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A new approach to fighting wildfires combines local knowledge and AI

Land managers in the western United States are using potential operational delineations, or PODS, to prepare for — and take advantage of — wildfires.

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Teachable Moments | April 22, 2024

Tracking tiny movements means big impacts for earth science.

By Brandon Rodriguez

Find out how the upcoming NISAR mission, an Earth satellite designed to capture detailed views of our planet's changing surface, will provide new insights into everything from natural disasters to climate change. Plus, connect it all to STEM learning.

The next addition to NASA’s fleet of Earth Science orbiters is launching in 2024 and will represent a monumental leap forward in how we monitor our changing planet. The NISAR mission is a collaboration between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation that’s designed to monitor and study tiny movements of Earth’s surface from events like natural disasters and climate change.

Read on to find out how NISAR is pushing the boundaries of Earth science from space. Plus, learn how you can bring science and engineering from the mission to your students.

How NISAR Works

What the nisar mission will show us, follow along with nisar, teach earth science with nisar, explore more.

NISAR is among the most advanced radar systems on an Earth science mission to date due to its supersized antenna reflector, use of synthetic aperture radar, and ability to observe Earth in two different radar frequencies simultaneously.

Hear mission experts describe how the NISAR satellite will track our changing Earth in fine detail. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Extending above the spacecraft like a giant catcher's mitt, NISAR’s antenna reflector is 39 feet (12 meters) wide – the largest ever launched as part of a NASA Earth-observing mission. This antenna creates an observational window, or swath, of the surface beneath the spacecraft that is 150 miles (242 kilometers) wide. The swath size is determined by the radar wavelength and antenna size, which is important because there is a direct relationship between antenna size and the resolution of images and data that can be captured by NISAR.

NISAR's antenna reflector extends above the spacecraft like a catcher's mitt and is engineered to help the mission get an unprecedented view of Earth's surface. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | + Expand image

We typically want the best resolution possible, but we’re limited by the size of the antenna we can build and deploy in space. Conventionally, the resolution on a satellite is a function of the wavelength it uses and the size of the antenna. The larger the wavelength, the bigger the antenna needs to be to get quality images. At typical radar wavelengths, with a 12 meter diameter reflector, the best achievable resolution would be as coarse as 10s of kilometers, which is not very useful for observing features on Earth at the human scale.

This diagram shows how synthetic aperature radar works by sending multiple radar pulses to an area on the ground from an antenna passing overhead. Credit: NASA | + Expand image

This is why NISAR utilizes an approach called synthetic aperture radar , or SAR, to synthetically magnify the resolution achievable from the antenna. With SAR, the spacecraft sends multiple signals, or pulses, to an area as it flies overhead. Each signal gets reflected back to the spacecraft, which is meticulously designed to “catch” the reflected signals thanks to its position and velocity. Each signal in the sequence is then focused into a single high-resolution image, creating an effect as if the spacecraft is using a much larger antenna.

Radar uses radio wavelengths, which are longer than those of visible light, allowing us to see through clouds and sometimes even tree coverage to the ground below, depending on the frequency of the radio waves. We’re also able to interpret a lot of information about the surface from the way the signal returns back to the orbiter. This is because NISAR will measure the amount of scatter, or dispersion, of the signal as compared to when it was originally transmitted.

For example, a rigid, sharp angled building will bounce the signal back to the receiver differently than a leafy tree. Different radio frequencies are better used for different surfaces because they are influenced by the type of surface being analyzed. To this end, NISAR is the first mission to use two different radar frequencies simultaneously. The L-Band can be used to monitor heavier vegetation and landscapes while the S-Band is better tuned for lighter vegetation and crop growth. The two wavelengths in general extend the range of sensitivity of the measurement to smaller and larger changes.

This combination of tools and features will allow NISAR to construct global maps of changes in the position of any given pixel at a scale of just centimeters as well as subtle changes in reflectivity due to land cover changes on all land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days. The resolution combined with repetition will allow scientists to monitor the changes taking place on our planet in a matter of days more comprehensively than ever before.

This satellite image of New Orleans is overlaid with synthetic aperature radar data from the UAVSAR instrument to show the rate at which the land was sinking in a section of New Orleans from June 2009 to July 2012. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, Esri | › Learn more

This video made using data captured via synthetic aperture radar shows how the Los Angeles Basin responds to seasonal changes in groundwater and to the influence of local faults. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | + Expand image

Because of the massive amount of data produced by NISAR, we’ll be able to closely monitor the impacts of environmental events including earthquakes, landslides, and ice-sheet collapses. Data from NISAR could even be used to assess the risk of natural hazards.

Scientists can use NISAR to monitor tiny movements in Earth’s surface in areas prone to volcanic eruptions or landslides. These measurements are constructed using what’s called an interferogram , which looks at how the maps generated for each pass of the spacecraft have changed over time. For example, we could see immediate changes to the topography after an earthquake with an interferogram made from images NISAR collected shortly before and soon after the event.

Using interferometry, as shown in this diagram, NISAR can capture changes or deformation in land surfaces, such as after an earthquake. | + Expand image

By tracking and recording these events and other movements on the surface leading up to natural disasters, it may be possible to identify warning signs that can improve detection and disaster response.

The first two images in this series were captured by the UAVSAR instrument during two separate passes over California's San Andreas Fault about a year apart. The two images were then combined to create the third image, which an interferogram that shows how the surface changed between the two passes of the instrument. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | + Expand image

And NISAR isn’t just limited to studying the solid Earth. As missions prior have done, it will also be able to generate maps of polar ice sheets over time and detect changes in permafrost based on the regional movement of the soil below. These measurements will give climate scientists a clear picture of how much the ice is moving and deforming due to climate change and where it is thawing as the ground warms.

Additionally, NISAR can track land usage, deforestation, sea levels, and crustal deformation, informing scientists about the impacts of environmental and climate change on Earth.

NISAR is scheduled to launch in 2024 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, and will enter a polar orbit 460 miles (747 kilometers) above Earth. For the first 90 days after launch, the spacecraft will undergo checks and commissioning before beginning scientific observations for a primary mission designed to last three years.

Science from the mission will be downlinked to both NASA and ISRO ground stations below with data and the tools to process it freely available for download and use to all professional and citizen scientists.

Visit NASA’s NISAR mission page for the latest updates about the mission.

With the launch of NISAR, we will be better able to monitor and mitigate natural disasters and understand the effects of climate change. Bring the fleet of NASA Earth Science missions to your classroom with the following lessons and activities:

Orbit Observation: A ‘Pi in the Sky’ Math Challenge

In this illustrated math problem, students use the mathematical constant pi to figure out how much data the NISAR spacecraft collects every day.

Subject Math

Grades 7-12

Time Less than 30 mins

Modeling Crustal Folds

Students use playdough to model how Earth’s crust is bent and folded by tectonic plates over geologic time.

Subject Science

Grades 6-12

Time 30-60 mins

Making Topographic Maps

Students draw and interpret topographic maps while learning about technology used to map Earth's surface, the seafloor, and other worlds.

Time 1-2 hrs

Using Light to Study Planets

Students build a spectrometer using basic materials as a model for how NASA uses spectroscopy to determine the nature of elements found on Earth and other planets.

Grades 6-11

Time 2+ hrs

Modeling the Water Budget

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Fired Up Over Math: Studying Wildfires from Space

Students learn how scientists assess wildfires using remote sensing and solve related math problems, appropriate for various grade levels.

Grades 3-12

Earth Science Data Visualizations – How to Read a Heat Map

Students learn to read, interpret and compare “heat map” representations of Earth science data.

Grades 4-12

Lessons in Sea-Level Rise

What is sea-level rise and how does it affect us?

Grades 5-12

Earth Science Lesson Collection

Discover a collection of standards-aligned STEM lessons all about Earth and climate change.

Climate Change Lesson Collection

Explore a collection of standards-aligned STEM lessons for students that get them investigating climate change along with NASA.

Student Projects and Activities

Exploring Earth Activities Collection

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Climate Change Activities Collection

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Teachable Moments in Climate Change

Explore this collection of Teachable Moments articles to get a primer on the latest NASA Earth science missions, plus find related education resources you can deploy right away!

Earth Minute Video Series

This series of animated white-board videos for students of all ages explains key concepts about Earth science, missions, and climate change.

Monitoring Earth from Space

In this educational talk, NASA experts discuss how we build spacecraft to study climate, then answer audience questions.

• NISAR Mission
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Facts & Figures

• NISAR Science Handbook (PDF)
• Interactive: NASA Eyes on Earth
• Images: NASA Earth Observatory
• Gallery: Images of Climate Change
• Infographic: Sea Level Rise

TAGS: K-12 Education , Resources , Earth Science , Climate Change , NISAR

Brandon Rodriguez , Educator Professional Development Specialist, NASA-JPL Education Office

Brandon Rodriguez is the educator professional development specialist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Outside of promoting STEM education, he enjoys reading philosophy, travel and speaking to your dog like it's a person.

Researchers introduce new way to study, help prevent landslides

Landslides are one of the most destructive natural disasters on the planet, causing billions of dollars of damage and devastating loss of life every year. By introducing a new paradigm for studying landslide shapes and failure types, a global team of researchers has provided help for those who work to predict landslides and risk evaluations.

Rochester Institute of Technology Ph.D. student Kamal Rana (imaging science) was a lead author on a paper recently published in Nature Communications announcing the research, along with co-author Nishant Malik, assistant professor in RIT's School of Mathematics and Statistics. Kushanav Bhuyan, from the University of Padova and Machine Intelligence and Slope Stability Laboratory, was also a lead co-author.

Current predictive models rely on databases that do not generally include information on the type of failure of mapped landslides. By using the aerial view and elevation data of landslide sites combined with machine learning, the researchers were able to achieve 80-94 percent accuracy in identifying landslide movements in diverse locations around the world. Specifically, the study introduces a method of examining slides, flows, and fails, finding distinct patterns.

Researchers studied landslides around the world, like the 2008 disaster in Beichuan, China, to develop a new paradigm to understand their movements and failure types.

"Our algorithm is not predicting landslides," explained Malik. "But the people who are in the business of predicting landslides need to know more information about them, like what caused them and what mechanisms they were."

Various locations were studied, including Italy, the United States, Denmark, Turkey, and China. The wide array of countries helped confirm the strength of the findings, since they can be successfully utilized in diverse regions and climates.

"It was quite exhilarating when we saw the success numbers," said Bhuyan. "We got the results, which are really good, but we need to be able to connect this to reality."

The real-world application of this research has a personal impact for Rana, who is from the Himalayan region of India.

"I have seen so many cases when landslides have occurred," said Rana. "The roads are blocked for two or three weeks. There is no communication from the cities to the villages. It blocks people from going to their jobs or students going to school."

The hope is that this deeper understanding of failure movements will help those who work to predict deadly events and enhance the accuracy and reliability of hazard and risk assessment models, which will help save lives and reduce damage.

Along with Rana, Bhuyan, and Malik, co-authors of the paper include Joaquin V. Ferrer, Fabrice Cotton, and Ugur Ozturk from the University of Potsdam, and Filippo Catani from the University of Padova.

• Natural Disasters
• Earth Science
• Cyclone Gafilo
• Hurricane Agnes
• List of disasters
• Hurricane Katrina

Story Source:

Materials provided by Rochester Institute of Technology . Original written by Mollie Radzinski. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Kushanav Bhuyan, Kamal Rana, Joaquin V. Ferrer, Fabrice Cotton, Ugur Ozturk, Filippo Catani, Nishant Malik. Landslide topology uncovers failure movements . Nature Communications , 2024; 15 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46741-7

Cite This Page :

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Browse specially curated selections of high-impact research from the earth science journals published by Oxford University Press. The collections feature a mixture of:

The most read articles published in the first half of 2022.

Untapped research sections containing articles selected by Editors-in-Chief as worthy of more attention from the research community.

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All articles are freely available for you to read, download, and enjoy. 

High-Impact Research from Geophysical Journal International

Geophysical Journal International is a leading primary research journal in solid-Earth geophysics and publishes on all aspects of theoretical, computational, experimental, applied and observational geophysics.

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Journal of Geophysics and Engineering  features research and developments in geophysics and related areas of engineering with a predominantly applied science and engineering focus.

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Journal of Petrology  provides an international forum for the publication of the best science related to the broad field of igneous and metamorphic petrology within the Earth and Planetary Sciences.

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National Science Review reports cutting-edge developments across all areas of the natural sciences, including physics, mathematics, chemistry, life sciences, earth sciences, materials science, and information sciences.

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Research topics.

The Earth Science Division at NASA Ames performs a breadth of research that deepens humanity’s understanding of the planet and the processes within.

The Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Ames Research Center is the organization assigned responsibility to meet the Agency’s Earth science goals. The Division accomplishes its task through programs in research and applied science that develop and test new tools and techniques for observing the Earth from space; applying these observations to better understand fundamental Earth processes at global and regional scales; and using these observations and their research conclusions to benefit society by enhancing decision making in a world of rapid and unanticipated change.

Nine topics comprise NASA’s Earth science research program: ocean science, terrestrial ecology, atmospheric composition and dynamics, climate science, water resources, Earth surface and interior, fire science, instrument development, and airborne science. In support of these research areas, the Earth Science Division develops, launches and operates research instruments on spaceborne and airborne platforms; maintains data systems and archives to generate data products from the observations that are available to the research community and the public; and develops and applies models combining NASA observations with other data for greater insight on fundamental Earth processes and better prediction of future change.

Research Topics:

Ocean Science

Terrestrial Ecology

Atmospheric Composition & Dynamics

Climate Science

Water Resources

Earth Surface and Interior

Fire Science

Instrument Development

Airborne Science

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Field grand challenge article, grand challenges in earth science: research toward a sustainable environment.

• Dipartimento di Scienze, Università Roma Tre, Roma, Italy

Introduction

Earth science is a broad term referring to the fields of science dealing with our planet. It involves studies on the lithosphere (including geology, geophysics, geochemistry, and geography), the hydrosphere (including hydrology and marine, ocean, and cryospheric sciences) and the atmosphere (including meteorology and climatology). As such, Earth science consists of a broad spectrum of interconnected physical, chemical, and biological disciplines dealing with processes which have been occurring on our world for billions of years, from the subatomic to the planetary scale.

The stature of Earth science has grown with each new decade, defining the history of life, unveiling the evolution of the planetary surface, quantifying natural hazards, locating mineral and energy resources and characterizing the climate system. This, supported by continuing technical and theoretical improvements, has allowed reaching an unprecedented understanding of countless processes. The capabilities of the Earth science subdisciplines have advanced to document the geological record of terrestrial changes, understand how life evolved, observe active processes from the core to the surface, make more realistic simulations of complex dynamic processes and start forecasting. Many important discoveries, as for example the plate tectonics theory or the definition of the hydrological cycle, have been achieved gradually, from the merging of several important and independent studies ( Dooge, 2001 ; Oreskes, 2013 ). This progression has also brought to the recognition and verification of the need to establish broad connections and integrations between different subdisciplines, a major advance in Earth science especially over the past decade ( NAP, 2012 ). Consider for example the potential of studies exploring the intimate relationships between climate, surface processes (including hydrology, physical and chemical denudation, sedimentary deposition, flooding) and tectonics (from the evolution of mountain ranges to earthquakes). Or the research at the intersection of geomorphology, hydrology and ecology, which delivers new insights into the mechanisms of landscape-ecosystem interactions, including the rates of soil formation or denudation in given landscapes. This multidisciplinarity points out to an innovative, first-order level of research and understanding, where the Earth is considered as a single system, with properties and behavior that are characteristic of the system as a whole, including critical thresholds, nonlinearities, tele-connections, and unresolvable uncertainties.

Looking forward to the next decade and beyond, the role of Earth science studies for the development of our planet will expand substantially. Earth science will become increasingly prominent as humanity confronts daunting challenges in finding natural resources to sustain Earth's burgeoning population, in mitigating natural hazards that impact life and infrastructures, and, more in general, in achieving sustainable environmental stewardship ( NAP, 2012 ). Earth science research will have to improve the management of natural resources (as water, raw materials and energy) and hazards, supporting prosperous and secure societies and developing new industries for economic growth. Earth science is in fact the foundation of the exploration and the responsible use of our natural resources through an understanding of the surface and subsurface. Much of the energy sector depends on understanding processes and monitoring in the subsurface, including the extraction of coal, oil, gas and shale gas and geothermal fluids, as well as carbon capture and storage and nuclear waste storage ( ICSU, 2010 ). The management of natural resources should be also accompanied by the forecast and management of natural hazards (including earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, floods, sea level rise, eruptions, drought), increasingly exposing the growing population and infrastructures. While hazards are inevitable, the worst of their consequences are not: loss of life and infrastructure can be minimized through monitoring and modeling, in the frame of adequate longer-term prevention and shorter-term forecast. The diagram in Figure 1 shows that, while the frequency of natural hazards (and the related amount of exposed population) has increased in the last century, the death toll has significantly decreased, highlighting the impact of prevention in mitigating risk.

Figure 1. Relationships between the frequency of natural disasters, the amount of exposed population and the related death toll since 1900 . The overall decrease in deaths, despite the significant increase in disasters, underlines the crucial importance of prevention in mitigating risk (from the OFDA/CRED Natural Disaster Database, www.emdat.be ).

The management of natural resources and hazards should be, in turn, coupled by a sustainable environment, especially aimed at preserving: (a) the water cycle, altered by reservoir construction, agriculture, groundwater extraction, and urbanization, at places responsible for significant groundwater depletion ( Wada et al., 2010 ); (b) the carbon cycle, central to climate but heavily affected by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and land use, and also recent geo-engineering practices aimed at reducing the human impact on climate ( Bala, 2009 ; Finzi et al., 2011 ); (c) the Earth's surface, undergoing transformations in its physical, chemical, and biological state, with accelerated soil erosion and mobilization and deposition of metals and toxins; (d) coastal areas, hosting >60% of the world's population and, as subject to forcing from both ocean and land processes, experiencing coupling of geomorphic, hydrological, ecological, climatic, and biogeochemical phenomena.

Clearly, the Earth sciences in the twenty-first century have great potential: on the one side, in deepening our knowledge of the functioning of the Earth system and its critical thresholds and, on the other side, in developing response strategies to global changes ( ICSU, 2010 ). However, despite the accelerating importance and pivotal role in the development of society and environment, the reality is that Earth science currently still receives less attention than warranted at all levels in the education systems and in the funding supports for research ( NAP, 2012 ). Indeed, Earth science can deliver its best to society and environment through research with a twofold objective: (1) allowing the understanding of the processes operating within the Earth system and in its many subdisciplines; (2) providing the crucial knowledge for the discovery, use, and conservation of natural resources, the definition and mitigation of the natural hazards, the geotechnical support of commercial and infrastructure development and the stewardship of the environment ( NAP, 2012 ). Therefore, research should be not only devoted at understanding the present and the environmentally challenging future, but also our past. Earth's environmental systems have experienced geochemical, climatic, and biotic change, with conditions in the distant past remarkably different from those of the Holocene, when largely benign climatic conditions fostered human civilizations. Thus, understanding past geosphere-biosphere behavior is a potent approach to anticipating how linked physical, chemical, and biological processes that characterize Earth's surface may be impacted by and respond to human activity.

The Challenges

Under these premises, the main challenges for Earth science may be defined. Many major challenges of several subdisciplines of Earth science have been already recently proposed, in general documents ( ESA, 2013 ) or in more detail, as in dedicated papers on seismology ( Lay, 2009 ), geodynamics ( Olsen et al., 2010 ), terrestrial microbiology ( Stein and Nicol, 2011 ), atmospheric science ( Gimeno, 2013 ), structural geology and tectonics ( Gudmundsson, 2013 ), geomagnetism and paleomagnetism, ( Kodama, 2013 ), climate ( Beniston, 2013 ), volcanology ( Acocella, 2014 ), environmental informatics ( Kokhanovsky, 2014 ), biogeochemistry ( Achterberg, 2014 ), paleontology ( Reisz and Sues, 2015 ), biogeoscience ( Eglinton, 2015 ), and Quaternary geology and geomorphology ( Forman and Stinchcomb, 2015 ).

Here I aim at considering the major challenges from a higher level, potentially involving all the subdisciplines and studies of Earth science (Figure 2 ). These grand challenges regard different aspects of research in Earth science, crucial for both research and science policy. They should not be considered as separate entities, as none of the challenges alone can be fully addressed without significant progress in addressing the other challenges, as also indicated in Figure 2 . The six major challenges for Earth science in the first part of the twenty-first century are listed below.

Figure 2. Diagram summarizing the six proposed grand challenges of Earth science, as well as their relationships .

Challenge 1: Expanding Global Observation Networks and Data Archives

This challenge focuses on promoting, developing and integrating the collection of the observation systems and data archives needed to manage global and regional aspects, including environmental changes.

Observations, or more in general data, are the first crucial ingredient on which research is based and thus their collection and promotion must be at the base of any grand challenge. Creating an innovative, integrated, coordinated, and useful generation of observations is thus the first challenge for Earth science. Observations, both quantitative and qualitative, should be multidisciplinary and focused toward global or regional systems, encompassing both natural and social features. Also, they should be of high enough resolution and carry comprehensive time-series information, to detect any change and assess vulnerability and resilience. Finally, they should provide full and open access to data (see also challenge 2) and be cost effective. An appropriate example is given by the rapid progress of satellite Earth observation science. This, coupled with the increasing use of new technologies, has allowed maximizing (i.e., expanding and integrating) the amount of information on Earth science. This challenge, in addition to the identification of the fundamental scientific questions to be addressed, requires integrated and coordinated policies on the longer-term (decades). Important investments are already being made to build effective global and regional monitoring systems and to ensure their international coordination (as the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, GEOSS; http://www.earthobservations.org/geoss.php and its implementation programmes, as for example Copernicus; http://land.copernicus.eu ). These initiatives should be further promoted and supported, also at any regional scale. The most appropriate collection of data may be guided by the feedback promoted by the understanding of the related processes, the forecast of hazards and use of resources (Figure 2 ).

Challenge 2: Handling and Using the Multidisciplinary Observations

This challenge focuses on the importance to appropriately manage (organizing, storing, handling) the collected observations, particularly those of multidisciplinary nature, in order to make them readily available to and used by the scientific community.

The increasingly growing and already vast amount of data collected in Earth science in the last decades, especially that relative to monitoring general processes and natural hazards (challenge 1), is largely underexploited, as usually fragmented, dispersed or poorly accessible and non-uniform. This condition constitutes a severe limitation for the development of research. Proper use and exploitation of these data require long-lasting, innovative and appropriate policies and infrastructures of collection, conservation, sharing and use, based on an international and effective coordination of observations, protocols of standard data storage and analysis. Successful examples of international data integration are the EPOS and OGC initiatives. The European EPOS framework ( http://www.epos-eu.org ) integrates solid Earth data from satellite, seismic, surface dynamics, volcanic and oceanic observations with experimental and analytical laboratories, uniting researchers as a virtual community. EPOS works by integrating existing national infrastructures to enhance access to the data and promote its use in innovative ways. While the links being developed by EPOS will benefit researchers initially, stakeholders in industry, business and society will also benefit. The OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium; http://www.opengeospatial.org ) is an international initiative to share geospatial data, committed to making quality open standards for the global geospatial community.

Challenge 3: Understanding General Multidisciplinary Processes

This challenge focuses on understanding (i.e., unraveling the processes behind) the major global and regional processes involving different subdisciplines in Earth science.

Each subdiscipline is characterized by a variable amount of interconnected basic processes, whose understanding allows explaining its general lines and adequately relating this to the nearby subdisciplines. While the general lines of many processes within each subdiscipline of Earth science have been understood or are on their way to be sufficiently defined, a general need to integrate this acquired knowledge (challenges 1 and 2) toward the understanding of first-order processes, at the regional or global scale, is now emerging. These first-order processes, aimed at responding to the complex primary needs of our society, typically involve observations and knowledge from multiple subdisciplines. Examples are the processes related to multihazards, including the causal relationships between different types of hazard and their outcome, and the above mentioned relations between climate, landscape and tectonic activity in shaping the Earth's surface. The definition and understanding of global multidisciplinary processes is a primary concern for research institutions and society and, as such, it requires significant international coordination and cooperation.

Challenge 4: Forecasting Hazards

This challenge focuses on improving the usefulness of forecasts of future adverse environmental conditions and their consequences for humans and the environment. Here “forecasting” is meant in the broadest sense, including both the short-term events (years or less) and the longer-term projections (decades).

Despite the many important, at times crucial, attempts, forecasting natural hazards is in general at its infancy stage and currently considered in a few countries only. A modern and useful forecast should be responsive to the needs of society and decision-makers for information at adequate spatial and temporal scales and, as such, it should be timely, accurate, and reliable. Natural hazards may manifest on the short-term, suddenly and without sufficient warning, as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, cyclones, volcanic eruptions, or may build-up trough processes active on the longer-term, as sea level rise, drought and climatic changes. In this last case, an important example of international body devoted at the assessment of climate change is the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, or IPCC ( http://www.ipcc.ch ). Although we may not be able to accurately forecast beyond a time horizon of a few decades, there is still significant potential to improve our ability to use scenarios and simulations to anticipate the impacts of a given set of conditions. In most cases, however, we will not be able to predict absolutely, but only to forecast probabilistically: we can forecast the most likely outcome(s) and assign this(these) a level of certainty to that prediction.

Progress in forecasting requires several steps. These include advances in: (a) collecting the necessary data (see challenge 1); (b) an interdisciplinary framework for analysis (challenge 2); (c) understanding and modeling the fundamentals of physical, chemical and biological processes (challenge 3); (d) creating and promoting the infrastructures to face natural hazards (observatories, agencies, departments; challenge 4). Forecasting models and analyses of global and regional environmental change may provide direct support to governance and management only under these premises.

Challenge 5: Using Resources

This challenge focuses on an adequate (i.e., sustainable, with preservation) use of the available natural resources, including water, materials and energy.

In addition to natural hazards (challenge 4), the availability of resources is the major environmental challenge our planet has to face. The overshoot day (i.e., when humanity's demand on nature exceeds what Earth's ecosystems can renew in a year) anticipates year by year, leaving humanity with an increasing ecological debt and fewer resources available. These include water, raw materials and energy (as coal, oil, gas and shale gas, minerals, geothermal fluids). Also related to the management of resources are the storage of nuclear waste and carbon dioxide. For example, reserves of minerals are being exhausted and worries about access to raw materials, including basic and strategic minerals, are increasing. The rise in the price of several important metals, as copper, has prompted some industrialized countries to initiate concerted activities to ensure access to strategic minerals. Recycling, resource efficiency and the search for alternative materials are essential, but most specialists agree that this will not suffice and that there is a need to find new primary deposits. Most Earth science disciplines are structured to respond to this challenge, identifying the location and distribution of resources, planning their use and collaborating at their exploitation. However, as global challenges require global efforts, in addition to the development of research, technological advances and timely and coordinated international policies, closely involving decision makers and stakeholders, are required to adequately meet this challenge.

Challenge 6: Disseminating and Communicating

This challenge focuses on the dissemination and communication to the society of the results, achievements and general outcome of the research in Earth science.

As mentioned in each of the grand challenges above, a global challenge implies a global effort, where researchers should integrate and coordinate with decision makers at all levels of societies. This requires that the importance and outcome of the research in Earth science is appropriately communicated and disseminated, to adequately inform decision makers and to properly value the role of Earth science. Indeed, education and outreach through appropriate channels and media (e.g., internet, television, events of various nature) are fundamental for Earth science: inspirational research brings young people into technical careers and practical information enables informed decision-making. In addition, a lively and shared research culture brings innovative ideas that spread into new technological industries and brings skilled people in careers supporting society. A higher level of Earth science knowledge among authorities, educators, business and officials will lead to more effective governance.

A more specific but still important aim of dissemination and communication is to build public confidence in the renewing supplies of natural resources and in the assessment of geohazards and management of their effects. However, in Earth science it should be important to distinguish between communicating science and communicating risk to society. Communicating risk from geohazards requires understanding of the resilience of communities and an appreciation of how individuals assimilate and apply scientific information on risk and personal exposure. With this regard, an important challenge of Earth scientists is to refocus society's desire for absolute guarantees from science and replace it with an acceptance that most solutions are uncertain and will carry some level of risk and environmental consequence.

Conclusions

Humankind needs to be safe from natural hazards and wants to live comfortably, with secure supply of energy, water and materials. Earth science research is the key to achieve these goals.

Earth science has played an increasingly important role in the understanding and management of our planet in the last decades. In the twenty-first century, Earth science is expected to increase further its potential, also providing crucial advice in finding resources and mitigating natural hazards, thus supporting successful and secure societies.

These objectives can be adequately reached facing the above-mentioned major challenges, which are closely related to each other. As such, they require, in addition to appropriate research, also integration and coordination at the planetary scale and close connection with decision makers, at all scales of societies.

While an important preparatory phase has been carried out in most, if not all, of these challenges, important progresses still await our scientific community, stakeholders, decision-makers and society in general to support Earth science and our planet toward a more sustainable environment.

Frontiers in Earth Science is at the forefront in this mission, trying to globally promote and deliver topmost quality research, aimed at understating our planet and using this knowledge to improve our future.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

Francesca Funiciello provided a useful revision on an early draft of the manuscript. Two reviewers provided very constructive and helpful comments and suggestions.

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Keywords: Earth science, research, environment, hazard, resource

Citation: Acocella V (2015) Grand challenges in Earth science: research toward a sustainable environment. Front. Earth Sci . 3:68. doi: 10.3389/feart.2015.00068

Received: 10 September 2015; Accepted: 26 October 2015; Published: 02 November 2015.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2015 Acocella. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Valerio Acocella, [email protected]

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Each of the missions will deliver important environmental measurements. Taken together, as a single Observatory, NASA will have a holistic, 3D view of Earth to better understand how our planet’s complex systems work together and improve our capability to predict how our climate may change. NASA’s Open Source Science strategy is the key to bringing the data from these missions together into a single observatory to help understand the earth as a system and accelerate our ability to use this understanding. These observations will better inform decision-makers on how our planet is changing, with greater precision on previously unimaginable scales – from entire continents down to individual trees, from atmosphere to bedrock.

Learn more about NASA's Earth System Observatory .

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Researchers find oldest evidence of earth’s magnetic field.

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An artist's impression of solar wind colliding with Earth's magnetic field.

Without its magnetic field, life on Earth would not be possible since this shields us from harmful cosmic radiation and charged particles emitted by the Sun , a steady stream known as solar wind. But up to now, there has been no reliable date for when the modern magnetic field was first established.

In the new study, led by the University of Oxford and MIT, the researchers examined an ancient sequence of rocks from Isua, Greenland. The Isua Formation includes magmatic rocks and iron-rich sediments deposited along the borders of the first continents. Iron particles effectively act as tiny magnets that can record both magnetic field strength and direction when the process of crystallization locks them in place. The researchers found that rocks dating from 3.7 billion years ago captured a magnetic field strength of at least 15 microteslas or higher comparable to the modern magnetic field of 30 microteslas.

An example of the 3.7 billion year old banded iron formation found in the north-eastern part of the ... [+] Isua Formation.

These results provide the oldest estimate of the strength of Earth’s magnetic field derived from whole rock samples, which provide a more accurate and reliable assessment than previous studies based only on individual zircon crystals found in 3.4 to 4.2 billion-year-old rocks from Australia .

"Extracting reliable records from rocks this old is extremely challenging, and it was really exciting to see primary magnetic signals begin to emerge when we analysed these samples in the lab. This is a really important step forward as we try and determine the role of the ancient magnetic field when life on Earth was first emerging," explains lead author Professor Claire Nichols , Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford.

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Earth's magnetic field is generated by mixing of the molten iron in the fluid outer core, driven by changes in density as as the inner core slowly solidifies, which creates a dynamo effect. During Earth’s early formation, the solid inner core had not yet formed, leaving open questions about how the early magnetic field was sustained. These new results suggest the mechanism driving Earth’s early dynamo was similarly efficient to the solidification process that generates Earth’s magnetic field today.

The results may also provide new insights into the role of our magnetic field in shaping the development of Earth ' s atmosphere as we know it, particularly regarding atmospheric escape of gases. A strong magnetic field can act as a shield, preventing solar wind to strip away a planet ' s atmosphere, but it also can accelerate charged particles or atoms, projecting them into outer space.

In the future, researchers hope to expand our knowledge of Earth ' s magnetic field prior to the rise of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere around 2.5 billion years ago by examining other ancient rock sequences in Canada , Australia , and South Africa . A better understanding of the ancient strength and variability of Earth’s magnetic field will help us to determine whether planetary magnetic fields are critical for hosting life on a planetary surface and their role in atmospheric evolution.

Whilst the magnetic field strength appears to have remained relatively constant, the solar wind is known to have been significantly stronger in the past as the young Sun was more active. This suggests that the protection of Earth’s surface from the solar wind has increased over time, which may have allowed life to move onto the continents and leave the protection of the oceans.

The full research paper " Possible Eoarchean records of the geomagnetic field preserved in the Isua Supracrustal Belt, southern west Greenland " was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth and can be found online here .

Additional material and interviews provided by the University of Oxford .

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Top 100 in Earth Science

Explore our most highly accessed Earth science articles in 2017. Featuring authors from around the World, these papers highlight valuable research within Earth science from an international community.

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Site of asteroid impact changed the history of life on Earth: the low probability of mass extinction

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New Zealand supereruption provides time marker for the Last Glacial Maximum in Antarctica

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A solar radiation database for Chile

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Humid heat waves at different warming levels

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The first physical evidence of subglacial volcanism under the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

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Extreme weather caused by concurrent cyclone, front and thunderstorm occurrences

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Drift-dependent changes in iceberg size-frequency distributions

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Exceptional 20 th century glaciological regime of a major SE Greenland outlet glacier

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Contrasting glacier responses to recent climate change in high-mountain Asia

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The impact of extreme El Niño events on modern sediment transport along the western Peruvian Andes (1968–2012)

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Indian Ocean corals reveal crucial role of World War II bias for twentieth century warming estimates

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US Power Production at Risk from Water Stress in a Changing Climate

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Changes in land use alter soil quality and aggregate stability in the highlands of northern Ethiopia

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Zebra rocks: compaction waves create ore deposits

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Distributed optical fibre sensing for early detection of shallow landslides triggering

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The role of city size and urban form in the surface urban heat island

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Wind-generated Electricity in China: Decreasing Potential, Inter-annual Variability and Association with Changing Climate

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A new family of extraterrestrial amino acids in the Murchison meteorite

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Minimal Holocene retreat of large tidewater glaciers in Køge Bugt, southeast Greenland

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Magmatic tempo of Earth’s youngest exposed plutons as revealed by detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology

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Impact of Ocean Warming on Tropical Cyclone Size and Its Destructiveness

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Long-term climate change in the D-region

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Direct Formation of Structural Components Using a Martian Soil Simulant

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A robust empirical seasonal prediction of winter NAO and surface climate

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Enhanced Arctic Amplification Began at the Mid-Brunhes Event ~400,000 years ago

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Peatland Ecosystem Processes in the Maritime Antarctic During Warm Climates

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Salinity stratification controlled productivity variation over 300 ky in the Bay of Bengal

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Climate variability and trends at a national scale

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Nonuniform subduction of the Indian crust beneath the Himalayas

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Origin of methane-rich natural gas at the West Pacific convergent plate boundary

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Prediction of Indian Summer-Monsoon Onset Variability: A Season in Advance

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Evaluating the importance of metamorphism in the foundering of continental crust

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Identification of the driving forces of climate change using the longest instrumental temperature record

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Advancement of magma fragmentation by inhomogeneous bubble distribution

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Himalayan glaciers experienced significant mass loss during later phases of little ice age

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Fatty Acid Surfactant Photochemistry Results in New Particle Formation

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Mantle hydration along outer-rise faults inferred from serpentinite permeability

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Silica precipitation potentially controls earthquake recurrence in seismogenic zones

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Patterns of change in high frequency precipitation variability over North America

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Attribution of recent temperature behaviour reassessed by a neural-network method

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Extreme coastal erosion enhanced by anomalous extratropical storm wave direction

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India plate angular velocity and contemporary deformation rates from continuous GPS measurements from 1996 to 2015

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Multi-year predictability of climate, drought, and wildfire in southwestern North America

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Climate and permafrost effects on the chemistry and ecosystems of High Arctic Lakes

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Sensing coral reef connectivity pathways from space

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Potential ash impact from Antarctic volcanoes: Insights from Deception Island’s most recent eruption

Causes and Predictability of the Negative Indian Ocean Dipole and Its Impact on La Niña During 2016

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Induced seismicity closed-form traffic light system for actuarial decision-making during deep fluid injections

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On the consistency of seismically imaged lower mantle slabs

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Volcanic influence on centennial to millennial Holocene Greenland temperature change

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Increasing frequency and spatial extent of concurrent meteorological droughts and heatwaves in India

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New Late Permian tectonic model for South Africa’s Karoo Basin: foreland tectonics and climate change before the end-Permian crisis

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Vegetation morphologic and aerodynamic characteristics reduce aeolian erosion

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Evidence for ice-ocean albedo feedback in the Arctic Ocean shifting to a seasonal ice zone

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Arctic cryosphere and Milankovitch forcing of Great Basin paleoclimate

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Recognition of a likely two phased extinction at the K-Pg boundary in Antarctica

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Birth of an oceanic spreading center at a magma-poor rift system

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Impact of Multidecadal Climate Variability on United Kingdom Rickets Rates

• Haris Majeed
• G. W. K. Moore

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Planet Earth, explained

Our home planet provides us with life and protects us from space.

Earth, our home planet, is a world unlike any other. The third planet from the sun, Earth is the only place in the known universe confirmed to host life.

With a radius of 3,959 miles, Earth is the fifth largest planet in our solar system, and it's the only one known for sure to have liquid water on its surface. Earth is also unique in terms of monikers. Every other solar system planet was named for a Greek or Roman deity, but for at least a thousand years, some cultures have described our world using the Germanic word “earth,” which means simply “the ground.”

Our dance around the sun

Earth orbits the sun once every 365.25 days. Since our calendar years have only 365 days, we add an extra leap day every four years to account for the difference.

Though we can't feel it, Earth zooms through its orbit at an average velocity of 18.5 miles a second. During this circuit, our planet is an average of 93 million miles away from the sun, a distance that takes light about eight minutes to traverse. Astronomers define this distance as one astronomical unit (AU), a measure that serves as a handy cosmic yardstick.

Earth rotates on its axis every 23.9 hours, defining day and night for surface dwellers. This axis of rotation is tilted 23.4 degrees away from the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun, giving us seasons. Whichever hemisphere is tilted closer to the sun experiences summer, while the hemisphere tilted away gets winter. In the spring and fall, each hemisphere receives similar amounts of light. On two specific dates each year—called the equinoxes—both hemispheres get illuminated equally.

Many layers, many features

About 4.5 billion years ago, gravity coaxed Earth to form from the gaseous, dusty disk that surrounded our young sun. Over time, Earth's interior—which is made mostly of silicate rocks and metals—differentiated into four layers.

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At the planet's heart lies the inner core, a solid sphere of iron and nickel that's 759 miles wide and as hot as 9,800 degrees Fahrenheit. The inner core is surrounded by the outer core, a 1,400-mile-thick band of iron and nickel fluids. Beyond the outer core lies the mantle, a 1,800-mile-thick layer of viscous molten rock on which Earth's outermost layer, the crust, rests. On land, the continental crust is an average of 19 miles thick, but the oceanic crust that forms the seafloor is thinner—about three miles thick—and denser.

Like Venus and Mars, Earth has mountains, valleys, and volcanoes. But unlike its rocky siblings, almost 70 percent of Earth's surface is covered in oceans of liquid water that average 2.5 miles deep. These bodies of water contain 97 percent of Earth's volcanoes and the mid-ocean ridge , a massive mountain range more than 40,000 miles long.

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Earth's crust and upper mantle are divided into massive plates that grind against each other in slow motion. As these plates collide, tear apart, or slide past each other, they give rise to our very active geology. Earthquakes rumble as these plates snag and slip past each other. Many volcanoes form as seafloor crust smashes into and slides beneath continental crust. When plates of continental crust collide, mountain ranges such as the Himalaya are pushed toward the skies.

Protective fields and gases

Earth's atmosphere is 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, and one percent other gases such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, and argon. Much like a greenhouse, this blanket of gases absorbs and retains heat. On average, Earth's surface temperature is about 57 degrees Fahrenheit; without our atmosphere, it'd be zero degrees . In the last two centuries, humans have added enough greenhouse gases to the atmosphere to raise Earth's average temperature by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit . This extra heat has altered Earth's weather patterns in many ways .

The atmosphere not only nourishes life on Earth, but it also protects it: It's thick enough that many meteorites burn up before impact from friction, and its gases—such as ozone—block DNA-damaging ultraviolet light from reaching the surface. But for all that our atmosphere does, it's surprisingly thin. Ninety percent of Earth's atmosphere lies within just 10 miles of the planet's surface .

The silhouette of a woman is seen on a Norwegian island beneath the Northern Lights ( aurora borealis ).

We also enjoy protection from Earth's magnetic field, generated by our planet's rotation and its iron-nickel core. This teardrop-shaped field shields Earth from high-energy particles launched at us from the sun and elsewhere in the cosmos. But due to the field's structure, some particles get funneled to Earth's Poles and collide with our atmosphere, yielding aurorae, the natural fireworks show known by some as the northern lights.

Spaceship Earth

Earth is the planet we have the best opportunity to understand in detail—helping us see how other rocky planets behave, even those orbiting distant stars. As a result, scientists are increasingly monitoring Earth from space. NASA alone has dozens of missions dedicated to solving our planet's mysteries.

At the same time, telescopes are gazing outward to find other Earths. Thanks to instruments such as NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have found more than 3,800 planets orbiting other stars, some of which are about the size of Earth , and a handful of which orbit in the zones around their stars that are just the right temperature to be potentially habitable. Other missions, such as the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, are poised to find even more.

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Did Pluto ever actually stop being a planet? Experts debate.

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800,000 years ago, a huge meteorite hit Earth. Scientists may have just found where.

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Feature Article: Digital Mapping Helps First Responders Better Navigate Inside Buildings

Agencies are using S&T-funded Mappedin to find their way quickly during critical incidents in schools and public buildings.

GPS systems may get first responders to incident scenes fast, but navigating buildings’ complex mazes of hallways and corridors in potentially chaotic or low-visibility situations can be tricky. Relying on hard copy or digital building blueprints can be cumbersome or even outdated, adding precious seconds when time is of the essence.

A solution, brought to you by the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and digital indoor map navigator Mappedin, was completed in 2022 and has since flourished. The online Mappedin mapmaking subscription, which can transform floor plans into interactive and easily maintainable digitized maps, was recently launched and is currently being used by both response agencies and corporate clients. With easy-to-use mapping tools and data, Mappedin provides high-quality 3D map creation, data maintenance, and map sharing to city executives, building owner operators and first responders to make and deliver maps for a variety of safety-related situations—from advance preparation and planning to assistance during emergency incidents.

“With Mappedin, first responders can quickly determine the interior layout of structures before entering a building to make informed decisions,” said Anthony Caracciolo, the S&T program manager who led this effort. “Mappedin assists them with identifying where interior rooms, doors, stairs, key equipment and hazardous materials are located and enables them to possess indoor awareness of a facility before entering.”

Mappedin provides intelligent digitization of floor plans from various sources (e.g., computer-aided design drawings, PDF documents, photographs) and maintains a digital reserve of 3D interactive maps accessible on tablets and cell phones. These maps can be marked up and shared via a private link accessible only to authorized personnel.

To save time in mapmaking, Mappedin leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to create high-quality 3D interactive indoor maps from uploaded floor plan images in 0.5 minutes to 3 minutes. The tool also uses LiDAR, a remote sensing method, to create floor plans from scratch. With an iPhone Pro or iPad Pro and the Mappedin iOS app, users can scan their indoor environment and turn the data into a digital map, which they can further edit and customize by labeling specific rooms and areas and adding attributes such as descriptions, photographs and links.

S&T initially funded Mappedin Inc. in 2019 to develop the indoor mapping tool (then called Response) after S&T's First Responder Resource Group indicated this type of technology was a top need. S&T’s goal was to help responders quickly navigate indoor floor plans in real-time when responding to incidents. Mappedin enables point-to-point wayfinding, like an indoor GPS, and is available to first responders and local governments as a licensed cloud-based service. S&T and Mappedin demonstrated the software in 2022 , when first responders assessed the prototype’s efficiency and recommended improvements before commercialization. First responders found it better than existing technologies and liked its compatibility with many existing software platforms. Then, S&T and Mappedin further improved the software based on feedback from U.S. and Canadian first responders and local governments.

Public schools and fire departments are among users

Mappedin is already in use successfully. Since its official launch in September 2023, more than 4,000 user accounts have been created.  

Many of Mappedin’s new customers are public schools and fire departments for whom mapping services are free. To provide life-saving technology to schools and first responders, two former firefighters have integrated Mappedin maps into their school safety product, AIKI ClassroomSAFE. The app provides situational awareness and a comprehensive view of other responding agencies, students, and the real-time status of classrooms. According to experienced firefighter and AIKI co-founder, Damian McKeon, Mappedin has taken a multi-hour mapping process down to a couple of minutes.

Some forward-thinking schools in the U.S. and Canada are also looking to use Mappedin. Three pilot Canadian cities–Orangeville, Kitchener and Waterloo–have already adopted the tool to digitize paper floor plans for a variety of building types for pre-planning and educational purposes.

Also, first responders in 911 incident dispatch will be able to access Mappedin-created maps within their safety platform for precise geolocation. By providing Mappedin’s accurate geo-located annotations of key safety equipment before the trucks arrive on scene, the 911 dispatch can be prioritized as the first point of contact. According to Dain Bolling, Founder of Pure Wireless LLC, Mappedin easily creates spatially accurate maps suitable for first responders during critical incidents.

Moreover, efforts are underway to map an entire Florida county. Mappedin is accelerating its Maps for Good initiative to address the needs of schools and first responders. Eligible participants will receive no- to low-cost indoor mapping. “Indoor maps are crucial for situational awareness in built environments, and Mappedin is proud to be part of the solution,” said Hongwei Liu, co-founder and CEO at Mappedin. “With Maps for Good, we’re putting AI-powered indoor mapping directly into the hands of front-line professionals, giving them purpose-built tools to do their jobs and keep people safe.”

Mappedin could be integrated with other tools

The Mappedin free subscription is available for schools and responders, where anyone is encouraged to create their own maps. The paid Plus subscription, released in February 2024, and the Pro subscription, coming later this year, add advanced capabilities, including integration with other tools.

“One such possible integration is with the S&T-developed gunshot detection system that detects and alerts police of gunshots,” said Caracciolo. “If integrated with Mappedin, police would not only be alerted of the gunshots, but they could also receive an interior map of a building depicting where the gunshots are occurring, thus enabling police officers to engage the shooter and locate and start treating victims as soon as possible.”

Additionally, corporate customers, such as airports, stadiums, and office buildings are also using Mappedin for things like complex mapping, wayfinding, and custom integrations.

“Ultimately,” Caracciolo added, “S&T invested in Mappedin to equip first responders with the best tool to pre-plan and navigate building interiors in emergencies.”  

Learn more about S&T’s innovative industry partnerships and support for the nation’s first responders . For related media inquiries, contact [email protected] .

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