To help the struggling coal industry, President Trump used his executive authority to try to keep aging plants alive and burn more coal for electricity.

© Eric Lee/The New York Times

In Washington, where salmon is a multibillion dollar industry, government staff terminations and budget freezes may put salmon production at risk.

© Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

The moves include loosening environmental rules, but it is unclear how much they can help reverse the sharp decline in coal power over the last two decades.

© Eric Lee/The New York Times

After halting federal attempts to combat global warming, President Trump is now targeting efforts by states to reduce greenhouse gases, setting up a legal clash.

© Eric Lee/The New York Times

To help the struggling coal industry, President Trump used his executive authority to try to keep aging plants alive and burn more coal for electricity.

© Eric Lee/The New York Times

In Washington, where salmon is a multibillion dollar industry, government staff terminations and budget freezes may put salmon production at risk.

© Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

The moves include loosening environmental rules, but it is unclear how much they can help reverse the sharp decline in coal power over the last two decades.

© Eric Lee/The New York Times

In the next 15 years, the New York area could lose more than 80,000 homes to floods, worsening the housing shortage, according to a new report.

© Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times

The metro region’s housing shortage is acute. But by 2040, dozens of neighborhoods and suburbs are likely to have lost thousands of homes to floods, a new report found.

The facility, in Colstrip, Mont., used a new E.P.A. system for requesting special waivers from President Trump.

© Kristina Barker for The New York Times

Given the Trump administration’s recent moves relating to climate, the former vice president is looking to the developing world for the next generation of climate activism.

© Thibaud Moritz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) -- Advocates and survivors of sexual assault gathered in Hampton's Peninsula Town Center for 'Walk in Their Shoes' on Saturday.

The event was organized by The Center for Sexual Assault Survivors and offers resources and communities to those seeking help following an assault.

"This year is actually our 19th year I'm doing this walk," said Stacey Moran, victim services program manager with The Center. "We're just trying to recognize survivors and victims of sexual violence."

Advocates like Stacey Moran and Xiomara Harris with The Center for Sexual Assault Survivors were there as people of all ages walked to support those impacted. They said events like this help those who may not know what step to take, if any, following an assault.

"It feels empowering. For me, it feels like we are a community that sticks together. We join together, we come together," Harris explained.

10 On Your Side's Kiahnna Patterson emceed the event supporting survivors. Resources from Sentara, Riverside Hospital and local commonwealth attorney's offices were there as well. Funds raised by the walk and raffle go towards keeping The Center's resources free for those who need it.

"Sexual assault is very prevalent and we want to get the word out," said The Center representative. "It happens to men, women and children, and we want them to know that we are here for them. All of our services are free."

Those free services can make it easier for survivors to come forward, offering a sense of community.

"I know it's hard to sometimes just come out and say that you've been a victim of a crime, you know, especially a crime like for sexual assault," said The Center representative.

If you're looking to give back, the non-profit is in constant need of support in the form of funding in order to keep their services free.

"These are hard times for nonprofits. We are federally funded. So we need the community's help to keep our services free," said Harris.

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The senator appeared onstage at the music festival on Saturday night, appealing to young people to oppose President Trump.

© Emma Mcintyre/Getty Images for Coachella

Season 2 of HBO’s zombie drama begins with Joel and Ellie safe and settled. One guess how long that lasts.

The aircraft had flown tourists in New York City thousands of times before crashing Thursday with a Spanish family aboard. Passengers who had flown earlier that day are processing the shock.

© Adam Gray for The New York Times

The January wildfires in California devastated local habitats and communities. In an effort to better understand wildfire behavior, NASA scientists and engineers tried to learn from the events by testing new technology.

The new instrument, the Compact Fire Infrared Radiance Spectral Tracker (c-FIRST), was tested when NASA’s B200 King Air aircraft flew over the wildfires in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena, California. Based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, the aircraft used the c-FIRST instrument to observe the impacts of the fires in near real-time. Due to its small size and ability to efficiently simulate a satellite-based mission, the B200 King Air is uniquely suited for testing c-FIRST.

Managed and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, c-FIRST gathers thermal infrared images in high-resolution and other data about the terrain to study the impacts of wildfires on ecology. In a single observation, c-FIRST can capture the full temperature range across a wide area of wildland fires – as well as the cool, unburned background – potentially increasing both the quantity and quality of science data produced.

“Currently, no instrument is able to cover the entire range of attributes for fires present in the Earth system,” said Sarath Gunapala, principal investigator for c-FIRST at NASA JPL. “This leads to gaps in our understanding of how many fires occur, and of crucial characteristics like size and temperature.”

For decades, the quality of infrared images has struggled to convey the nuances of high-temperature surfaces above 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (550 degrees Celsius). Blurry resolution and light saturation of infrared images has inhibited scientists’ understanding of an extremely hot terrain, and thereby also inhibited wildfire research. Historically, images of extremely hot targets often lacked the detail scientists need to understand the range of a fire’s impacts on an ecosystem.

To address this, NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office supported JPL’s development of the c-FIRST instrument, combining state-of-the-art imaging technology with a compact and efficient design. When c-FIRST was airborne, scientists could detect smoldering fires more accurately and quickly, while also gathering important information on active fires in near real-time.

“These smoldering fires can flame up if the wind picks up again,” said Gunapala. “Therefore, the c-FIRST data set could provide very important information for firefighting agencies to fight fires more effectively.”

For instance, c-FIRST data can help scientists estimate the likelihood of a fire spreading in a certain landscape, allowing officials to more effectively monitor smoldering fires and track how fires evolve. Furthermore, c-FIRST can collect detailed data that can enable scientists to understand how an ecosystem may recover from fire events.

“The requirements of the c-FIRST instrument meet the flight profile of the King Air,” said KC Sujan, operations engineer for the B200 King Air. “The c-FIRST team wanted a quick integration, the flight speed in the range 130 and 140 knots on a level flight, communication and navigation systems, and the instruments power requirement that are perfectly fit for King Air’s capability.”

By first testing the instrument onboard the B200 King Air, the c-FIRST team can evaluate its readiness for future satellite missions investigating wildfires. On a changing planet where wildfires are increasingly common, instruments like c-FIRST could provide data that can aid firefighting agencies to fight fires more effectively, and to understand the ecosystemic impacts of extreme weather events.

The 2024 Annual Highlights of Results from the International Space Station is now available. This new edition contains updated bibliometric analyses, a list of all the publications documented in fiscal year 2024, and synopses of the most recent and recognized scientific findings from investigations conducted on the space station. These investigations are sponsored by NASA and all international partners – CSA (Canadian Space Agency), ESA (European Space Agency), JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and the State Space Corporation Roscosmos (Roscosmos) – for the advancement of science, technology, and education.

Between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024, more than 350 publications were reported. With approximately 40% of the research produced in collaboration between more than two countries and almost 80% of the high-impact studies published in the past seven years, station has continued to generate compelling and influential science above national and global standards since 2010.

The results achieved from station research provide insights that advance the commercialization of space and benefit humankind.

Some of the findings presented in this edition include:

• Improved machine learning algorithms to detect space debris (Italian Space Agency, Roscosmos, ESA)
• Visuospatial processing before and after spaceflight (CSA)
• Metabolic changes during fasting intervals in astronauts (ESA)
• Vapor bubble production for the improvement of thermal systems (NASA)
• Immobilization of particles for the development of optical materials (JAXA)
• Maintained function of cardiac 3D stem cells after weeks of exposure to space (NASA)

The content in the Annual Highlights of Results from the International Space Station has been reviewed and approved by the International Space Station Program Science Forum, a team of scientists and administrators representing NASA and international partners that are dedicated to planning, improving, and communicating the research operated on the space station.

[See the list of Station Research Results publications here and find the current edition of the Annual Highlights of Results here.]  

Modeling properties of thunderstorm discharges

Researchers report detailed physical properties of different types of corona discharges, including single- and multi-pulse blue discharges linked to powerful but short-lived electrical bursts near the tops of clouds. These details provide a reference for further investigation into the physical mechanisms behind these discharges and their role in the initiation of lightning, an important problem in lightning physics.

An ESA (European Space Agency) instrument used to study thunderstorms, Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) provides insights into their role in Earth’s atmosphere and climate, including mechanisms behind the creation of lightning. Understanding how thunderstorms and lightning disturb the upper atmosphere could improve atmospheric models along with climate and weather predictions. These high-altitude discharges also affect aircraft and spacecraft safety.

Evaluating effects of climate change on oceans

Researchers conclude that the space station’s ECOSTRESS instrument yields highly accurate sea surface temperature data. Given the instrument’s global coverage and high spatial resolution, these data have potential use in studies of biological and physical oceanography to evaluate regional and local effects of climate change.

ECOSTRESS resolves oceanographic features not detectable in imagery from NOAA’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite satellite, and has open-ocean coverage, unlike Landsat. Satellites are a fundamental tool to measure sea surface temperatures, which are rising across all oceans due to atmospheric warming induced by climate change.

Describing a gamma ray burst

Researchers report detailed observations and analysis of emissions from an exceptionally bright gamma ray burst (GRB), 210619B, detected by the station’s ASIM and other satellite and ground-based instruments. These observations could be useful in determining various properties of GRBs and how they change during different phases.

Believed to be generated by the collapse of massive stars, GRBs are the brightest, most explosive transient electromagnetic events in the universe. ASIM can observe thunderstorm discharges difficult to observe from the ground. It has a mode where a detected event triggers observation and onboard storage of data.

Sending instruments to the Moon supports a growing lunar economy on and off Earth, and the next flight of NASA science and technology is only days away. NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative is a lunar delivery service that sends NASA science and technology instruments to various geographic locations on the Moon using American companies. These rapid, cost-effective commercial lunar missions at a cadence of about two per year improve our understanding of the lunar environment in advance of future crewed missions to the Moon as part of the agency’s broader Artemis campaign.  

Of the 11 active CLPS contracts, there have been three CLPS launches to date: Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One, which collected data in transit but experienced an anomaly that prevented it from landing on the Moon; Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission, which landed, tipped over, and operated on the lunar surface; and Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission One that is currently enroute and scheduled to land in early March 2025. The CLPS contract awards cover end-to-end commercial payload delivery services, including payload integration, launch from Earth, landing on the surface of the Moon, and mission operations. 

NASA’s fourth CLPS flight is from Intuitive Machines with their IM-2 mission. The IM-2 mission is carrying NASA science and technology instruments to Mons Mouton, a lunar plateau just outside of 5 degrees of the South Pole of the Moon, closer to the pole than any preceding lunar mission.  

Scheduled to launch no earlier than Wednesday and land approximately eight days later, Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander, named Athena, will carry three NASA instruments to the lunar South Pole region – the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) suite and the Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA). 

The PRIME-1 suite consists of two instruments, the TRIDENT drill (The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain) and MSolo (Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations), which will work together to extricate lunar soil samples, known as regolith, from the subsurface and analyze their composition to further understand the lunar environment and gain insight on potential resources that can be extracted for future examination. 

The meter-long TRIDENT drill is designed to extract lunar regolith, up to about three feet below the surface. It will also measure soil temperature at varying depths below the surface, which will help to verify existing lunar thermal models that are used for ice stability calculations and resource mapping. By drilling into the lunar regolith, information is gathered to help answer questions about the lunar regolith geotechnical properties, such as soil strength, both at the surface and in the subsurface that will help inform Artemis infrastructure objectives. The data will be beneficial when designing future systems for on-site resource utilization that will use local resources to create everything from landing pads to rocket fuel. The lead development organization for TRIDENT is Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin Company. 

The MSOLO instrument is a mass spectrometer capable of identifying and quantifying volatiles (or gasses that easily evaporate) found at or beneath the lunar surface, including– if it’s present in the regolith within the drill’s reach – water and oxygen, brought to the surface by the TRIDENT drill. This instrument can also detect any gases that emanate from the lander, drilling process, and other payloads conducting operations on the surface. Using MSolo to study the volatile gases found on the Moon can help us understand how the lander’s presence might alter the local environment. The lead development organization is INFICON of Syracuse, New York, in partnership with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

NASA’s LRA is a collection of eight retroreflectors that enable precision laser ranging, which is a measurement of the distance between the orbiting or landing spacecraft to the reflector on the lander. The LRA instrument is passive, meaning it does not power on. It will function as a permanent location marker on the Moon for decades to come, similar to its predecessors. The lead development organization is NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 

In addition to the CLPS instruments, two technology demonstrations aboard IM-2 were developed through NASA’s Tipping Point opportunity. These are collaborations with the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and industry that support development of commercial space capabilities and benefit future NASA missions.  

Intuitive Machines developed a small hopping robot, Grace, named after Grace Hopper, computer scientist and mathematician. Grace will deploy as a secondary payload from the lander and enable high-resolution imaging and science surveying of the lunar surface, including permanently shadowed craters around the landing site. Grace is designed to bypass obstacles such as steep inclines, boulders, and craters to cover a lot of terrain while moving quickly, which is a valuable capability to support future missions on the Moon and other planets, including Mars. 

Nokia will test a Lunar Surface Communications System that employs the same cellular technology here on Earth. Reconceptualized by Nokia Bell Labs to meet the unique requirements of a lunar mission, this tipping point technology aims to demonstrate proximity communications between the lander, a Lunar Outpost rover, and the hopper. 

Launching as a rideshare alongside the IM-2 mission, NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft also will begin its journey to lunar orbit where it will map the distribution of water – and other forms of water – on the Moon. 

Future CLPS flights will continue to send payloads to the near side, far side, and South Pole regions of the Moon where investigations and exploration are informed by each area’s unique characteristics. With a pool of 13 American companies under CLPS, including a portfolio of 11 lunar deliveries by five vendors sending more than 50 individual science and technology instruments to lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon, NASA continues to advance long-term exploration of the Moon, and beyond to Mars.