The Transient Artifact and Continuous Learning System (TACLS) leverages data from continuously operating satellite networks coupled with machine learning models to help meteorologists at the National Weather Service forecast flash floods more efficiently. This new software is the result of a collaboration between NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS).

Created with support from NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), TACLS leverages machine learning to automatically locate evidence (unusual increases in atmospheric moisture) of impending flash flooding that meteorologists may otherwise miss as they analyze large amounts of data. TACLS flags that evidence, indicates where flash flooding could likely occur, and displays that information via a user-friendly visualization for human analysts to interpret. Those analysts can then decide whether to issue a flash flood warning or weather advisory.

This novel framework for tracking extreme weather events and predicting imminent flash floods operates in near real-time, producing forecasts in as little as fifteen minutes.

“That’s really what we wanted to do, to give meteorologists a tool to help decision making for flash flood warnings,” said Yehuda Bock, Distinguished Researcher at the UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography and principal investigator for TACLS.

In simulations testing, TACLS used data from diverse severe weather events—including atmospheric rivers, monsoonal convection, and tropical cyclone remnants—between 2017 and 2023 and successfully captured 93% of the issued flash-flood warnings. Meteorologists from the National Weather Service are currently working to incorporate TACLS into their existing systems for forecasting flash floods in Southern California.

This learning system has two main components. First, an analytic back-end software suite uses machine learning algorithms to process satellite data and determine areas at risk for flooding. Second, user-friendly visualization software highlights those areas for further analysis by humans.

The ACLS back-end software analyzes data from satellites in the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), a constellation of satellite networks that drive navigation services around the world. Water vapor in the troposphere delays signals from these satellites as they travel to Earth. This signal delay can be analyzed to calculate the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere over a particular location on Earth.

The TACLS analytic back-end software suite features a machine learning model trained using more than 30 years of past GNSS data. This model is an anomaly detector that tracks unusual increases in atmospheric moisture. The model then carefully examines that atmospheric moisture data and determines whether it’s either an artifact (a false feature or distortion in the data) or a transient (a time-sensitive physical event, like heavy precipitation) that requires interpretation by human analysts.

If TACLS determines the data represents a transient, such as an extreme weather event that warrants a flash flood warning, it will forward that data to the TACLS visualization software (MGViz) for further evaluation by humans. The analysts use their judgement and experience to interpret these events and determine whether the flagged data indicates a flash flood is likely, and, if necessary, issue a flash flood warning.

Several past innovations developed at JPL are leveraged by TACLS to process GNSS data and present the results. The analytic back-end software suite incorporates elements from JPL’s Domain-agnostic Outlier Ranking Algorithms program and the Time-series Forecasting, Evaluation, and Deployment program. The TACLS visualizer is based on the Multi-Mission Geographic Information System, originally developed at JPL for NASA’s Mars missions.

The TACLS software binds all these components within a novel system that enhances existing methods to reduce the amount of time it takes for a human analyst to determine whether to issue a flash flood warning.

Both the TACLS software and the data used to train it will be open-source, allowing scientists to either tailor this model in response to their unique research needs or create their own model from scratch.

For additional details, see the entry for this project on NASA TechPort. 

Project Lead: Dr. Yehuda Bock, University of California, San Diego. 

Sponsoring Organization(s): NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office Advanced Information Systems Technology Program; JPL; NOAA; National Weather Service. 

The post NASA Uses Machine Learning to Enhance Flash Flood Warnings appeared first on NASA Science.

What you’ll do

• Learn how to recognize binary systems and brown dwarfs in images made by NASA’s WISE space telescope. 
• Click buttons to indicate whether or not they contain binaries. If you see a binary, click a button to indicate whether or not it includes a brown dwarf. Review as many image sets as you like, 
• If you want to, you can discuss what you have found with other volunteers and scientists in the Talk forum.

Requirements

• Time: 5-15 minutes to complete the tutorial
• Equipment: Web-connected device.
• Knowledge: None. In project tutorial provides all instruction needed.

Get started!

1. Visit the project website.  
2. Complete the in-project tutorial to learn how to spot binary systems in short animations of WISE data.
3. Start identifying candidate binary systems containing a brown dwarf, using a Field Guide reference as necessary.

Learn More

The Backyard Worlds: Binaries Research page gives an overview of the research being pursued and its value towards expanding what we know about how star and planetary systems form. Links throughout this page take the reader to additional sources of information. The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page has additional information relevant to the work of the project. 

You might also like to try Backyard Worlds: Cool Neighbors and Backyard Worlds: Planet 9!

Get to know the people of Backyard Worlds: Binaries!

Mei Lin

Intern, undergraduate student
Harvard University

Visit Team Page

Aaron Meisner

Staff Astronomer
NSF’s NOIRLab and Harvard University

Visit Team Page

Zachary Hartman

NASA Postdoctoral Fellow
NASA Ames Research Center

Visit Team Page

Austin Rothermich

Graduate Student
City University of New York and American Museum of Natural History

Visit Team Page

Jackie Faherty

Astrophysicist / Scientist at American Museum of Natural History

Visit Team Page

Adam Schneider

United States Naval Observatory

Visit Team Page

J. Davy Kirkpatrick

Astronomer, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) at the California Institute of Technology 

Visit Team Page

Dan Caseldon

Citizen scientist and Research Associate, American Museum of Natural History

Visit Team Page

Arjun Dey

Astronomer, NSF’s NOIRLab 

Visit Team Page

John Gizis

Observational Astronomer, University of Delaware

Visit Team Page

The post Backyard Worlds: Binaries appeared first on NASA Science.

Lane Painter

Operations Specialist, Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters

Operations Specialist, Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters

Lane Painter is an Operations Specialist supporting the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

His work focuses on advancing innovative robotic mobility capabilities, next-generation commercial space models, and international engagement that support NASA’s robotic science exploration of Mars, with the goal of enabling greater science return and exploration capability at lower cost.

Painter is a co-lead for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program Science Transport and Robotic Innovation for Deployment and Exploration, or STRIDE, an activity focused on assessing and maturing emerging commercial mobility systems, including surface and aerial robotic systems, that could support future Mars exploration missions.

Painter also serves on the leadership team for the International Mars Exploration Working Group, or IMEWG, supporting NASA’s engagement with the multilateral forum of space agencies and government institutions focused on coordinating shared Mars exploration priorities. Through this work, he helps facilitate international dialogue on robotic Mars exploration, science priorities, technology development, mission planning, and long-term cooperation across the global Mars exploration community.

Prior to joining the Mars Exploration Program, Painter was part of the University of Chicago’s Human-Robot Interaction Lab, where he supported research at the intersection of robotics and human-machine teaming.

Painter earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in Industrial Systems, Manufacture, and Management from the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

The post Lane Painter appeared first on NASA Science.

During the 2025-2026 school year, educators from the NASA Science Activation Program’s GLOBE (Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment) Mission Earth project participated in a specialized Community of Practice led by NASA Langley Research Center to refine how students interact with NASA’s land cover data (MODIS, Landsat, and Sentinel-2). Their collaboration focused on four key areas:

• Data Collection: Improving the process of making and submitting land cover observations to NASA using the GLOBE Observer App.
• Curriculum Integration: Identifying connections between land cover observations, satellite data, and classroom learning.
• Student Research: Brainstorming potential land cover research topics/questions for students.

• Validation: Providing expert feedback on the satellite comparison process.

Through GLOBE, communities can contribute meaningful environmental data to a long-term data record. When participants make observations of land cover via GLOBE Observer, the team at NASA Langley compares their observation with satellite data for a similar time and location and sends a satellite comparison email, which includes a data table that shows how their GLOBE observation and the corresponding satellite data compare. 

Key Community of Practice Findings:
The Community of Practice included a total of 14 educators, with six actively collecting land cover observations with their students using the GLOBE Observer app. These land cover observations were collocated to MODIS, Landsat, and Sentinel-2 data with educators receiving a satellite comparison email. 

Within the scope of this Community of Practice, 10 of the educators developed student research plans for the 2026-2027 school year focused on land cover data, addressing questions such as:

• How does land cover affect surface temperature?
• How has land use changed over time for our local area?
• How does land cover differ for locations (such as other schools) at the same latitude but different longitudes?
• How do different land covers impact flooding?

The educators were extremely excited to have the opportunity to interact and learn from each other as a community, as well as to connect with NASA subject matter experts. Based on lessons learned from the Community of Practice, the team has a better understanding of how NASA land cover data can be incorporated in the classroom, what types of research questions educators might present to their students, and resources that could be developed to assist educators in the implementation of their research plans. 

Within the scope of the Land Cover Community of Practice (COP), educators were asked to provide feedback for the GLOBE Mission Earth GLOBE Nature Notes Guide that was developed by the NASA Langley team, leveraging the Nature Note model created by the NASA Science Activation program’s Learning Ecosystems North East (LENE) project, which is led by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. The GLOBE Nature Notes aligned with GLOBE protocols were developed to assist educators in integrating the Nature Notes process with their students’ GLOBE observations. One of the COP educators is currently developing an example of a land cover GLOBE Nature Note that will be shared with the GLOBE and NASA Science Activation community, once completed.

Educators can join the GLOBE Program and contribute observations of Land Cover and other environmental conditions by downloading the GLOBE Observer app and learning more about Land Cover.

GLOBE Mission Earth is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC54A and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn/about-science-activation/.

The post GLOBE Mission Earth Educators Participate in Land Cover Community of Practice appeared first on NASA Science.

A compact, multifrequency radar built by a team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will make it easier to collect information about dynamic cloud systems. Called CloudCube, this new instrument simultaneously probes the atmosphere with three radar signals, spanning 36 to 240 GHz, for optimized sensitivity to a wide range of water droplet and ice particle sizes. 

Built with funding from NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office Instrument Incubator Program, CloudCube transmits and receives Ka-, W-, and G-band signals, making it the first compact radar system capable of simultaneously probing meteorological targets at wavelengths spanning approximately one to ten millimeters. Researchers will be able to combine information from the three signals to learn more about the initiation and evolution of precipitation, as well as cloud microphysics and radiative properties.

“We’re making a low-power, low-mass instrument to facilitate new cost-efficient missions for atmospheric observations. Building a multi-frequency radar, especially at G-band, is very novel,” said Raquel Rodriguez Monje, a systems engineer at JPL and principal investigator for CloudCube.

Each of CloudCube’s three signals observes a different element of cloud physics. Ka-band radar signals are ideal for collecting precipitation profiles; W-band radar signals are preferred for measuring cloud particles that give rise to precipitation; and G-band radar signals, which have never been collected from a space-based instrument, are ideal for measuring ice and liquid water content inside very light clouds (a paper describing this measurement can be found here).

Probing the atmosphere simultaneously with three signals allows researchers to collect data on all these cloud features at once, which is valuable for improving weather forecasts and especially climate modeling. CloudCube leverages innovations in millimeter-wave hardware to pack three radar modules–one for each signal–within a single compact system.

One CloudCube innovation concerns the specialized components required to transmit G-band power from a compact, low-power instrument. The detection of cloud signals requires high transmit power, which CloudCube achieves by combining the outputs of multiple high-efficiency frequency-multiplication devices that allow the instrument to generate hundreds of milliWatts at 240 GHz. Another innovation of CloudCube is that it was designed to use as few radio frequency components as possible to reduce its mass and power consumption, which could lower the cost of future Earth-observing orbital instruments.

Flying an instrument equipped with G-band radar in space will be a new capability and will allow researchers to achieve greater spatial resolution and sensitivity in the study of cloud microphysical processes.

“Basically, we’re weighing clouds using these combinations of frequencies in a way that we couldn’t do before we had the G-band,” said Matt Lebsock, a researcher at JPL and co-investigator for CloudCube.

The instrument has been tested in the field. A ground-based prototype of CloudCube’s G-band channel operated continuously for 11 months during the Department of Energy’s Cloud and Precipitation Experiment at Kennaook (CAPE-K) campaign. CloudCube also participated in the Eastern Pacific Cloud Aerosol Precipitation Experiment, a ground campaign sponsored by the Department of Energy. A paper describing the results of that experiment can be found here.

Most recently, CloudCube successfully operated all three frequency bands from NASA’s Gulfstream III aircraft and collected its first airborne observations of snowfall as part of the North American Upstream Feature-Resolving and Tropopause Uncertainty Reconnaissance Experiment campaign—a NASA-funded campaign designed to improve forecasts of high-impact winter weather. The CloudCube team is currently calibrating and processing the data for public release.

For additional details, see the entry for this project on NASA TechPort.

Project Lead: Dr. Raquel Rodriguez Monje, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Sponsoring Organization: NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office Instrument Incubation Program

The post NASA’s CloudCube Pioneers Miniaturized Radar to Study Clouds, Precipitation appeared first on NASA Science.