Until recently, glaciers in the United States have been measured in two ways: placing stakes in the snow, as federal scientists have done each year since 1957 at South Cascade Glacier in Washington state; or tracking glacier area using photographs from airplanes and satellites.

Groundwater may play an unrecognized role in thawing Arctic permafrost following wildfires, according to new research.

In 1995, the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Program called for a united, global effort to reduce persistent organic pollutants (POPs) — synthetic chemicals such as PCBs, DDT, and dioxins. The compounds were known to persist and accumulate far from their sources, polluting the environment and causing adverse health effects in humans.

Tropical rainforests continue to buffer wildlife from extreme temperatures even after logging, a new study has revealed.

NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite passed overhead and captured an image of Typhoon Lan in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean and saw a well-organized storm with a clear eye that was 50 nautical miles in diameter.

The ocean plays a critical role in climate and weather, serving as a massive reservoir of heat and water that influences tropical storms, El Nin~o, and climate change.  In addition, the ocean has absorbed 30 percent of the carbon dioxide associated with human activities, lessening the climate effects of fossil fuel combustion. 

For the last century, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been a challenge for patients and the medical community in the western world. New research published today in The Lancet by Dr. Gilaad Kaplan shows that countries outside the western world may now be facing the same pattern of increasing IBD rates.

The Northwestern Pacific Ocean generated another tropical depression hours after a different system quickly faded. NASA’s Aqua satellite provided a look at Tropical Depression 27W after it developed about 300 miles from Chuuk. Earlier in the day, Tropical Depression 26W dissipated in the South China Sea.

The energy and climate benefits of cool roofs have been well established: By reflecting rather than absorbing the sun’s energy, light-colored roofs keep buildings, cities, and even the entire planet cooler. Now a new study by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has found that cool roofs can also save water by reducing how much is needed for urban irrigation.

Thirty years after NASA and NOAA launched a groundbreaking airborne campaign to study the Antarctic ozone hole, the two federal science agencies have once again joined forces over the world’s highest, driest and coldest continent to sniff out the secrets of the atmosphere.

On Oct. 14, NASA’s heavily instrumented DC-8 flew over Antarctica as part of the Atmospheric Tomography Mission or ATom, an unprecedented effort to sample the remote atmosphere to understand the distribution of man-made pollutants and short-lived greenhouse gases.