NOAA

Baleen whales are among the biggest creatures ever to exist on earth. But they largely spend their lives eating tiny shrimplike creatures called krill, which they strain out of the ocean in huge mouthfuls. To power their huge bodies and planetary migrations, they need to eat millions upon millions of…

Lt. Timothy Holland, NOAA Corps, emerges from a balloon assembly station with an ozonesonde attached to a weather balloon before releasing it over the South Pole. Credit: Josiah Horneman, Station Physician's Assistant, Antarctic Support Contract The 2021 Antarctic ozone hole reached its maximum area on October 7 and ranks 13th…

Above-average temperatures are predicted across the South and most of the eastern U.S. this winter.The big Northeast snowstorms and blizzards – which can paralyze cities from Boston to Washington, D.C. – tend to be less common during La Niña winters.Drought conditions are forecast to persist and develop in the Southwest and Southern…

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a constellation of satellites orbiting the Earth approximately 11,000 miles in space. The GPS satellites in this animation are not drawn to scale. However, their orbits and orientation to the Earth are approximately correct. GPS satellites are organized into six different orbital paths completely…

Hurricane Sam, at its peak, was the most powerful storm so far this season. It topped out as a high-end Category 4 with maximum wind speeds around 155 mph, spending eight consecutive days as a major hurricane before finally beginning to weaken. It was the strongest hurricane ever observed so…

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has shared a dramatic high-quality video of Hurricane Sam as experienced while floating on the ocean’s surface. The video was captured by a ‘saildrone,’ which is a type of floating drone that resembles a sailboat, only with a bright orange coating and a large…

NASA has selected Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation of Boulder, Colorado and L3Harris Technologies Inc. of Fort Wayne, Indiana, for a Geostationary and Extended Observations (GeoXO) Sounder (GXS) Phase A Study contracts. The GXS Phase A Study requirement will provide services to help meet the objectives of the National Oceanic…

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The US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Office has announced 11 new five-year, cooperative ocean observing agreements. Those agreements support the continued growth, expansion, and modernization of the USA’s climate, coastal, ocean and Great Lakes observing capabilities. In the first year, NOAA will distribute US$41…

Home News A map of surface soil wetness in March 2021, with blue areas representing high moisture, and dark red areas representing exceptional drought. (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin) The ongoing drought in the U.S. Southwest is the worst drought the region has experienced since record keeping…