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Reporter: Well it's officially summer, and that means we're all heading outdoors for pool parties

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and picnics. As you fire up the grill, you might be surprised 

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to know the air we breath outdoors each summer is actually getting cleaner

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across the country. And here to tell us more about it, from NASA's Goddard

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Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is NASA scientist

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Anne Thompson. Thanks for joining us. Anne: Good morning, thank you.

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Reporter: So as the summer heats up, we often report on bad air

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quality, but what are these images really showing us about air quality

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in our area? Anne: Well these images are taken from NASA's Aura

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spacecraft. It started measurements just about ten

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years ago. We've got a decadal anniversary coming up. What we're

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measuring here is nitrogen dioxide, and the more red you see,

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the higher the levels. And what's red is contributing to

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bad air, bad air alerts in all of those cities.

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So between 2005 and 2011,

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we've seen an improvement. Then on average in the northeast US

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is about a 40% improvement. Some cities

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about 25% better, some closer to 50% better. Look how much

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less angry red you see in the northeast. 

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What's really exciting for some people is if you're in sort of the 

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edge areas from some of the cities, for example

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take a look along the coastal regions. Some of them no longer

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have red. That's really good news for them. And

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some of the areas that also monitor the health of their waterways,

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places like the Delaware Bay and the Chesapeake Bay, that

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NO2 is an ingredient in bad air and

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bad water quality as well. So there's a lot of good news in this picture.

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Reporter: And why is this happening? Anne: Well it's happening because we've made

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steps, we've implemented measures over the last couple decades

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principally in two areas. One is to clean up our 

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industries, especially those power plants. On the east coast, 

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a lot of the power plants in the Ohio River valley provide our electricity,

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they've got scrubbers, they're emitting a lot less NO2.

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In that sense, cleaner air to us to start with. And then,

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automobiles are the other part of the mix. We're driving cleaner cars,

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we're getting our emissions tested, we're putting out less of our own

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NO2. So what's coming to us, what we're adding to the mix,

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is why we're getting cleaner air. 

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Technological improvements. Reporter: What have we learned about

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air quality around the world? Anne: What we've learned around the world 

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is that just as places like the US and western Europe

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in particular have improved some of this air quality,

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there are places that are rapidly developing, have industries

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that are not yet controlled, or are moving from,

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moving to automobiles very rapidly. Their 

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problems are just starting. But what we can do is keep an eye

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on them and what they're reaching in our global

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communication and our global technological industry. They're

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getting this information from NASA to help them develop

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their strategies to clean up their air, which they're all very eager to do.

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Reporter: Why is NASA studying air quality? Anne: NASA

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studies air quality because we have two missions: we look out, we look out

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to the planets and beyond, and we look at our own very

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dear home planet. We look at our own planet, this is the Aura

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spacecraft that is responsible for these

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NO2 pictures. But we also look at fires, we look at clouds, 

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we look at the health of our ice,

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of volcanoes... all components of the Earth system are part of our mission

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and we keep an eye on our planet. We put the data

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together in ways that we can do with

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models, like bringing in information about weather,

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we can follow where the air comes from, we can see what are the 

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natural processes, what are the things that we're upsetting with

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some of our pollution. And what regions are connected

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to what regions. Sometimes it's a surprise. 

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Reporter: Well it's great to finally hear some good news about the environment,

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where can we learn more? Anne: You can learn more by going to 

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NASA.gov/earthrightnow. Take a look at the images we've

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shown. You can get the data, look at it for yourself, and look at

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the, at the Earth from all these other satellites

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as well. Reporter: Dr. Anne Thompson, thank you very much for joining us!

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Anne: My pleasure, you're welcome.

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[beep beep... beep beep... beep beep...]

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