Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a remote sensing technique used to observe Earth’s surface and has applications in military operations, scientific research, agriculture, and more. Compared to in ...

Grove Karl Gilbert, circa 1910, when he was 68. One must imagine that the beard was reddish. Gilbert was 6 feet tall. The California group of friends with whom he explored the Sierras around this time ...

Scientists show small earthquakes caused by fracking near Guy-Greenbrier, Ark., in 2010 that could have been early indicators of high stress levels on larger faults deeper underground. To assess this ...

The Sun continuously blasts charged, magnetic field–carrying particles, or plasma, in all directions. This solar wind interacts with the magnetic fields and atmospheres of several of our solar ...

Frozen and snow-covered meltwater ponds appear more frequently on the diminishing Arctic sea ice. A new research consortium is searching for the reasons behind unusually rapid warming in the Arctic, ...

A satellite image of an atmospheric river over the northeastern Pacific on 20 February 2017, which helped California and the American West emerge from a 5-year drought. Atmospheric rivers—relatively ...

Seventy-five years ago, on 18–19 September 1941, the Earth experienced a great magnetic storm, one of the most intense ever recorded. It arrived at a poignant moment in history, when radio and ...

Plate tectonics just turned 50. The theory of how our planet’s lithosphere—its outer layer—changes shape and evolves is probably one of the most important scientific advancements of all time. Before ...

An aerial view of the Archipelago Sea, a coastal region of the Baltic. Beneath these seemingly pristine waters lies a coastal ecosystem in crisis due to low oxygen levels. Credit: Kari Mattila, ...

Popocatépetl looms over central Mexico, but local perception of risk from the volcano varies depending on factors such as age, proximity, and life experience. Credit: Russ Bowling/Flickr, CC BY 2.0 If ...

A fossil of an ichthyosaur, one of the free-swimming predators that emerged in the aftermath of the mass extinction at the boundary between the Permian and Triassic, roughly 252 million years ago. The ...

Seismic tomography imaging shows a portion of a “blob” that sits at the base of the mantle below Africa. Slow-wave velocity regions above the blob, including the cusp and branches, could indicate ...