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    This graphic shows the US states as squares. Researchers at JPL compared AIRS measurements of water vapor in the lower atmosphere with flu case estimates over a twelve year period. For each state, they identified specific levels of low humidity that signal the start of a flu outbreak.
    October 27, 2022
    How the Relationship Between Humidity and Influenza Varies Across the United States
    Heidar Thor Thrastarson
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

    The influenza, or flu, virus infects millions of people in the United States each year, mostly during winter. To help limit the impacts of seasonal flu outbreaks, scientists have been trying to anticipate when the outbreaks occur using a variety of information.

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    Airborne imagery of different representative biomes.
    July 12, 2022
    Designing a Space Mission to Maximize Science
    Kerry Cawse-Nicholson
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

    When designing a space mission, there are many parameters to take into account. There are often trade-offs between different design parameters.

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    Photo of a city skyline with mountains in the background.
    June 7, 2022
    Examining future changes in heat stress
    Colin Raymond
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology /UCLA

    Heat stress is a rapidly increasing threat to human health and energy demand across the US and the globe. Both high temperatures and high moisture levels are important contributors to heat stress, and it is well-known that future temperature increases will generally be larger in mountains due to there being much less snow and drier soils.

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    Photo of a very dry corn field.
    March 8, 2022
    Quantifying correlated risks in a warmer world
    Colin Raymond
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology /UCLA

    Sequences of extreme climate events, or multiple ones occurring simultaneously, can have impacts that are ‘larger than the sum of their parts’.

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    A graphical outline of the concept behind the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on our atmosphere.
    November 16, 2021
    The COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on our atmosphere
    Joshua Laughner
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

    In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, measures enacted by local, state, and national governments to slow the spread of the virus also caused reductions in some human activities, such as traffic. This, in turn, led to lower emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants in a very short time period.

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    Image of the International Space Station with inset view of ECOSTRESS.
    September 13, 2021
    Monitoring Plant Stress from the International Space Station
    Kerry Cawse-Nicholson
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

    As our climate changes, droughts are becoming more frequent, with more than 20% of land in the Western US currently experiencing extreme or exceptional drought.

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    A globe centered on the United States with the expected changes in NOx concentration for a selection of US cities.
    November 8, 2019
    The lifetime of air pollutants
    Joshua Laughner
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology / UC Berkeley

    NOx is a family of air pollutants that are a key factor controlling amounts of both ozone and particulate matter (PM) in the air. Reducing NOx emissions has been an important strategy for improving air quality in the US for decades.

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