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

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for pool parties and picnics. But as you fire up the grill, you

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might be surprised to know that the air we breathe outdoors each summer is

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actually getting cleaner across the country. And here to talk with us more

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about is Dr. Doug Morton from NASA, thank you for joining us!

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Doug: Thank you. Reporter: So as the summer heats up, we often report

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on bad air quality, but what are these images really showing us

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about air quality in our area? Doug: NASA's Aura satellite 

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which is just coming up on its tenth birthday, has been taking images of air pollution

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across our country. And we can look back then over the last decade to understand 

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how things have changed, and where the air quality has improved. In this image, we're seeing

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colors of red, the levels of nitrogen dioxide, which is an important component 

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of smog and ozone pollution. By 2011, you see a dramatic 

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improvement, a 40% reduction in air pollution across our country. 

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Particularly if you zoom into a region like the northeast US, where a 

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number of sources including power plants and cars contribute to air pollution, there's been a 

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major improvement across the region in just the last decade. And so having

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the opportunity to monitor air quality in a continuous way with our satellites gives 

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us a chance to really contribute to the conversation we're having about improving air

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quality. Reporter: Tell us more about why these changes are happening.

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Doug: Well, it's really a technological revolution

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as we've made improvements in the way that we clean our air coming from smokestacks and power plants

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and also cleaner cars on the road. So even though we have more people driving more

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miles, and using more electricity, our emissions of nitrogen dioxide have actually

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gone down. And that's really a good news story, because that leads to less 

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ozone pollution and fewer red air quality days that would keep us inside or 

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put us at risk. Reporter: And what have we learned about air quality

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around the world? Doug: Well, the opportunity to look down from space

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with the Aura satellite gives a global picture of how

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those smokestacks and tail pipes are producing nitrogen dioxide, here again in 

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colors of red, around the world. And so even though we've made some major improvements

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in places like the United States, there are still opportunities for improvements around the world

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where ongoing production of power in China and India, and more cars

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on the road, means a bigger burden not just locally but ultimately for the entire 

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global community. One of the hallmarks of the way we do science here at NASA though, 

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is to be able to take that information about nitrogen dioxide, and add in to the mix

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we look at fires, generating those biomass burning plumes, smoke and dust

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and look at the Earth as a system. And so NASA Aura data can

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contribute just one of our twenty satellites that then combine to give us a better

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picture of the Earth as a whole. Reporter: And why is NASA studying

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air quality? Doug: Well, NASA's interest in air quality comes from the fact

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that we have a range of unique capabilities. This

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vantage from space is really quite remarkable. So NASA's Aura satellite

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goes around the Earth every 90 minutes, taking an image of the Earth. And that allows us

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to have a complete picture of those sources of air pollution, and

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those regions downwind that are ultimately impacted by the

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sources of air pollution we see from satellite data. Reporter: Well it's great to finally

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hear some good news about the environment. Where can we learn more?

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Doug: Well there's a lot more information about the good news story on air quality, and other information about our

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satellites at NASA.gov/earthrightnow, where you can pick up more information

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about Aura's 10th anniversary, but also learn more about what's going on

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on our planet on a regular basis. Reporter: Great, thanks very much Doug. 

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Doug: Thank you. [beep beep...]

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

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