Tiny CubeSat satellites made of one or more cube-like modules roughly the size of coffee mugs offer a compact and inexpensive way to conduct research and other activities in space.
satellites
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Predicting Space Weather on a Satellite Superhighway
Scientists combined 82 satellite years of data to create a more comprehensive model of how plasma behaves in a region of Earth's magnetosphere with heavy spacecraft traffic.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Hacking a Climate Satellite to See Beneath the Ocean's Surface
When NASA launched its CALIPSO spacecraft, the space agency did not intend to estimate phytoplankton populations.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
New Insights into Currents in Earth's Magnetic Field
Multisatellite missions give scientists a more complete view of the intense currents that bounce back and forth along our planet's magnetic field lines.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Do All These Weather Satellites Really Improve Forecasts?
A team of researchers put an array of space- and ground-based weather instruments to the test and found that the common weather balloon is irreplaceable for forecasting rainfall.
Posted inScience Updates
Changing of the Guard: Satellite Will Warn Earth of Solar Storms
This summer, Earth gets a new guardian—the Deep Space Climate Observatory—to help warn astronauts and operators of critical planetary infrastructure about the Sun's raging magnetic storms.
Posted inScience Updates
Earthquake Monitoring Gets Boost from New Satellite
Europe's Sentinel-1A spacecraft and its extraordinary images of slip from the South Napa earthquake herald a new era of space-based surveillance of faults.
Posted inScience Updates
Rapid Coordination Extends Space-Based Sun-Climate Record
Faced with the prospect of a large data gap in solar irradiance records, scientists take steps to ensure that this key climate variable stays monitored.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Role of Lunar Atmospheric Tides in Thermosphere Density
Researchers explored how lunar gravity affects the density of the thermosphere. The study could help improve the accuracy of satellite orbit predictions.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Identifying Biases in Satellite Temperature and Humidity Records
Researchers estimated the sampling biases that affect temperature and humidity climatologies derived from detectors on NASA’s Aqua satellite.