Earth's ozone shield protects all life.

Stratospheric ozone has decreased 3% globally between 1980 and 2000 and thins by 50% over Antarctica in winter and spring. Depletion of the ozone layer allows more ultraviolet radiation to reach the surface. Increases in UV radiation is known to have harmful effects on living things. The Montreal Protocol and its amendments have banned the use of ozone destroying chemicals and the rate of ozone depletion seems to have slowed. Climate change will have an impact on how quickly ozone recovers.

Earth's air quality is fundamental to public health and ecosystems.

The atmosphere has no political boundaries; air pollution moves great distances across oceans and continents. The quality of air has degraded over certain parts of the world and has become a health issue. Severe pollution episodes increase mortality.

Earth's climate is affected by changes in atmospheric composition.

It is undeniable that human activity is beginning to alter the climate. The global rise in surface temperatures since the 1950's is correlated with the increase in greenhouse gases. Changes in carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, cloud cover, water vapor and aerosols all contribute to climate change.

Aura is designed to answer questions about changes in our life-sustaining atmosphere.

Aura's four instruments study the atmosphere's chemistry and dynamics. Aura's measurements will enable us to investigate questions about ozone trends, air quality changes and their linkage to climate change.

Aura's measurements will provide accurate data for predictive models and provide useful information for local and national agency decision support systems.

Sizing Up Humanity’s Impacts on Earth’s Changing Atmosphere

Earth’s Security Blanket

Part One

Most of us probably don’t think much about Earth’s atmosphere, let alone how much humans are affecting it. After all, it’s just there.

Sunset on the Indian Ocean as seen by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The image presents an edge-on, or limb view, of Earth’s atmosphere as seen from orbit. Earth’s curvature is visible along the horizon line, or limb, that extends across the image from center left to lower right. Above the darkened surface of Earth, a brilliant sequence of colors roughly denotes several layers of the atmosphere.

NASA

Getting a Handle on Carbon Dioxide

Part Two

Earth’s atmosphere is resilient to many of the changes humans have imposed on it. But, says atmospheric scientist David Crisp of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, that doesn’t necessarily mean that our society is.

This is a still of a data visualization of global carbon dioxide that orbits Earth from a distance.

NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Tracking the Ongoing Recovery of Earth’s Ozone Hole

Part Three

Earth’s atmosphere is largely able to cleanse itself of pollutants, but there are a few things that humans have produced that are much more long-lived when emitted into the atmosphere, degrading its quality and creating harmful environmental effects.

Researchers found that the depleted area of the ozone layer over the South Pole was slightly improved this year. Read the full story

NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin

Fresh Insights on Air Quality, Ozone and Climate

Part Four

While satellite data have revolutionized how we view Earth and its atmosphere, people don’t need to travel to space to understand that our Blue Planet really isn’t that big and our atmosphere not very thick.

Featured Story

NASA, EPA Tackle NO2 Air Pollution in Overburdened Communities

NASA data about nitrogen dioxide, a harmful air pollutant, is available in EJScreen, EPA’s widely used environmental justice screening and…

Read the Story

A map of the U.S. showing average nitrogen dioxide concentrations for 2022. The data is color-coded. Higher concentrations are in red and lower concentrations in blue.

Aura science

Aura's Ozone

Aura's instruments are closely monitoring ozone.

Learn More

Visualization of Earth as seen from the south pole over Antarctica. Data is overlayed, showing the level of ozone in the area. Centered over Antarctica is a red and orange oval, while the rest of the visualization shows dark and light blues.