On 1 July 2025, NIWA merged with GNS Science to become Earth Sciences New Zealand.

Atmospheric analysis

NIWA has been using advanced scientific instruments to measure atmospheric trace gases and isotopes for over 50 years.

  • Rust coding

    Feature story
    Campbell Gardiner explains how hundreds of lines of computer code generated each week are helping biosecurity authorities keep a close eye on a plant pathogen.
  • Tracking our ocean wanderers

    Feature story
    Albatrosses may be masters of the skies, but they are surprisingly vulnerable on the water. Campbell Gardiner talks to two scientists working to keep these magnificent seabirds airborne.
  • Kingfish

    Getting the taste for kingfish

    Feature story
    This award-winning kingfish sashimi dish is creating quite a splash – but it doesn’t come from the sea. We look at NIWA’s latest aquaculture success story and the new opportunities it’s on path to deliver.
  • Fresh thinking – new solutions

    Feature story
    Getting tangled up in seaweed or using supercomputers to unravel climate change – NIWA scientists go to great lengths to find fresh answers.
  • Science helps shape the fightback

    Feature story
    NIWA’s Chief Executive John Morgan looks at the role science will play in New Zealand’s post-Covid recovery.
  • A cold day in the office

    Feature story
    Five specialist NIWA divers were left ‘gasping’ during their recent plunge under the ice near Scott Base.
  • Building pathways

    Feature story
    It has been a whirlwind first six months for Ngāpera Keegan and Tekiteora Rolleston-Gabel, the first two young researchers in NIWA’s newly established Māori Graduate Internship Programme.
  • Locked down, but breathing freely

    Feature story
    Some of the most striking images of lockdown around the world have been the blue skies of cities ordinarily choking in smog. From New Delhi to Los Angeles, Beijing to Paris, the changes were so remarkable they were visible from space.
  • Dr Kura Paul-Burke returns to Whakaari

    "For us, Whakaari is our whaea, she is our tupuna, and also a place of our mahinga kai. I didn't realise how much I'd missed her..."
  • Using sound to see what's happening geologically

    Marine geologist - Dr Joshu Mountjoy - is mapping the seafloor landscape around Whakaari/White Island to understand how much sediment was dislodged in the eruption and where it has gone.
  • What's in a bubble?

    Marine Geophysicist Sally Watson, maps the seafloor and takes samples from the water column so we can understand geological processes shaping the volcanic underwater realm around Whakaari/White Island.
  • A special day on RV Tangaroa

    It's a special day on RV Tangaroa today - celebrating the Whakatāne High School ball with student Cameron Phillips, one of two Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa taiohi on board.