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Cold War

Satellite image of Soviet airport in 1979
Posted inNews

Five Things Spy Satellites Have Taught Us About Earth

Jenessa Duncombe, Staff Writer by Jenessa Duncombe 6 July 202029 March 2023

Long before we had satellites beaming terabytes of data back to Earth, we had covert spacecraft the size of school buses snapping photos on rolls of film 50 kilometers long.

Black-and-white image of a nuclear bomb exploding from underwater
Posted inNews

Podcast: Paradise Lost

by Lauren Lipuma 6 April 202028 September 2021

Nuclear bomb tests conducted during the Cold War turned an idyllic tropical isle into a radioactive ship graveyard.

An aerial view of a nuclear explosion carried out in the Bikini Atoll in July 1946
Posted inNews

Bikini Seafloor Hides Evidence of Nuclear Explosions

by A. Heidt 27 December 20195 October 2021

Seafloor mapping has revealed a crater and several shipwrecks persisting 73 years after the world’s first underwater nuclear test.

Himalayan mountains taken from the Hexagon satellite
Posted inNews

Spy Satellite Reveals Accelerated Pace of Himalayan Glacier Melt

Jenessa Duncombe, Staff Writer by Jenessa Duncombe 19 June 20194 April 2023

Images taken covertly in the 1970s have taken on a new purpose in a recent glaciology study.

Operation Crossroads nuclear test Bikini Atoll
Posted inNews

Podcast: How the Cold War Drove Atmospheric Science

by Lauren Lipuma 16 January 201910 January 2022

In the first episode of a special series, AGU’s Third Pod from the Sun traces a path from nuclear fallout detectors to modern-day meteorology instruments.

Greenland-Ice-Sheet-melting-abandoned-hazardous-waste-Camp-Century
Posted inResearch Spotlights

Melting Ice Could Reveal Toxic Cold War Era Waste in Greenland

by Lauren Lipuma 7 September 201613 March 2023

Unforeseen political disputes could arise as countries assess who's responsible for the cleanup of the Cold War relics.

A view of a Washington, D.C., skyline from the Potomac River at night. The Lincoln Memorial (at left) and the Washington Monument (at right) are lit against a purple sky. Over the water of the Potomac appear the text “#AGU24 coverage from Eos.”

Features from AGU Publications

Research Spotlights

Scientists Reveal Hidden Heat and Flood Hazards Across Texas

16 May 202516 May 2025
Editors' Highlights

Revised Emissions Show Higher Cooling in 10th Century Eruption

16 May 202515 May 2025
Editors' Vox

Decoding Crop Evapotranspiration

6 May 20256 May 2025
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