See NASA’s GUARDIAN Catch a Tsunami - Jet Propulsion Laboratory - EARTH

 

This animation shows how, following a massive earthquake off Russia on July 29, 2025, GUARDIAN flagged an incoming wave west of Hawaii some 32 minutes before it made landfall and was detected by tide gauges (shown in blue). Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

A new data visualization illustrates how an experimental NASA technology can provide extra lead time to communities in the path of a tsunami. Called GUARDIAN (GNSS Upper Atmospheric Real-time Disaster Information and Alert Network), the software detects slight distortions in satellite navigation signals to spot hazards on the move..

The animation breaks down a real-life case study: last summer’s massive Kamchatka earthquake and the tsunami that it sent racing across the Pacific and towards Hawaii at over 500 mph (805 kph).

The visualization shows the magnitude 8.8 earthquake (seen in purple) strike off the Russian coast on July 29, 2025, triggering the tsunami. The red, orange, yellow, and green ringlets represent real-time readings from ground stations tracking GPS and other navigational satellite signals. The disturbances were spotted by GUARDIAN’s artificial intelligence-powered detection algorithms as soon as eight minutes after the earthquake.

For the next several hours, signs of the tsunami were picked up by GUARDIAN across the Pacific Ocean in near real time. The system flagged an incoming wave off the coast of Kauai some 32 minutes before it made landfall and was detected by tide gauges (shown in blue).

The results highlight GUARDIAN’s potential to augment existing early warning systems, said Camille Martire, one of its developers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

Currently, determining whether an earthquake generated a tsunami remains a challenge. Forecasters rely on seismic data and computer simulations to make their best prediction, then wait for pressure sensors attached to the ocean floor to confirm a passing wave. Those sensors work well but are expensive and thinly dispersed. Gaps in coverage remain. And in those gaps, warning time disappears.

The GUARDIAN approach is complementary and cost effective because it monitors existing data from GPS and other constellations that make up the Global Navigation Satellite System. It’s also free to access, though for now best suited to analysts trained to interpret its findings.

How GUARDIAN works

All day, every day, geopositioning constellations transmit radio signals to ground stations around the globe. On the ground, the data is refined to sub-decimeter (less than 10 centimeters) positioning accuracy by JPL’s Global Differential GPS System. Before the signals get there, however, they must travel through an electrically charged skin of plasma called the ionosphere.

Solar storms and other space weather can wreak electrical mayhem in the ionosphere, and so can events on Earth. Tsunamis and earthquakes, by displacing large amount of air at Earth’s surface, unleash pressure waves that can slightly perturb the radio signals coming down from satellites. While systems are in place to correct for this “noise,” GUARDIAN considers it a useful signal.

Currently, GUARDIAN scours data from more than 350 GNSS ground stations around the Pacific Ring of Fire, a hotbed for the ocean’s deadliest waves. And the system is not confined to tsunamis. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, missile tests, spacecraft reentries, meteoroid splashdowns — anything that produces a large rumble on Earth is potentially fair game. While the Kamchatka event didn’t cause widespread damage to people or property, it showed how the next time disaster strikes, NASA science could give communities a few more minutes to act.

GUARDIAN is being developed at JPL by the GDGPS project, which is partially supported by NASA’s Space Geodesy Project.

To learn more, visit: https://guardian.jpl.nasa.gov/ 

Source: See NASA’s GUARDIAN Catch a Tsunami - NASA

Experimental pill dramatically reduces ‘bad’ cholesterol

An experimental pill called enlicitide slashed levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, commonly known as “bad” cholesterol, by up to 60%, a new phase three clinical trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed. If approved by the Food and Drug Administration, this novel medication could help millions in the U.S. significantly reduce their risk of heart attacks and strokes.

“Fewer than half of patients with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease currently reach LDL cholesterol goals. An oral therapy this effective has the potential to dramatically improve our ability to prevent heart attacks and strokes on a population level,” said Ann Marie Navar, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiologist and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Navar led the study, which was sponsored by the drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc.

Researchers have known for decades that LDL cholesterol causes cardiovascular disease. Cholesterol-containing particles deposit in blood vessel walls, a process called atherosclerosis, which can then cause heart attacks and strokes. Consequently, lowering LDL cholesterol is a cornerstone of preventing cardiovascular disease in people who do not yet have it and reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people who are already affected.

The development of enlicitide resulted directly from research conducted at UT Southwestern, Dr. Navar explained. Decades ago, Michael Brown, M.D., Professor of Molecular Genetics and Internal Medicine, and Joseph Goldstein, M.D., Chair and Professor of Molecular Genetics and Professor of Internal Medicine, discovered the LDL receptor on liver cells, which removes LDL cholesterol from the blood. This breakthrough not only earned the pair the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1985 but also laid the groundwork for developing statins, the class of medications most commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol levels.

Subsequent research came through the Dallas Heart Study based at UTSW, led by Helen Hobbs, M.D., Professor in the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development and of Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics, and Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D., Professor in the Center for Human Nutrition, the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development, and of Internal Medicine. They found a group of people with lower levels of LDL cholesterol due to genetic changes that caused them to make less of the PCSK9 protein. PCSK9 reduces the number of LDL cholesterol receptors on liver cells, slowing the liver’s ability to clear LDL cholesterol from the bloodstream. This finding led to the development of injectable drugs that inhibit PCSK9, first in the form of monoclonal antibodies, and then as a small interfering RNA that inhibits the synthesis of the PCSK9 protein itself. The monoclonal antibodies, evolocumab and alirocumab, reduce circulating LDL cholesterol levels by about 60%.

Despite the efficacy of these drugs, Dr. Navar said, research by her group and others has shown that they are rarely prescribed. Early barriers to therapy included their high cost and insurance issues. Despite reductions in price and improvements in insurance coverage, the vast majority of primary care physicians and a substantial minority of cardiologists still don’t prescribe them, possibly because they are only available as injections, she hypothesized.

Enlicitide works in a similar fashion to the monoclonal antibodies, binding to PCSK9 in the bloodstream, but it is taken once a day orally in pill form.

In the new phase three clinical trial, researchers tested enlicitide’s ability to lower LDL cholesterol in 2,909 patients who either had established atherosclerosis or were considered at risk for developing it due to related conditions. Two-thirds of the patients received the study drug, while the other third received a placebo. Even though the vast majority of these volunteers were already taking a statin, their average LDL cholesterol level was 96 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl), far above the 70 mg/dl recommended for those with atherosclerosis and 55 mg/dl for those at risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

“The study population reflects what we see in clinical practice,” Dr. Navar said. “Even the highest intensity statins are often not enough to get people to their cholesterol goals.”

After 24 weeks, those taking enlicitide reduced their LDL cholesterol levels by about 60% compared with a placebo. Enlicitide also significantly reduced other blood lipid markers associated with cardiovascular disease, including non-HDL lipoprotein cholesterol, apolipoprotein B, and lipoprotein(a). The results held steady over a yearlong follow-up period.

“These reductions in LDL cholesterol are the most we have ever achieved with an oral drug by far since the development of statins,” Dr. Navar said.

A separate clinical trial is already underway to study whether this decrease in LDL cholesterol translates into reductions in heart attacks and strokes.

Source: https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/articles/year-2026/feb-experimental-pill-bad-cholesterol.html 

Source: Experimental pill dramatically reduces ‘bad’ cholesterol – Scents of Science