Topic: NASA’s Langley Research Center

NASA’s SAGE III to monitor the Earth’s fragile Ozone Layer

March 30, 2013 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science at NASA

Washington, D.C. – Ozone stinks. People who breathe it gag as their lungs burn. The EPA classifies ground-level ozone as air pollution.

Yet without it, life on Earth would be impossible.

A fragile layer of ozone 25 km above Earth’s surface is all that stands between us and some of the harshest UV rays from the sun. The ozone molecule O3 blocks radiation which would otherwise burn skin and cause cancer.

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NASA’s Aeronautics Research benefits those flying this Holiday weekend

December 23, 2012 |

Written by Jim Banke
NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

Washington, D.C. – Traveling by air this holiday season, or any time of year? If so then you’ll be in the company of millions who are directly benefiting from the ongoing research performed by NASA’s aeronautical innovators now, and in the future.

During 2012, NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate continued a wide range of research projects aimed at advancing the science of flight.

NASA-developed technology is onboard nearly every commercial aircraft flying today or in use at every major airport. (Image credit: NASA)

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NASA study shows Climate change likely hotter than current Projections

November 12, 2012 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – A new NASA-funded study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, finds climate model projections that show a greater rise in global temperature are likely to prove more accurate than those showing a lesser rise.

The findings, published today in the journal Science, could provide a breakthrough in the longstanding quest to narrow the range of global warming expected in coming decades and beyond.

Scientists used observations from two NASA satellite instruments, including relative humidity data similar to these, from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua spacecraft, to analyze how well leading global climate models reproduce observed relative humidity in Earth’s tropics and subtropics. The AIRS surface relative humidity data shown here are representative only and are not from the study. Areas shown in reds and yellows are the driest; blue areas the moistest. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA Aeronautics Research Mission: New Ideas Sharpen Focus for Greener Aircraft

January 31, 2012 |

Written by Kathy Barnstorff
NASA Langley Research Center

Hampton, VA – Leaner, greener flying machines for the year 2025 are on the drawing boards of three industry teams under contract to the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate’s Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project.

Teams from The Boeing Company in Huntington Beach, CA, Lockheed Martin in Palmdale, CA, and Northrop Grumman in El Segundo, CA, have spent the last year studying how to meet NASA goals to develop technology that would allow future aircraft to burn 50 percent less fuel than aircraft that entered service in 1998 (the baseline for the study), with 75 percent fewer harmful emissions; and to shrink the size of geographic areas affected by objectionable airport noise by 83 percent.

Three proposed aircraft designs have varying levels of success in meeting tough NASA goals for reducing fuel use, emissions and noise all at the same time. (Image credit: NASA)

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NASA Study Solves Case of Earth’s ‘Missing Energy’

January 29, 2012 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Two years ago, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO, released a study claiming that inconsistencies between satellite observations of Earth’s heat and measurements of ocean heating amounted to evidence of “missing energy” in the planet’s system.

Where was it going? Or, they wondered, was something wrong with the way researchers tracked energy as it was absorbed from the sun and emitted back into space?

An international team of atmospheric scientists and oceanographers, led by Norman Loeb of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA, and including Graeme Stephens of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, set out to investigate the mystery.

Clouds play a vital role in Earth's energy balance, cooling or warming Earth's surface depending on their type. This painting, "Cumulus Congestus," by JPL's Graeme Stephens, principal investigator of NASA's CloudSat mission, depicts cumulus clouds, which transport energy away from Earth's surface. (Image credit: Graeme Stephens)

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NASA Develops New Game-Changing Technology

November 26, 2011 |

Written by Priscilla Vega
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Two NASA California centers have been selected to develop new space-aged technologies that could be game-changers in the way we look at planets from above and how we safely transport robots or humans through space and bring them safely back to Earth.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, will use advanced compound semiconductor materials to develop new technologies for the High Operating Temperature Infrared Sensor Demonstration. The higher the temperature at which an infrared detector can operate, the less power is required to cool it.

This picture shows three High Operating Temperature Infrared Sensors, mounted on leadless chip carriers. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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