The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment, SAGE, is a series of instruments designed by NASA to observe stratospheric ozone, aerosols, and water vapor from space. In the mid-1980s, scientists realized there was a problem with Earth’s protective coat of ozone...it was thinning. The SAGE family of instruments was pivotal in making accurate measurements of the amount of ozone loss in Earth’s atmosphere and helped leaders around the world institute an international treaty banning products containing harmful chemicals that destroy stratospheric ozone. SAGE is a key part of NASA’s mission to provide crucial, long-term measurements that will help humans better understand and care for Earth’s atmosphere.
A pyrocumulus cloud is formed by extreme heating of the air near the earth’s surface. Forest fires can induce the formation process of this type of cloud. The plot below shows an enhancement in the aerosol extinction coefficient detected by the SAGE III/ISS instrument between July 2017 and November 2017, following the enormous pyrocumulus event […]
