchers spend entire careers working toward incremental advances in understanding rather than dreaming up radical new ways to tackle a problem.
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Flying high with NASA's Joanne Simpson
Mar 12, 2010 05:27:21 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Joanne Simpson, the first woman to earn a PhD in meteorology, didn’t just break into a field where women weren’t welcome.
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Making a Splash with Satellite Hydrology
Mar 10, 2010 08:44:09 AM | Kathryn Hansen
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- Faisal Hossain and his research group -- largely funded by NASA grants -- work to improve the ability of developing nations to monitor water resources that cross national boundaries.
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A Closer Look at Dust
Mar 08, 2010 02:12:47 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Each summer, sandstorms lift millions of tons of dust from the Sahara, carrying it off the West Coast of Africa and over the Atlantic Ocean.
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NASA Readies for Spring 2010 Ice Bridge Campaign
Mar 07, 2010 07:45:33 AM | Adam Voiland
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- Scientists are returning to the Arctic this spring as part of the six-year Operation Ice Bridge mission -- the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown.
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The Uphill Road to Measuring Snow
Mar 01, 2010 12:06:02 PM | Adam Voiland
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- One-sixth of the world’s population relies on melted snow for their freshwater, which means good estimates of snow are critical for making realistic predictions of a region’s water supply.
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Rising Temperatures in the Midst of Heavy Snow?
Feb 26, 2010 09:42:06 AM | Adam Voiland
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- The last few months have been a bit odd. Too much snow in the mid-Atlantic. Too little for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. And a dusting nearly everywhere else.
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Revisiting the Iris Effect
Mar 08, 2010 02:06:33 PM | Adam Voiland
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- A NASA scientist and others take a closer look at a paper with some buzz.
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Can Air Pollution Cause Lightning Storms?
Feb 20, 2010 12:38:00 AM | Adam Voiland
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- Strange as it may seem, the most recent Image of the Week entry from the Climate and Radiation Branch at Goddard Space Flight Center suggests that air pollution does indeed exacerbate lightning storms.
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An Award-Winning Scientist Who Came in from the Cold
Feb 18, 2010 12:41:53 PM | Adam Voiland
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- Researchers who study glaciers and polar dynamics often get into it for the love of the field work. Benjamin Smith, a researcher at the Polar Science Center at the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory, was no exception.
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Are the Oceans Really Stuffed to the Gills with Carbon Dioxide?
Apr 01, 2010 07:55:43 AM | NASA Earth Science News Team
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- Two months ago, NASA scientist Timothy Hall and colleagues published a study that described how they had estimated the amount of manmade carbon dioxide absorbed by the ocean since the start of the industrial era.
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Let There be Light
Mar 15, 2010 08:44:24 AM | NASA Earth Science News Team
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- An early morning sun illuminated the light rain over Nevada, Missouri, on May 14, 2009, spraying rays across the sky. Photographer Tommy Hornbeck captured what some viewers may believe to be virga, rain that evaporates before it reaches the surface.
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Can Something Out in Space be Good for Your Health on Earth?
Mar 15, 2010 08:20:20 AM | NASA Earth Science News Team
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- Stanley Morain's career has led him to a spot as director of the Earth Data Analysis Center at the University of New Mexico, where he has encouraged his colleagues and students to follow their hearts in the projects they pursue. He’s set the example by spending 10 years using NASA satellite data to create daily dust forecasts to improve health alerts.
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Sea level isn't really level at all
Mar 15, 2010 08:42:57 AM | NASA Earth Science News Team
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- Even though it’s sometimes convenient to think of the ocean as a great big bathtub, where turning on the tap at one end raises the water level in the whole tub, real sea level rise doesn’t quite happen that way.
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Deforestation: Much Ado about the Contribution to Global CO2
Feb 17, 2010 08:48:40 AM | NASA Earth Science News Team
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- Deforestation. The environmental implications of the word are as numerous as the syllables. And scientists like Jim Collatz have the job of trying to ferret out and prove those implications. Or, as the case may be, of correcting what scientists have believed to be true.
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