NASA

New findings will help scientists predict climate change impact on frozen continent

Project utilized 25 years of data from six international satellite missions

UCI, South American glaciologists characterize protected region with new methods

Antarctica and Greenland are dotted with automated weather stations, 30-foot metal tubes equipped with sensors to record temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and other conditions. The outposts gather a lot of useful readings for scientists hoping to understand the transformation of polar environments brought on by climate change, but data formats vary from station to […]

UCI’s Frederick Reines Hall is home to happy astronomers after this week’s announcement of NASA’s selection of the new Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer mission. The two-year, $242 million SPHEREx is targeted to launch in 2023. Asantha Cooray, UCI professor of physics & astronomy, will head one […]

A study by scientists from UCI and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has revealed a gigantic cavity on the underside of Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica. The hole is reportedly two-thirds the area of Manhattan, about 1,000 feet tall and expanding. The findings were published today in Science Advances. The researchers expected to find gaps between […]

Enhanced monitoring tool adds groundwater storage to assessment factors

Melting polar ice is causing sea levels to rise around the world, but how much of an increase will the future bring, and where? These are the key questions to be addressed by Isabella Velicogna, UCI Earth system scientist, as a recently named member of NASA’s Sea Level Change Team. She and her research group […]

UCI-created high-resolution charts will inform future ice and sea level forecasts

Astronomers can learn a lot about planets outside our solar system, including whether they’re capable of supporting life, by studying their surface albedo, or reflectivity. Aomawa Shields, UCI Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Physics & Astronomy, recently won a grant from the NASA Habitable Worlds program to research this characteristic of planets orbiting relatively […]