Earth & Space Research

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...

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...

11/26/2025

Earth and Space Research (ESR) has a new look! Yesterday, we launched our redesigned website, including our new logo!

The redesign was developed in partnership with All Seattle Web Design and led in-house by Susan Howard. This was a true team effort, and we extend special thanks to our strategic advisor Vamsi Sistla https://www.linkedin.com/in/vsistla/, who helped set us on this path.

ESR’s new logo was designed by Amelia Ebling https://www.linkedin.com/in/amelia-ebling-67179b365/ .

The new site highlights ESR’s long-standing commitment to open data access, while also introducing Spotlights on people and research topics, and new programs like the ESR Summer Institute https://www.esr.org/what-we-do/education/esr-si/ .

We invite you to explore the redesigned site and see what’s new at ESR: www.esr.org

Earth and Space Research institute - to increase societal understanding of the Earth system through scientific research and public education.

05/01/2025

We had another great evening teaching kids about density and the oceans at Edmond Heights K-12 STEAM fair last night. For this event, ESR's Susan Howard and Jesse Anderson were joined by University of Maryland glaciologist and ESR Affiliate Taryn Black to present our hands-on exhibit. We had a lot of fun engaging with the students and their parents!

04/24/2025

ESR scientists were thrilled to spend Earth Day teaching students and parents about the importance of the oceans at the Sky Valley Education Center's Earth Day event on April 22. Susan Howard and Jesse Anderson explained the concept of density, how density differences drive ocean circulation, and discussed our work as physical oceanographers. It was a great day filled with a lot of hands-on learning. We are looking forward to our next event which is next week at Edmond Heights K-12 STEAM fair!

02/14/2025

ESR was happy to once again participate in Echo Lake Elementary School’s Annual STEM Night on Wednesday, Feb 12th, 2025. Susan Howard, Jesse Anderson, and Kathleen Dohan presented several hands-on learning activities to teach kids about density and the ocean. We had quite a crowd! It was a busy night full of fun science for kids and adults. Please reach out to Susan Howard at https://www.esr.org/ if you would like us at your next Seattle area STEM event.

02/11/2025

A new paper about the Antarctic Ice Sheet in a special issue of Science reviews critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of how Antarctica responds to variations in global climate. Led by Scripps Oceanography glaciologist Helen Amanda Fricker, with ESR’s Laurie Padman as a co-author, the paper emphasizes the importance of Antarctica as a vital component of Earth’s climate system.

The ice sheet is the largest freshwater reservoir on Earth but has been losing mass at its edges, contributing to rising sea levels and freshening oceans. The sea ice around Antarctica has also dramatically declined over the past decade. The authors summarize the complexity of critical portions of the ice sheet, and ice loss processes, as a roadmap to direct future studies.

To fully understand this component of the Earth’s climate system, substantial progress is needed in modeling, and measurements through new high-resolution satellite missions and targeted fieldwork. Progress will require increased investments in polar research, training of the next generation of researchers, and global collaborations.

Read the paper: "Antarctica in 2025: Drivers of deep uncertainty in projected ice loss" at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt9619

01/27/2025

ESR celebrated its 30 year anniversary on January 26! The company, founded by Gary Lagerloef and Robin Muench, has been privileged to be home to some great scientists, with leading roles in satellite missions, fieldwork, and journal editorships. We celebrate the amazing research projects and collaborations, the hundreds of papers and data products we have developed, and the students we have advised and mentored. Here’s to another 30 years!!!

01/15/2025

ESR research scientist Michael Town is off to Troll Station with the Norwegian Polar Institute to install equipment for the Integrated Cloud Observatory (ICO) which is part of the part of the Troll Observing Network (TONe). Find out more about this international team of scientists, their project, and follow their work through the TONe-ICO website:

https://troll-observing-network.github.io/integrated-cloud-observatory/