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Featured Content
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NASA’s DEVELOP Program Recognizes 20 Years of Science Serving SocietyNASA’s DEVELOP National Program, part of the Applied Sciences Program, is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year. What began with three student interns in 1998 has evolved into a national program engaging hundreds of participants and partners each year. Turn to page 11 of the September-October 2018 issue of The Earth Observer to learn more about DEVELOP’s history and its 2018 Earth Science Application Showcase held at NASA Headquarters. |
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ICESat-2 Launches to Track Earth's Changing IceEarth's ice is shrinking. Retreating glaciers. Shrinking sea ice. Melting ice sheets. The frozen reaches of Earth are changing at dramatic rates—and the impacts, from sea level rise to altered weather patterns, span the planet. On September 15, 2018, NASA launched the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) to measure changes in Earth’s ice and improve forecasts of the global impacts. ICESat-2 will use rapid-firing lasers to measure the height of Earth’s changing glaciers, ice sheets and sea ice, all in unprecedented detail. Read more about this extraordinary mission! |
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Nearly 20 Years of Daily Global MODIS Imagery at Your FingertipsNASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is an extremely versatile instrument that has sometimes been called the “workhorse” of NASA’s Earth Observing System. As of June 2018, all daily global MODIS imagery dating back to the operational start of MODIS data collection in 2000 is available through NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) and can be viewed rapidly and interactively using EOSDIS’s Worldview visualization application. We invite you to read the July-August 2018 issue of The Earth Observer to learn more about this effort, as well as other interesting news about NASA's Earth Science missions. |
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GRACE-FO Launches!The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission launched onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Tuesday, May 22, 2018, at 12:47 PM PDT (3:47 PM EDT) from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. To learn more about GRACE-FO, see page 4 of the May-June issue of The Earth Observer. |
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A Trip Through The Earth Observer NewsletterThe Earth Observer has entered its thirtieth year as a NASA publication. The very first issue was in March 1989. Our archives are a veritable treasure-trove of history about the development of NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS), the broader NASA Earth Science Research, Applications, and Flight programs, and related education and outreach activities. In the feature article on page 5 of the March-April 2018 issue, our Executive Editor takes us on a trip through The Earth Observer archives, no doubt stirring memories in readers who were part of these events. For all our readership, we hope that a better appreciation for the past helps inform our present and future endeavors. |
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Starting a New Year: The Jan - Feb 2018 Issue of The Earth Observer NewsletterNASA will commemorate the 60th anniversary of its establishment later this year (2018), with various milestones being celebrated throughout the year. For example, January 31, 2018, marked the 60th anniversary of the launch of Explorer 1, the first U.S. space satellite. The January-February issue of The Earth Observer newsletter highlights results from an assessment of missions in extended operations, provides a status on recently launched assets that build on heritage missions, and reports on the release of recommendations for the prioritization of Earth science observations in the coming decade. The issue also highlights NASA’s recent outreach activities at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, and summarizes recent science meetings and workshops such as the Interagency Workshop on Societal Applications of Satellite Data for Ocean Health and Fisheries. |
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GOES-16: The First in a New Generation of Geostationary SatellitesGOES-R is the latest NOAA–NASA GOES mission; it launched on November 19, 2016, and was renamed to GOES-16 after launch and on-orbit checks were complete. GOES-16 is the first in the GOES-R series, which includes GOES-R, -S, -T, and -U, that will launch between now and 2025, ushering in a new era of geosynchronous observing capabilities. The November-December 2017 issue of The Earth Observer includes a feature article about GOES-16, approximately one year after launch. The article introduces the GOES-16 satellite’s improvements, including spacecraft design, its manifest of advanced instruments, resultant data products, and anticipated societal benefits. |
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A Changing Earth at NightSatellite images of Earth at night—often referred to as “night lights”—have been a gee-whiz curiosity for the public and a tool for fundamental research for nearly 25 years. The map on the front of this poster shows the change in lighting intensity from 2012 to 2016. The map was created using two separate night lights datasets (from 2012 and 2016) derived using data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-NASA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite. The back of the poster explains how scientists use night lights data from VIIRS to study our planet at night. |
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2017 AGU Schedule of Events at the NASA BoothAre you traveling to New Orleans to attend the 2017 AGU Fall Meeting, held December 11-15, 2017? If so, please plan to visit the NASA Booth (#1645). Navigate the streets (or rues) of the NASA Booth and immerse yourself in science. Join us at the Inspiration Theatre for science stories, share a piece of your personal history involving NASA at NASA’s Living Timeline exhibit, and make new science connections while strolling down Avenues Interconnected, Impact, Innovation, and Inspiration. Please see the program for a full list of events. Learn something new, have fun, and discover together! |
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NASA Science 2018 Commemorative CalendarThe NASA Science 2018 Commemorative Calendar is now available online. |