Articles

Google's immersive experience, "A Passage of Water", uses satellite data to illustrate how climate change is affecting Earth’s water cycle.

NASA will share its Earth science data and knowhow at the 28th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28).

A new Space Act Agreement between NASA and Esri expands worldwide access to NASA's geospatial content for research and exploration — including new datasets from nearly 100 spaceborne sensors.

Our new NASA Water Portal is now live. The portal serves as a hub for building connections between our catalogs of Water Data Needs and Water Capabilities and our partners, including water managers, decision makers, and scientists.

After years of swinging extremes, state snowpack is at rare average of 110%, setting up good water savings account for year ahead.

A WWAO collaboration has published a new paper on how to use next-generation satellite snow data to improve seasonal water supply forecasts using machine learning.

Last month’s massive snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada followed a dry start to winter. Such extremes in precipitation may become the norm.

Using remote-sensing data and machine learning, a team from NASA and beyond finds that switching to lower-intensity crops can reduce water consumption in California’s Central Valley by 93%, but this requires adopting uncommon crop types.

Does the public sector need the private sector’s help to address the freshwater crisis? 

Resurrected for the first time in decades by an epic deluge of winter rain and snow, by spring the lake covered more than 100,000 acres, stretching over cotton, tomato and pistachio fields and miles of roads.

A potent storm pushed snowpack levels above normal across Colorado.

California's State Water Project has been focused on maximizing the capture and storage of water from this winter’s storms.

A long-term sea level dataset shows ocean surface heights continuing to rise at faster and faster rates over decades of observations.

This year’s theme, “Water for Peace,” encourages the world to focus not only on the conflicts, but also on how water can be at the center of peacebuilding.

Learn how to discover, access, and use Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission data and how these data could lead to new, innovative science and applications in the world of water.

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-Continuity mission will extend a decades-long record of following shifting water masses using gravity measurements.

While flood flows are dominated by water, debris flows are a slurry of a lot of things, including boulders. 

Without more cool places for migrating salmon to rest as they move through the river, these iconic species could go extinct in the Columbia in as little as two decades.

Seasonal flow variability is decreasing as climate change alters Earth’s systems, creating challenges for water management.

State-of-the-art helicopter-based technology and local coordination improve management of our underground water supply.

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite provides a new view of water on land, at the coast, and in the ocean.

Remote-sensing data is becoming crucial to solve some of the most important environmental problems, especially those related to agricultural applications and food security.

With better infrastructure and “spongy” green spaces, urban areas have made progress but should be soaking up way more free stormwater.

For more than 50 years, the National Hurricane Center has used the Saffir-Simpson Windscale to communicate the risk of property damage; it labels a hurricane on a scale from Category 1 to Category 5.

As the world looks for sustainable solutions, a system tapping into NASA satellite data for water management has passed a critical test.

Rapid declines are most common in aquifers under croplands in drier regions, including California, the most extensive analysis of groundwater trends so far shows.

Global temperatures last year were around 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) above the average for NASA’s baseline period (1951-1980).

Sea surface height data from the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission yields a mesmerizing view of the planet’s ocean.

About 40% of the world's population live within 100 km of the coast, and floods affect more people than any other type of natural disaster. NASA's floods toolkit offers easy access to NASA Earth data that can help scientists and decision makers understand floods, respond to them, and map their impact.

What can hidden motions underground tell us about groundwater, climate change, earthquakes and eruptions? NASA scientists are using data gathered 400 miles above Earth to find out.

Led by NASA and the French space agency CNES, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission will provide high-definition data on nearly all the water on our planet’s surface.

Bright blue water in the Caribbean Sea and smog in Northern India appear in the first worldwide image produced with data from NOAA-21’s VIIRS instrument, which began collecting Earth data in December. VIIRS offers global insight into our atmosphere, land, and oceans.

The upcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission will provide a trove of data on Earth’s water resources, even in remote locations. Alaska serves as a case study.

The 2022 National Water Use Data Workshop will focus on improving water-data management and sharing. The event is led by WWAO collaborators including the Western States Water Council Water Information Management Systems Group, U.S. Geological Survey, Interstate Council on Water Policy, and Internet of Water.

In seasons when water is scarce, tools powered by NASA data can help farmers decide where to allocate water and nutrients for irrigation and fertilizer.

WWAO is hosting a session at the American Meteorological Society's 102nd Annual Meeting in January 2022. We invite you to join our discussion on building water solutions that harness satellite data to address decision-maker needs.

WWAO is hosting a session at the 2021 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting this December. Part of the conference’s Science to Action track, our session looks at how to improve water management using satellite Earth observations. We invite you to join us.

For the second year in a row, drought has overtaken much of the U.S. from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast. Our Crop-CASMA soil moisture data portal, jointly developed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, reflects the dry times.

NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission is inviting the terrestrial-land community to provide insight into how PACE data products can be used.

Earth data are becoming more widely valued. For the first time, satellite data have been included in the World Health Organization’s guide on monitoring harmful algal blooms worldwide. The update draws directly from the Cyanobacteria Assessment Network, a multi-agency water project involving NASA.

Teams are heading out by land, water and air to collect data that will be used to forecast land gain and loss in the Mississippi River Delta as a result of sea level rise.

We have liftoff! NASA WWAO's new Soil Moisture Data System is operational and has been handed off to its partner, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as the project comes to a close.

In the face of a global pandemic, 2020 underscored the need for data to drive decision making. Improving the way we manage water is as critical as ever. WWAO’s Annual Report, now available, summarizes how we endeavored to move the needle in 2020.

WWAO's new soil moisture data portal - Crop-CASMA - is live. Crop-CASMA, which provides high-resolution, field-scale soil wetness from NASA satellites in an easy-to-use format, is a collaboration between NASA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and George Mason University.

WWAO is launching new water projects in the U.S. Columbia River Basin. As part of this effort, we’re looking for information on activities using NASA data or technology that could address key water issues in the region.

Rivers are among the most degraded ecosystems on Earth. The first map of river color from Landsat surface-reflectance data shows one third of U.S. rivers have changed color significantly over the last 35 years.

In mid-January, the U.S. Pacific Northwest was soaked by several episodes of heavy rainfall, leading to widespread flooding and landslides. NASA data show these rivers in the sky.

NASA is tracking the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our air, land, water and climate. The data have been collected in a free, openly-available online dashboard.

Launched three weeks ago, the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite has returned its first data and is surpassing expectations. The NASA-U.S.-European satellite will measure sea-level rise with unprecedented accuracy.

Floods are the most deadly and costly natural hazard. A NASA team is streamlining access to real-time satellite data so disaster managers can make informed decisions, faster.

NASA scientists Dalia Kirschbaum and Maggi Glascoe are using satellite data to pioneer improved landslide and flood alerting around the world.

NASA has accumulated 40 petabytes of Earth science data, twice as much as all of the information stored by the Library of Congress. In the next five years, that will grow to 250 PB. 11 new projects are launching to help manage, store and search these data.

Water managers need accurate, consistent and timely data. A new online platform called OpenET puts NASA data in the hands of farmers, water managers and conservation groups.

On the Navajo Nation, access to drinking water is limited. Over 40 percent of homes lack running water. The community is hit by frequent, pervasive drought. WWAO is developing a new drought tool that, with the help of satellite data, will enable Navajo water managers to hone in on drought severity and better manage the water they have.