Satellite-based optical sensors can detect, measure and monitor changes in lakes, reservoirs, rivers and wetlands, providing useful data with multiple applications for science and society.
remote sensing
Posted inEditors' Vox
The Challenges of Global Flood Hazard Mapping and Prediction
A new book presents the latest tools in remote sensing technologies and modeling approaches for addressing challenges and meeting future needs in global flood hazard mapping and prediction.
Posted inEditors' Vox
How Many Water Droplets Are in a Cloud?
The number of droplets in clouds affects how much of the Sun’s warming energy is reflected back to space. But how reliable are our attempts to count them?
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Refining Remote Sensing of Dissolved Organic Carbon in Waterways
Nearby vegetation affects the color of organic matter, a new study finds.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
New Strategies to Protect People from Smoke During Wildfires
Satellite measurements coupled with inexpensive air quality monitors could help protect humans from smoke particulates during wildfire events.
Posted inScience Updates
How Can We Find Out How Much Snow Is in the World?
In Colorado forests, NASA scientists and a multinational team of researchers test the limits of satellite remote sensing for measuring the water content of snow.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Magma Flow in a Major Icelandic Eruption
Mechanical modeling suggests that previous, undetected eruptions released tectonic stress near the ice-covered Bárðarbunga volcano.
Posted inScience Updates
NOAA Seeks Emerging Technologies to Further Its Mission
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Emerging Technologies for Observations Workshop; College Park, Maryland, 22–23 August 2017
Posted inResearch Spotlights
New Insights into Continental Deformation in Northwestern Tibet
A new surface velocity map shows strain localized along major strike-slip features, suggesting the central Tibetan Plateau is not deforming as a fluid in response to gravitational collapse.
Posted inNews
Satellite Data Archives Reveal Unrecorded Himalayan Floods
Almost 30 years’ worth of Landsat observations created a comprehensive inventory of catastrophic floods caused by glacial lakes bursting through their rock dams.