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August 30, 2018
NASA’s long-serving climate chief to retire next year
Earth is calling Michael Freilich.
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March 27, 2018
Winners And Losers In NASA's Budget For 2018 And Beyond
On March 21st, 2018, both branches of Congress passed the United States' Consolidated Appropriations Act, finalizing spending for the 2018 fiscal year.
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February 16, 2017
Earth Science on the Space Station Continues to Grow
The number of instruments on the International Space Station dedicated to observing Earth to increase our understanding of our home planet continues to grow.
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December 13, 2016
NASA Releases New Eye-Popping View of Carbon Dioxide
A new NASA supercomputer project builds on the agency's satellite measurements of carbon dioxide and combines them with a sophisticated Earth system model to provide one of the most realistic views yet of how this critical greenhouse gas moves through the atmosphere.
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November 1, 2016
New, Space-Based View of Human-Made Carbon Dioxide
Scientists have produced the first global maps of human emissions of carbon dioxide ever made solely from satellite observations of the greenhouse gas.
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April 26, 2016
Carbon dioxide fertilization greening Earth, study finds
From a quarter to half of Earth's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a new study.
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January 7, 2016
A carbon sink that can't be filled
Forests can store as much as 45 percent of the world's terrestrial carbon, making them a critical part of the process of regulating climate change.
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January 4, 2016
Melting of massive ice 'lid' resulted in huge release of carbon dioxide at the end of the ice age Date:
A new study of how the structure of the ocean has changed since the end of the last ice age suggest that the melting of a vast 'lid' of sea ice caused the release of huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
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December 7, 2015
Warm nights could flood the atmosphere with carbon under climate change
A new study suggests that hotter nights may wield more influence than previously thought over the planet's atmosphere as global temperatures rise -- and could eventually lead to more carbon flooding the atmosphere.
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November 12, 2015
As Earth Warms, NASA Targets 'Other Half' of Carbon, Climate Equation
Carbon dioxide from wildfires and urban sources blankets the Northern Hemisphere. Credit: NASA/GSFC/GMAO
Watching the planet breathe
When plants photosynthesize, they use energy from sunlight to turn carbon dioxide from the air into sugars used to live and grow. In doing so, they give off a fluorescent light — a glow that can’t be seen with the naked eye, but that can be seen with the right instruments. More photosynthesis translates into more fluorescence, meaning that the plants are very productive in taking up carbon dioxide. The amount of carbon dioxide taken up by plants is called “gross primary productivity,” and is the largest part of the global carbon cycle.