From Jan. 19-22, 2026, a particularly strong X-class solar flare caused a geomagnetic storm in Earth’s atmosphere, with some of the most intense radiation storms on record. The cause was an eruption on the Sun’s surface, which released high-energy particles that reached Earth within 25 hours. ESA’s ice mission, CryoSat, had just received an important software update, enabling the mission

In a first, a space mission led by NASA and France tracked Earth’s rivers swelling and shrinking from month to month over the course of a year and found significantly less of a swing than previous model-based estimates. A record drought in the Amazon likely influenced the tally made by the Surface Water and Ocean

Each year, the world’s leading climate scientists evaluate the most critical evidence on how our planet is changing. Their assessments draw heavily on data from Earth-observing satellites—and the latest 10 New Insights in Climate Science report delivers a stark warning: the planet’s energy balance is drifting further out of alignment, oceans are warming at unprecedented rates, and the

In the wake of a winter storm that blanketed numerous U.S. states with snow and ice, unusually low temperatures gripped a large swath of the nation east of the Rockies in late January 2026. The cold spell was notable for severity, longevity and geographic scope.  This image compares surface air temperatures across part of the