Today, top appropriators in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives released a three-bill appropriations package for fiscal year 2026 (FY26) that largely rejects drastic cuts to federal science budgets that President Trump proposed last year.
satellites
Posted inFeatures
Satellite Radar Advances Could Transform Global Snow Monitoring
The recent SnowEx campaign and the new NISAR satellite mission are lighting the way to high-resolution snowpack monitoring and improved decisionmaking in critical river basins around the world.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Climate Variations in Tropical Oceans Drive Primarily Extreme Events
Severe droughts and floods are primarily driven by climate variations in tropical oceans, with interannual and decadal patterns playing key roles.
Posted inResearch & Developments
Global Methane Emissions Projected to Fall, According to United Nations Report
The world has made significant progress on methane mitigation since 2020, though meeting the goals of a major international pledge will require additional action, according to a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Understanding Relative Atmospheric Roles of Anvil and In-situ Cirrus Clouds
New framework for separating anvil and in-situ cirrus clouds provides a pathway for modeling cirrus and how regional shifts in convection could reshape global cirrus distributions and their radiative impact.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Taking Carbon Science Out of Orbit
NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite reveals an impressively dynamic picture of the Earth’s carbon cycle, yet it may be prematurely decommissioned and destroyed due to budget cuts.
Posted inNews
A Weak Spot in Earth’s Magnetic Field Is Going from Bad to Worse
This could be bad news for satellites and spacefarers.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Space Weather Monitoring from Commercial Satellite Mega-Constellations
Enabling unprecedented monitoring of key electric current systems in low-Earth orbit using commercial satellite mega-constellations advances space weather monitoring.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Serendipity in Space: NASA’s Eye in the Sky
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission, proposed for early termination, has turned out to be a boon to forest and agricultural management.
Posted inOpinions
A Better Way to Monitor Greenhouse Gases
A unified, global observing system could more effectively monitor progress in reducing emissions and accelerate climate action through improved data and decision support.