Scientists know more about the chemical makeup of the lower atmosphere following forest fires, sand storms, volcanic eruptions and other natural events than they do about its composition on less calamitous days - a missing, but important data point in climate-change research that a new NASA Earth Venture mission called the Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom), aims to furnish.

Tropical Storm Noul

This composite image of Tropical Storm Noul was generated at 12:00 (UTC) on 5 May 2015, days before the storm strengthened and passed over the Philippines as a Super Typhoon.

As ESA's PROBA-V works quietly on its main task of monitoring vegetation growth across Earth, the minisatellite is also picking up something from a little higher: signals from thousands of aircraft.

A group of international researchers led by the Centre for Landscape and Climate Research at the University of Leicester have used space satellite technology to identify regions of West Africa which are vulnerable to the effects of land degradation through climate change.

The height of a swathe of the Himalayas has dropped by around one metre as a result of the devastating Nepal earthquake, scientists say.

A two-day meeting of the EC-Earth consortium, hosted by ECMWF on 5 and 6 May, reviewed progress in developing an improved Earth system model for fresh insights into climate change.