• A full year of life on Earth as seen 1.6 million km away

    On July 20, 2015, NASA released to the world the first image of the sunlit side of Earth captured by EPIC camera on NOAA's DSCOVR satellite. The camera has now recorded a full year of life on Earth from its orbit at Lagrange point 1, approximately 1.6 million km…

  • Extreme heat triggers heavy thunderstorms, UK

    Colloquially, British summer is described as three nice days then a thunderstorm. It proved so again this week when the UK's hottest day of the year, July 19 (33.5 °C / 92.3 °F in Brize Norton, Oxfordshire), ended in heavy thundery weather in the…

  • Beijing sinking more than 10 cm (4 inches) per year, China

    According to a new study published in MDPI's open access journal Remote Sensing, the maximum subsidence in parts of China's Bejing is greater than 100 mm (4 inches) per year. Beijing is one of the most water-stressed cities in the world. Due to…

  • Thunderstorms spark new wildfires in southeastern Siberia, Russia

    Large wildfires are raging in Russia's Krasnoyarsk province since June 28, 2016. Most of them were sparked by recent thunderstorms, the initial investigation revealed. Satellite observations also confirm new wildfires near Lake Baikal, Irkutsk province. As of…

  • Unreported sources of sulfur dioxide found by satellites

    Using a new satellite-based method, scientists have located 75 natural and 39 unreported and major manmade sources of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. When released into the atmosphere, sulfur dioxide forms sulfuric acid and fine particulate matter, secondary…

  • Lake Mead reaches record low for the second year in a row, US

    The surface level of Lake Mead at the Hoover Dam stood at 327.36 m (1 074.03 feet) above sea level on May 25, 2016. The last time it was this low was in 1937, when water managers were still filling the reservoir and putting finishing touches on the Hoover Dam. The…