Image of The Day

Water Touches Everything

The ocean holds about 97 percent of Earth’s water and covers 70 percent of our planet’s surface. According to the United Nations, the ocean may be home to 50 to 80 percent of all life on Earth. Even if you live hundreds of miles from a coast, what happens in the ocean is fundamental to your life.

Browse NASA Image Archive

Scientists unveil new discoveries about Gamma-ray flashes coming from thunderstorms

SAN FRANCISCO—A slew of new discoveries about the mysterious gamma ray flashes that come from Earth’s thunderclouds are being unveiled in presentations at AGU’s 2019 Fall Meeting and in three new studies being published today.

ASIM data becomes available for lightning researchers

Data on lightning phenomena in Space near Earth captured by the Danish Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM), on board the International Space Station (ISS), have now been made available to researchers across the globe.

Hans Christian Ørsted Research Award 2019 goes to DTU space scientist

Lightning scientist Torsten Neubert receives the Hans Christian Ørsted Research Award for his contribution to an understanding of how giant lightning bolts are created in space.

Space-station cameras reveal how thunderstorms trigger gamma-ray bursts

Nature article: Mysterious electrical flashes above storm clouds have long puzzled scientists. “This is a game changer,” says Nikolai Østgaard, a space physicist at the University of Bergen in Norway. He described the findings in a pair of talks at the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics meeting in Montreal, Canada, on 9 and 12 July. Picture: NASA/JSC

How do thunderstorms affect the Earth’s climate?

The Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) was launched last April in an effort to study severe thunderstorms. Just a year later, the observation facility is already providing scientists with a better understanding of the role that thunderstorms play in the Earth’s atmosphere and climate and how lightning is created. Picture: Earth.com

Fireworks of blue lightning and gamma-rays above thunderclouds

After only one year in space, the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) on the International Space Station has given researchers a new understanding of how lightning is created, and how thunderstorms can affect the atmosphere and the climate. Picture: ESA/NASA

New knowledge about giant lightning bolts in space

Measurements from the large ASIM space project shows a firework of blue lightning and X-ray radiation above thunderclouds. After one year in space, the ASIM (Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor) observatory on the International Space Station (ISS) has given researchers from Denmark’s Technical University (DTU) a new and better understanding of how lightning is created, and how thunderstorms can affect the stratosphere and the climate. Picture: ESA

The Science Circling Above Us on the International Space Station

The International Space Station orbits Earth, 400 km above our heads, running scientific experiments that cannot be done anywhere else. Read on for our bi-weekly update on European science in space. Picture: ESA

ASIM observatory captures first giant lightning

DTU scientists have analysed the first amazing images of a violent thunderstorm over the Earth captured by the ASIM observatory at the International Space Station. Picture: ESA/DTU Space