Remote Sensing Archives

a, Sub-ice topography, corrected for isostatic rebound due to ice removal3, with sharp topographic features enhanced by nonlinear filtering (Methods). The light grey lines are detected topographic lineaments interpreted as longitudinal normal faults forming the structural edges of the basins. The magenta and cyan lines represent detected topographic lineaments interpreted as either transverse strike–slip faults or associated normal faults that characterize the two circular shear belts shown in b (that is, the southern and northern TSCBs).

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ice Planet Recon: Giant Fan-shaped Geological Structure Discovered Beneath East Antarctica

by Keith CowingJune 9, 2026June 26, 2026

Editor’s note: there are currently two advanced missions heading for the jovian system – Europa Clipper and ESA Juice – to study icy Europa and the other icy worlds orbiting […]

ID: ESP_076995_1735 date: 29 December 2022 altitude: 265 km NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona larger image

Astrogeology, Desert Worlds, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Status Report

River Delta Deposits In Aeolis Dorsa On Mars

by Keith CowingMay 27, 2026June 26, 2026

Branching deposits in this area have been shown to be consistent with river deltas. Measurements of channel-belt width and thicknesses of river deltas on Earth point to relationships between width, […]

Density scatter plots comparing estimated versus observed OCO-2 and OCO-3 XCO₂ concentrations for the Stage-1 baseline model (left) and the Stage-2 full Goes model (right). The color gradient denotes local data point density, with warmer colors (yellow/green) indicating regions of higher data concentration. In each panel, the dashed gray line represents the 1:1 line of perfect agreement. -- physics.ao-ph

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Status Report

Quantification Of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide From The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES East)

by Keith CowingMay 27, 2026May 27, 2026

Editor’s note: One way to search for habitable – and possibly inhabited – worlds in our solar system and in other star systems is to examine planetary atmospheres for chemical […]

Part of the rugged and deeply indented coast of northeastern Greenland is featured in this radar image captured by Copernicus Sentinel-1. CREDIT contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2026), processed by ESA LICENCE CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO or ESA Standard Licence (content can be used under either licence) Larger image

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Press Release

Ice Planet Orbital Recon: Greenland’s Changing Ice

by Keith CowingMay 14, 2026May 14, 2026

Greenland is the world’s largest island and about 80% of its surface is covered by the Greenland Ice Sheet, the second largest ice mass on Earth after the Antarctic Ice […]

Comparison of (left) absolute and (right) normalized mineral and artificial reflectance spectra with the photosynthetic red edge. Spectra on the right were vectornormalized here to facilitate visualization of spectral features rather than overall reflectance. All spectra were also subjected to Gaussian smoothing with standard deviation 3. (a) sulfide mineral spectra from Table 1 (database source: stibnite, ECOSTRESS | chalcopyrite, ECOSTRESS | cinnabar, USGS | realgar, ECOSTRESS) alongside the green leaf spectrum used to model the VRE/PRE; (b) silicate mineral spectra from Table 1 (database source: lazurite, USGS | sodalite, ECOSTRESS | zircon, ECOSTRESS | nontronite, ECOSTRESS) -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Mineral False Positives in the Search for Exoplanet Surface Biosignatures

by Keith CowingMay 13, 2026May 13, 2026

In the search for life in the cosmos, biopigments on exoplanet surfaces are a critical target.

Bright milky blue ribbons of water are visible along the coast along with patches of brown and green in some areas. Colorful waters swirl off the Mid-Atlantic coast in an image captured by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA's Aqua satellite on May 3, 2026. NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison Larger image

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Microbiology & Virology, Plant Biology, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Orbital Biosignature Assay: Phytoplankton Bloom Off The U.S. Mid-Atlantic Coast

by Keith CowingMay 13, 2026May 13, 2026

Editor’s note: As we begin to study worlds in our own solar system that might have life we use our home world as a testbed for the various ways to […]

One-month snapshots of the 2-D distribution in terrestrial coordinate of the oxygen emission in (a) May and (b) December 2025. The measured emission is averaged over 31 days in latitude and longitude bins of 5-degree bin width. The corresponding absolute SZA is plotted in (c) and (d), with the color limit reversed to denote lighter color means closer pointing to the Sun. A movie showing the month-by-month evolution of the oxygen emission and solar zenith angle is available online. -- physics.ao-ph

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report

Observations Of Atmospheric Helium And Oxygen With SPHEREx

by Keith CowingMay 6, 2026May 6, 2026

We present measurements of near-infrared (NIR) terrestrial airglow produced by helium and oxygen in the exosphere as observed by SPHEREx. Using eight months of survey data obtained from a 680 […]

Silhouetted against the blue sky, a drone carrying a ground-penetrating radar instrument lifts off from Galena Creek Rock Glacier in Wyoming. -- Jack W. Holt

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Cryobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release

Drone Radar Reveals Buried Glaciers On Earth, Guiding The Search For Water On Mars

by Keith CowingMay 1, 2026May 1, 2026

Understanding how to explore hidden glaciers on Mars begins not in a laboratory, but in remote field camps across Alaska and Wyoming.

South Korea’s GEO-KOMPSAT-2A satellite captured Super Typhoon Sinlaku from orbit. - JAXA/NOAA

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Habitable Planet Orbital Recon: GEO-KOMPSAT-2A Views Super Typhoon Sinlak

by Keith CowingApril 28, 2026April 29, 2026

The image on the left is in TrueColor. The image on the right shows water vapor imagery.

A patch of Mars imaged by NASA's Viking orbiters in 1976 (left) and ESA's Mars Express orbiter in 2024 (right). The white box outlines a region captured in detail by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA's Mars Express mission in 2024. Larger image -- ESA

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Desert Worlds, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Press Release

Volcanic Ash Creeps Across Mars – The View From Orbit

by Keith CowingApril 16, 2026April 16, 2026

Noticeable change on Mars often takes millions of years – but the European Space Agency’s Mars Express has captured a blanket of dark ash creeping across the planet in just […]

Remote Sensing

Ice Planet Recon: Giant Fan-shaped Geological Structure Discovered Beneath East Antarctica

River Delta Deposits In Aeolis Dorsa On Mars

Quantification Of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide From The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES East)

Ice Planet Orbital Recon: Greenland’s Changing Ice

Mineral False Positives in the Search for Exoplanet Surface Biosignatures

Observations Of Atmospheric Helium And Oxygen With SPHEREx

Drone Radar Reveals Buried Glaciers On Earth, Guiding The Search For Water On Mars

Habitable Planet Orbital Recon: GEO-KOMPSAT-2A Views Super Typhoon Sinlak

Volcanic Ash Creeps Across Mars – The View From Orbit

Rethinking The Origin Of Life At Seafloor Hydrothermal Vents

Proto-Biosignatures and Planetary Geochemical Metabolism: A Thermodynamic Screening Model of Prebiotic Geochemical Organization

Cultivation Of Halophilic Archaea In Shallow Subsurface Martian Conditions Has Implications For Extant Life On Mars

Roman Space Telescope Leaves Earth

Atmospheric Retrieval of Combined JWST, HST, and Ground-Based Observations Reveals a Featureless Transmission Spectrum for GJ 1132 b