Atmosphere - NASA Earth Observatory
WEB5 days ago · climate change, global climate change, global warming, natural hazards, Earth, environment, remote sensing, atmosphere, land processes, oceans, volcanoes, land cover ...
Tango in the Atmosphere: Ozone and Climate Change - NASA …
WEBOzone’s impact on climate consists primarily of changes in temperature. The more ozone in a given parcel of air, the more heat it retains. Ozone generates heat in the stratosphere, both by absorbing the sun’s ultraviolet radiation and by absorbing upwelling infrared radiation from the lower atmosphere (troposphere).
Carbon Monoxide - NASA Earth Observatory
WEBCarbon Monoxide. Colorless, odorless, and poisonous, carbon monoxide is one of the six major air pollutants regulated in the United States and in many other nations around the world. When carbon-based fuels, such as coal, wood, and oil, burn incompletely or inefficiently, they produce carbon monoxide. The gas is spread by winds and circulation ...
ICONic Views of the Atmosphere - NASA Earth Observatory
WEBJan 6, 2020 · The Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) was launched in October 2019 to study the uppermost reaches of the atmosphere, particularly airglow. After several weeks of spacecraft maneuvers, tests, and calibration, ICON began taking science data on December 1. Thomas Immel, principal investigator and a scientist at the University of …
Climate and Earth’s Energy Budget - NASA Earth Observatory
WEBClimate Forcings and Global Warming. Any changes to the Earth’s climate system that affect how much energy enters or leaves the system alters Earth’s radiative equilibrium and can force temperatures to rise or fall. These destabilizing influences are called climate forcings. Natural climate forcings include changes in the Sun’s brightness ...
Going for Atmospheric GOLD - NASA Earth Observatory
WEBMar 18, 2018 · Going for Atmospheric GOLD. In late January 2018, NASA’s Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) instrument was launched into space aboard a commercial satellite. GOLD is novel in two ways: it marks the first time that a NASA science mission is flying an instrument as a commercially hosted payload, and it is the first time ...
Atmospheric Methane - NASA Earth Observatory
WEBMethane is an important trace gas in Earth’s atmosphere. Even though it only makes up 0.00017% (1.7 parts per million by volume) of the the atmosphere, methane traps a significant amount of heat, helping the planet remain warm and habitable. The amount of methane in the atmosphere is the result of a balance between production on the surface ...
Climate and Earth’s Energy Budget - NASA Earth Observatory
WEBThe Earth’s surface responds to the “extra” (on top of direct solar heating) energy by raising its temperature. On average, 340 watts per square meter of solar energy arrives at the top of the atmosphere. Earth returns an equal amount of energy back to space by reflecting some incoming light and by radiating heat (thermal infrared energy).
Aurora Australis - NASA Earth Observatory
WEBGreen aurora occurs from about 100 km to 250 km altitude and is caused by the emission of 5577 Angstrom wavelength light from oxygen atoms. The light is emitted when the atoms return to their original unexcited state. At times of peaks in solar activity, there are more geomagnetic storms and this increases the auroral activity viewed on Earth ...
Toward Mapping the Atmosphere’s Escape from Earth
WEBDec 17, 2018 · Earth loses several hundred tons of its atmosphere to space every day. In particular, oxygen escapes when it harnesses enough energy from the energetic collisions that produce the northern lights. Scientists have a good understanding of this atmospheric escape on the night side of Earth, where, atmospheric losses tend to happen in high …