A new study of tree rings in Scandinavia is helping to resolve a longstanding question about the Medieval Warm Period.

Scientists from NOAA, NASA and 21 universities from three countries are deploying state-of-the-art instruments in multiple, coordinated research campaigns this month to investigate how air pollution sources have shifted over recent decades.

Researchers have analyzed the shifting patterns of entire dune fields on Earth and Mars, as seen from orbit, and found they are a direct signature of recent environmental change.

Winter sea ice in the Antarctic is at a historic low, and scientists are working to understand why an area of ice the size of Greenland is missing. 

Wildfires are an ancient force shaping the environment, but they have grown in frequency, range and intensity in response to a changing climate.

Earth’s soil contains large stocks of carbon — even more carbon than in the atmosphere. A significant portion of this soil carbon is in organic form (carbon bound to carbon), called soil organic carbon (SOC).

In mid-July 2023, heat-stressed corals in the southern Florida Keys began bleaching—expelling their food-producing algal partners—amid the hottest water temperatures ever documented in the region during the satellite record (dating back to 1985).

When driving through a rainstorm, traction is key.

An annual survey led by VIMS researchers mapped 76,462 acres of underwater grasses in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries in 2022. 

A patch of ocean in the North Atlantic is stubbornly cooling while much of the planet warms.