ES: Spaceflightnow.com featured an on-line article detailing scientists belief that the Earth's gravity field has bulged more in the middle in the past four years, and they suspect that the same is true for the planet itself. The observations, based on satellite measurements, reverse a trend at least two decades in the making in which the planet and its gravity field became progressively more round. Chris Cox, of Raytheon, and colleague B.F. Chao detail these changes in the Earth's mass in this week's edition of the journal Science.

San Jose Mercury News -- MODIS was featured in this article about satellites tracking wildfires. An excerpt from this story follows: "In blazes such as the McNalley Fire, which has raged through Sequoia National Forest, satellite images are being used to give firefighters crucial information about the location and intensity of the blaze.

Using such images, firefighters can decide which blazes pose the greatest threats to people, property and the environment. Satellite-based images, which are low resolution but can show vast expanses of landscape, are used to chart the regional distribution of fires - that is, identifying where fires are located relative to each other.

"The main advantage is that it updates fire points from coast to coast and Alaska," said Rob Sohlberg, a geographer with the University of Maryland and one of the principal MODIS investigators."

SS: The Solar Grand Slam story about four solar flares emanating from the sun was picked up by 220 different news outlets including CNBC, CNN Headline News, MSNBC, and many NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox affliates.