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NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, left, and U.S. Department of State Acting Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Jennifer R. Littlejohn, right, look on as Ambassador of the Republic of Austria to the United States of America Petra Schneebauer, signs the Artemis Accords, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. The Republic of Austria is the 50th country to sign the Artemis Accords, which establish a practical set of principles to guide space exploration cooperation among nations participating in NASA’s Artemis program. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
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Panama and Austria signed the Artemis Accords Wednesday during separate signing ceremonies at NASA Headquarters in Washington, becoming the 49th and 50th nations to commit to the responsible exploration of space for all humanity.
“NASA welcomes Panama and Austria to the Artemis Accords community and celebrates 50 countries united by shared principles for the safe and responsible exploration of space,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. “More than ever before, NASA is opening space to more nations and more people for the benefit of all. Together we are building long-term and peaceful deep space exploration for the Artemis Generation.”
In just a few years, the original group of eight country signatories including the United States has multiplied, with 17 countries signings in 2024. More than a number, the Artemis Accords represent a robust community, from every region of the world, unified by the same goal: to ensure safe and responsible civil space exploration.
Through the Artemis Accords, the United States and other signatories are progressing toward continued safe and sustainable exploration of space with concrete outcomes. They committed to a method of operation and set of recommendations on non-interference, interoperability, release of scientific data, long-term sustainability guidelines, and registration to advance the implementation of the Artemis Accords.
Potential focus areas for the next year include further advancing sustainability, including debris management for both lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon.
Austria Joins Artemis Accords
Petra Schneebauer, ambassador of the Republic of Austria to the United States, signed the accords on behalf of Austria, becoming the 50th country signatory.
“Austria is proud to sign the Artemis Accords, an important step in fostering international cooperation for the civil exploration of the Moon and expanding humanity’s presence in the cosmos,” said Schneebauer. “By signing the Accords, we reaffirm our commitment to the peaceful, responsible, and cooperative use of space while emphasizing our support for strong multilateral partnerships and scientific progress. This cooperation will open new prospects for Austrian businesses, scientists, and research institutions to engage in pioneering space initiatives.”
Jennifer Littlejohn, acting assistant secretary, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, U.S. Department of State, also participated in Austria’s signing event.
Panama Joins Artemis Accords
Earlier Wednesday, Nelson hosted Panama for a signing ceremony. José Miguel Alemán Healy, ambassador of the Republic of Panama to the United States, signed the Artemis Accords on behalf of Panama. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Tony Fernandes for U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs also participated in the event.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, left, Ambassador of the Republic of Panama to the United States of America José Miguel Alemán Healy, center, and U.S. Department of State Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Tony Fernandes, pose for a picture after the Republic of Panama signed the Artemis Accords, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. The Republic of Panama is the 49th country to sign the Artemis Accords, which establish a practical set of principles to guide space exploration cooperation among nations participating in NASA’s Artemis program. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky “Today, Panama takes its place among many other nations looking not just to our own horizons, but to the horizons beyond our planet – exploring, learning, and contributing to humanity’s collective knowledge,” said Alemán.”This moment represents far more than a diplomatic signature. It is a bold commitment to peaceful exploration, scientific discovery, and international collaboration.”
In 2020, the United States, led by NASA with the U.S. Department of State, and seven other initial signatory nations established the Artemis Accords, identifying a set of principles promoting the beneficial use of space for humanity.
The Artemis Accords are grounded in the Outer Space Treaty and other agreements including the Registration Convention, the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices and norms of responsible behavior that NASA and its partners have supported, including the public release of scientific data.
The accords are a voluntary commitment to engage in safe, transparent, responsible behavior in space, and any nation that wants to commit to those values is welcome to sign.
Learn more about the Artemis Accords at:
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords
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Meira Bernstein / Elizabeth Shaw
Headquarters, Washington
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Last Updated Dec 11, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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By Space Force
The Space Force senior leader highlighted the ever-changing landscape of developing partnerships in the space domain.
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By NASA
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Watersheds on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard will be among the areas most affected by underground saltwater intrusion by the year 2100 due to sea level rise and changes in groundwater supplies, according to a NASA-DOD study. NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image on April 21, 2023. Intrusion of saltwater into coastal groundwater can make water there unusable, damage ecosystems, and corrode infrastructure.
Seawater will infiltrate underground freshwater supplies in about three of every four coastal areas around the world by the year 2100, according to a recent study led by researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. In addition to making water in some coastal aquifers undrinkable and unusable for irrigation, these changes can harm ecosystems and corrode infrastructure.
Called saltwater intrusion, the phenomenon happens below coastlines, where two masses of water naturally hold each other at bay. Rainfall on land replenishes, or recharges, fresh water in coastal aquifers (underground rock and soil that hold water), which tends to flow below ground toward the ocean. Meanwhile, seawater, backed by the pressure of the ocean, tends to push inland. Although there’s some mixing in the transition zone where the two meet, the balance of opposing forces typically keeps the water fresh on one side and salty on the other.
Now, two impacts of climate change are tipping the scales in favor of salt water. Spurred by planetary warming, sea level rise is causing coastlines to migrate inland and increasing the force pushing salt water landward. At the same time, slower groundwater recharge — due to less rainfall and warmer weather patterns — is weakening the force moving the underground fresh water in some areas.
Worldwide Intrusion
Saltwater intrusion will affect groundwater in about three of every four coastal aquifers around the world by the year 2100, a NASA-DOD study estimates. Saltwater can make groundwater in coastal areas undrinkable and useless for irrigation, as well as harm ecosystems and corrode infrastructure.NASA/JPL-Caltech The study, published in Geophysical Research Letters in November, evaluated more than 60,000 coastal watersheds (land area that channels and drains all the rainfall and snowmelt from a region into a common outlet) around the world, mapping how diminished groundwater recharge and sea level rise will each contribute to saltwater intrusion while estimating what their net effect will be.
Considering the two factors separately, the study’s authors found that by 2100 rising sea levels alone will tend to drive saltwater inland in 82% of coastal watersheds studied. The transition zone in those places would move a relatively modest distance: no more than 656 feet (200 meters) from current positions. Vulnerable areas include low-lying regions such as Southeast Asia, the coast around the Gulf of Mexico, and much of the United States’ Eastern Seaboard.
Meanwhile, slower recharge on its own will tend to cause saltwater intrusion in 45% of the coastal watersheds studied. In these areas, the transition zone would move farther inland than it will from sea level rise — as much as three-quarters of a mile (about 1,200 meters) in some places. The regions to be most affected include the Arabian Peninsula, Western Australia, and Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. In about 42% of coastal watersheds, groundwater recharge will increase, tending to push the transition zone toward the ocean and in some areas overcoming the effect of saltwater intrusion by sea level rise.
All told, due to the combined effects of changes in sea level and groundwater recharge, saltwater intrusion will occur by century’s end in 77% of the coastal watersheds evaluated, according to the study.
Generally, lower rates of groundwater recharge are going to drive how far saltwater intrudes inland, while sea level rise will determine how widespread it is around the world. “Depending on where you are and which one dominates, your management implications might change,” said Kyra Adams, a groundwater scientist at JPL and the paper’s lead author.
For example, if low recharge is the main reason intrusion is happening in one area, officials there might address it by protecting groundwater resources, she said. On the other hand, if the greater concern is that sea level rise will oversaturate an aquifer, officials might divert groundwater.
Global Consistency
Co-funded by NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), the study is part of an effort to evaluate how sea level rise will affect the department’s coastal facilities and other infrastructure. It used information on watersheds collected in HydroSHEDS, a database managed by the World Wildlife Fund that uses elevation observations from the NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. To estimate saltwater intrusion distances by 2100, the researchers used a model accounting for groundwater recharge, water table rise, fresh- and saltwater densities, and coastal migration from sea level rise, among other variables.
Study coauthor Ben Hamlington, a climate scientist at JPL and a coleader of NASA’s Sea Level Change Team, said that the global picture is analogous to what researchers see with coastal flooding: “As sea levels rise, there’s an increased risk of flooding everywhere. With saltwater intrusion, we’re seeing that sea level rise is raising the baseline risk for changes in groundwater recharge to become a serious factor.”
A globally consistent framework that captures localized climate impacts is crucial for countries that don’t have the expertise to generate one on their own, he added.
“Those that have the fewest resources are the ones most affected by sea level rise and climate change,” Hamlington said, “so this kind of approach can go a long way.”
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Andrew Wang / Jane J. Lee
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Earth (ESD) Earth Explore Climate Change Science in Action Multimedia Data For Researchers About Us 4 min read
NASA Study: Crops, Forests Responding to Changing Rainfall Patterns
Earth’s rainy days are changing and plant life is responding. This visualization shows average precipitation for the entire globe based on more than 20 years of data from 2000 to 2023. Cooler colors indicate areas that receive less rain. Warm colors receive more rain. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio A new NASA-led study has found that how rain falls in a given year is nearly as important to the world’s vegetation as how much. Reporting Dec. 11 in Nature, the researchers showed that even in years with similar rainfall totals, plants fared differently when that water came in fewer, bigger bursts.
In years with less frequent but more concentrated rainfall, plants in drier environments like the U.S. Southwest were more likely to thrive. In humid ecosystems like the Central American rainforest, vegetation tended to fare worse, possibly because it could not tolerate the longer dry spells.
Scientists have previously estimated that almost half of the world’s vegetation is driven primarily by how much rain falls in a year. Less well understood is the role of day-to-day variability, said lead author Andrew Feldman, a hydrologist and ecosystem scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Shifting precipitation patterns are producing stronger rainstorms — with longer dry spells in between — compared to a century ago.
“You can think of it like this: if you have a house plant, what happens if you give it a full pitcher of water on Sunday versus a third of a pitcher on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday?” said Feldman. Scale that to the size of the U.S. Corn Belt or a rainforest and the answer could have implications for crop yields and ultimately how much carbon dioxide plants remove from the atmosphere.
Blooms in Desert
The team, including researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and multiple universities, analyzed two decades of field and satellite observations, spanning millions of square miles. Their study area encompassed diverse landscapes from Siberia to the southern tip of Patagonia.
Yellow wildflowers and orange poppies carpet the desert following a wet winter for the Antelope Valley in California. NASA/Jim Ross They found that plants across 42% of Earth’s vegetated land surface were sensitive to daily rainfall variability. Of those, a little over half fared better — often showing increased growth — in years with fewer but more intense wet days. These include croplands as well as drier landscapes like grasslands and deserts.
In contrast, broadleaf (e.g., oak, maple, and beech) forests and rainforests in lower and middle latitudes tended to fare worse under those conditions. The effect was especially pronounced in Indo-Pacific rainforests, including in the Philippines and Indonesia.
Statistically, daily rainfall variability was nearly as important as annual rainfall totals in driving growth worldwide.
Red Light, Green Light
The new study relied primarily on a suite of NASA missions and datasets, including the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) algorithm, which provides rain and snowfall rates for most of the planet every 30 minutes using a network of international satellites.
To gauge plant response day to day, the researchers calculated how green an area appeared in satellite imagery. “Greenness”, also known asthe Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, is commonly used to estimate vegetation density and health. They also tracked a faint reddish light that plants emit during photosynthesis, when a plant absorbs sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into food, its chlorophyll “leaks” unused photons. This faint light is called solar-induced fluorescence, and it’s a telltale sign of flourishing vegetation.
Growing plants emit a form of light detectable by NASA satellites orbiting hundreds of miles above Earth. Parts of North America appear to glimmer in this visualization, depicting an average year. Gray indicates regions with little or no fluorescence; red, pink, and white indicate high fluorescence. NASA Scientific Visualization Studio Not visible bythe naked eye, plant fluorescence can be detected by instruments aboard satellites such as NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2). Launched in 2014, OCO-2 has observed the U.S. Midwest fluorescing strongly during the growing season.
Feldman said the findings highlight the vital role that plants play in moving carbon around Earth — a process called the carbon cycle. Vegetation, including crops, forests, and grasslands, forms a vast carbon “sink,” absorbing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
“A finer understanding of how plants thrive or decline day to day, storm by storm, could help us better understand their role in that critical cycle,” Feldman said.
The study also included researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Stanford University, Columbia University, Indiana University, and the University of Arizona.
By Sally Younger
NASA’s Earth Science News Team
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