Earth & Space Research

07/22/2026

A new paper led by ESR’s Susan Howard shows that the NASA/CNES “SWOT” satellite, designed for surface water and ocean topography studies, can also measure changes in the Antarctic ice shelves.

Antarctic ice shelves can act as brakes on ice loss from the massive Antarctic ice sheet. Understanding the processes that affect the ice shelves are critical to our understanding of potential sea level rise.

SWOT, which uses radar interferometry to measure swaths of surface height every 21 days regardless of clouds, can detect tidal flexure, monitor vertical ice shelf motion, and measure crevasse changes, helping us understand processes affecting ice shelf stability.

Check out the open access paper:

SWOT high-rate raster data provides accurate swath-mapped surface heights over Antarctic ice shelves at sub-kilometer resolution These data quantify ice-shelf vertical motion due to ocean forcing...

04/03/2026

ESR was happy to join in the fun at Ridgecrest Elementary's STEAM night on March 26, 2026. ESR's Susan Howard and Julian Schanze, with help from Amelia Ebling and K. Schanze, led students through an exploration of density and demonstrated how it relates to the ocean. We are looking forward to our next event on April 22, 2026 - Earth Day 🌎.

02/11/2026

ESR is happy to share the exciting news that the Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer (EDGE) has been selected as one of two new satellites in NASA’s Earth System Explorers program. EDGE is a swath-mapping laser altimetry mission led by Professor Helen Fricker at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and may launch as early as 2030. ESR senior scientist Laurie Padman is an EDGE Project Partner and will contribute to development of algorithms for EDGE’s applications to ice sheets, sea ice, and oceans.

The Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer (EDGE) satellite is one of two next generation satellites selected by NASA to help better understand Earth and improve capabilities to foresee environmental events and mitigate disasters. Image credit: Lanteris Space Systems

01/19/2026

Parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheet stick to the bed most of the time but lurch forward once or twice per day, synchronized by the ocean tides. A new paper by Zachary Katz, a PhD student at the Colorado School of Mines, co-authored by Mines advisor Matt Siegfried and ESR’s Laurie Padman, shows the importance of accounting for long-period tidal variability when analyzing ice motion and mass loss from the ice sheet.

We created an 11-year (2008–2019) catalog of stick-slip events on Whillans Ice Plain (WIP) in West Antarctica GNSS-derived mean horizontal velocity of WIP correlates with tidal forcing at fortnig...

01/12/2026

This month, ESR's spotlight is on The Mount Baker Project. This Citizen Science project started from a high school mountaineering trip and has become a long-term climate research project, under the direction of Michael Town.

The program, which has produced tangible scientific insights while inspiring dozens of students, demonstrates that actionable science isn’t limited to large institutions or costly infrastructure - it can grow from curiosity, collaboration, and commitment to shared data and open science.

We would like to thank our partners, Lakeside School and the San Diego Foundation, for contributing to this program financially and through in-kind effort. This project has truly been a Citizen Science collaboration!

For more information, also check out our Mount Baker Climate Laboratory GitHub (https://esr-mbcl.github.io/MBCL/) which serves as the central science collaboration site for this project.

The Mount Baker Project: Citizen Science In Action By Hana Hyde and ESR Staff How a high school mountaineering trip became a long-term climate research project. As science advances toward more open, transparent, and collaborative practices, Earth & Space Research (ESR) is positioning itself at the f...

12/15/2025

We’re excited to celebrate the successful completion of the Earth and Space Research and Northeastern University (https://seattle.northeastern.edu/) partnership, showcased last week at the NU Expo. Through this collaboration, ESR scientists (Kathleen Dohan and Michael Town) mentored two student teams, nine students total, on applied machine learning projects that connect data science directly to real-world Earth system challenges.

Project 1: Integrated Machine Learning Modeling of Atmospheric Drivers for Understanding and Predicting Energy Transfer

This ML/AI project focused on predicting snow surface temperatures at Summit, Greenland using only local meteorology and cloud properties. The work supports improved understanding and prediction of melt conditions in one of the most rapidly changing regions of the cryosphere.

Students: Cheng-Wen (Eric) Hsu, Ya (Jaelyn) Ji, Zerui Li, Mohit Chhabria, Surya Shivam

Project 2: Ocean Current Forecasting using Machine Learning

This ML/AI project used regional meteorology and ocean current data to produce 1–3 day forecasts of ocean currents off the west coast of Washington. Applications include regional fisheries, coastal planning, and understanding pollution transport pathways.

Students: Ming-Hsiang Lee (Thomas), Qing Wen, Shuxin Yang, Laxmi Bhutani

We are incredibly proud of the students for tackling complex, interdisciplinary problems and translating machine learning techniques into actionable environmental insights. This partnership highlights the power of mentorship, applied data science, and collaboration between research organizations and universities.

Thank you to Northeastern University and all involved for a fantastic collaboration. We look forward to what comes next!

12/02/2025

This Giving Tuesday, we are celebrating the people who make Earth and Space Research what it is.

Meet Susan Howard. https://www.esr.org/spotlight/susan-howard-is-mapping-the-poles-to-model-the-future/

Susan is mapping the poles to model our planet’s future, building better tools to understand ice dynamics, the changing polar environment, and sea level change. Her work helps scientists, communities, and decision makers prepare for the world ahead. Susan also is dedicated to mentoring and inspiring a new generation of scientists through her work in k-12 outreach and involvement in ESR’s education programs.

Susan is just one of the dedicated researchers, educators, and mentors at ESR whose work depends on community support. When you give to ESR, you are investing in open science, youth mentorship, and vital climate research.

Learn more about Susan’s work and ESR, and make a Giving Tuesday contribution at ESR https://www.esr.org/

Susan Howard is Mapping the Poles to Model the Future By Hana Hyde and ESR Staff For nearly three decades, Susan Howard has been at the center of ESR’s polar research, building models, wrangling data, and shaping how we understand the edges of our planet. She first joined ESR in 1997, fresh from h...