From the NASA Earth Right Now website:

With the launch of five Earth-observing missions in 2014 — more Earth-focused launches in a single year in more than a decade — NASA will be able to deliver even more crucial data to scientists trying to understand our changing planet. Since the agency’s inception in 1958, NASA has established itself as a world leader in Earth science and climate studies.

It is not only exciting that NASA is making some clear connections to their work and our own home planet, but the wealth of data that will be coming out of these missions will provide an outstanding opportunity for faculty and students to work with data and images for some authentic learning!  I have been studying the details of the first mission, the GPM (Global Precipitation Measurements), and their education and data access sections of the website are already primed and ready to go with sharing some of the exciting results.

Look for the hashtag #earthnow in your social media outlets this year… or, use hashtagr to do the work for you!

You can read more at:

• Earth Right Now (main page)

• Earth Right Now – A Year of New Missions

Image from NASA, originally accessed from @NASA tweet, 1/22/14, 2:09 PM