The 2021 Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will measure water surface elevation, slopes, and inundations of rivers as narrow as 50 meters.
Hazards & Disasters
Posted inNews
Could Seismic Networks Reveal Hard-to-Detect Nuclear Tests?
In the age of monitoring nuclear weapons testing, existing regional seismic networks may be a key to discovering small, undetected explosions around the world.
Posted inNews
Brazil’s Oil Spill Is a Mystery, so Scientists Try Oil Forensics
Thousands of barrels of oil have been tarring Brazil’s beaches since September, and no one knows why. An oil spill scientist is running oil forensics to find out.
Posted inNews
California Launches Nation’s First Earthquake Early Warning System
The country’s first publicly available, statewide warning system could give California residents crucial seconds to duck and cover before a quake.
Posted inNews
Wildfire Smoke Traps Itself in Valleys
Simulations show how wildfire smoke increases atmospheric stability inside some valleys, creating a feedback loop that prevents its dispersion.
Posted inEditors' Vox
The Infrastructure Impacts of Solar Storms
A new book brings together insights from the space weather, geophysics, and power engineering communities to understand the characteristics and impacts of geomagnetically induced currents.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Earthquake Statistics Vary with Fault Size
A theoretical study explores why small earthquake sources can produce quasiperiodic sequences of identical events, whereas earthquakes on large faults are intrinsically more variable.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Space Weather Aviation Forecasting on a Global Scale
Under a new mandate, consortia of the world’s major space weather centers will disseminate new space-weather advisories for civil aviators representing a significant change-of-state for space weather.
Posted inNews
Deforestation Could Exacerbate Drought in the Amazon
Researchers use high-resolution satellite images to parse the effects of land use changes on the energy balance between the rain forest and the atmosphere.
Posted inScience Updates
Exposing Los Angeles’s Shaky Geologic Underbelly
Current calculations might underestimate the susceptibility of Los Angeles to earthquake shaking, so researchers and volunteers are deploying seismic networks near the city to remedy a data shortage.