Short-term funding strategies present serious problems for programs like solar activity studies, where observations and analysis span decades or longer.
Hazards & Disasters
Drone Peers into Open Volcanic Vents
An unmanned aerial vehicle provided the high-resolution data that allowed scientists to construct their first detailed map of erupting vents at Stromboli, one of the world’s most active volcanoes.
California Floods Linked to Atmospheric Water Vapor “Rivers”
Narrow atmospheric streams of water vapor that deliver heavy rains are more commonly associated with floods and debris flows in northern California than with flash floods in southern California.
A New Baseline to Monitor Earth’s Dynamic Surface
Researchers devise a new mathematical approach to combine space- and ground-based observations into an alternative reference frame for monitoring the changing positions of Earth’s features.
Giant Snails’ Century-Old Shells Recorded Monsoon Rainfall
Researchers explored past precipitation in India using shells from very large land snails collected there in 1918 and preserved in a British museum.
Unprecedented Hurricane Season Sees Widespread Damage
This hurricane season has broken multiple records already.
Faults off Alaska Look Akin to Those Behind 2011 Japan Disaster
In a seismically quiet segment of Alaska’s subduction zone lie faults with structures similar to those of the system that caused the deadly Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
NASA Fleet Helps Predict Space Weather
Using 8 years of data collected via spacecraft, scientists produce hindcasts of plasma eruptions from the Sun. These will help improve forecasts.
Quiet Volcanic Activity Changes Speed of Ambient Seismic Waves
Seismic data collected continuously for 4 years could improve understanding of geological structures that underlie Japan’s Izu Oshima volcanic island.
Caribbean Sediment Traced to 1755 Portuguese Quake and Tsunami
Archaeologists digging in Martinique chanced upon the first tsunami deposit from the earthquake found in the New World. The tsunami left a strong trace, it seems, because the wave went up a river.
