Scientists examined observations made from 2005 to 2014 by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard NASA's Aura satellite. One of the atmospheric gases the instrument detects is nitrogen dioxide, a yellow-brown gas that is a common emission from cars, power plants and industrial activity. Nitrogen dioxide can quickly transform into ground-level ozone, a major respiratory pollutant in urban smog. Nitrogen dioxide hotspots, used as an indicator of general air quality, occur over most major cities in developed and developing nations.
\rThe following visualizations include two types of data. The absolute concentrations show the concentration of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide, with blue and green colors denoting lower concentrations and orange and red areas indicating higher concentrations.
\rThe second type of data is the trend data from 2005 to 2014, which shows the observed change in concentration over the ten-year period. Blue indicated an observed decrease in nitrogen dioxide, and orange indicates an observed increase. Please note that the range on the color bars (text is in white) changes from location to location in order to highlight features seen in the different geographic regions.
", "instance": { "id": 436944, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004400/a004412/persian_gulf_trend_searchweb.png", "filename": "persian_gulf_trend_searchweb.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "The trend map of the Persian Gulf shows the change in nitrogen dioxide concentrations from 2005 to 2014.", "width": 180, "height": 320, "pixels": 57600 } }, { "id": 409693, "type": "media_group", "extra_data": null, "title": "The trend map of South Africa shows the change in nitrogen dioxide concentrations from 2005 to 2014.", "caption": "Using new, high-resolution global satellite maps of air quality indicators, NASA scientists tracked air pollution trends over the last decade in various regions and 195 cities around the globe. According to recent NASA research findings, the United States, Europe and Japan have improved air quality thanks to emission control regulations, while China, India and the Middle East, with their fast-growing economies and expanding industry, have seen more air pollution.Scientists examined observations made from 2005 to 2014 by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard NASA's Aura satellite. One of the atmospheric gases the instrument detects is nitrogen dioxide, a yellow-brown gas that is a common emission from cars, power plants and industrial activity. Nitrogen dioxide can quickly transform into ground-level ozone, a major respiratory pollutant in urban smog. Nitrogen dioxide hotspots, used as an indicator of general air quality, occur over most major cities in developed and developing nations.
\rThe following visualizations include two types of data. The absolute concentrations show the concentration of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide, with blue and green colors denoting lower concentrations and orange and red areas indicating higher concentrations.
\rThe second type of data is the trend data from 2005 to 2014, which shows the observed change in concentration over the ten-year period. Blue indicated an observed decrease in nitrogen dioxide, and orange indicates an observed increase. Please note that the range on the color bars (text is in white) changes from location to location in order to highlight features seen in the different geographic regions.
", "instance": { "id": 436954, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004400/a004412/s_africa_trend_searchweb.png", "filename": "s_africa_trend_searchweb.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "The trend map of South Africa shows the change in nitrogen dioxide concentrations from 2005 to 2014.", "width": 180, "height": 320, "pixels": 57600 } }, { "id": 409694, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 4273, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4273/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "CALIPSO observes Saharan dust crossing the Atlantic Ocean", "description": "Subtitled visualization depicting Saharan dust travelling across the Atlantic Ocean to the Amazon Basin. MODIS imagery shows a 2D representation of the dust cloud, which is then compared to CALIPSO data curtains showing dust throughout the air column. Seasonal dust flux measurements are visualized using particles systems. Finally, average annual dust deposition into the Amazon Basin is shown by Amazon boundary import/export measurements. || Dust_Entire_1080p_60fps.3072_print.jpg (1024x576) [124.9 KB] || Dust_Entire_1080p_60fps.3072_searchweb.png (180x320) [69.8 KB] || Dust_Entire_1080p_60fps.3072_web.png (320x180) [69.8 KB] || Dust_Entire_1080p_60fps.3072_thm.png (80x40) [5.4 KB] || SaharanDust_720p_60fps.mp4 (1280x720) [73.6 MB] || SaharanDust_1080p_60fps.webm (1920x1080) [12.3 MB] || SaharanDust_1080p_60fps.mp4 (1920x1080) [189.6 MB] || entire_4k (3840x2160) [0 Item(s)] || Dust_4k_30fps_2160p.mp4 (3840x2160) [365.9 MB] || ", "release_date": "2015-02-24T09:55:00-05:00", "update_date": "2025-01-05T22:43:59.754494-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 445890, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004200/a004273/4273_African_Dust_Still.png", "filename": "4273_African_Dust_Still.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "SIGGRAPH VersionFor complete transcript, click here.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 371158, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/applied-science/#media_group_371158", "widget": "Tile gallery", "title": "Ecological Forecasting", "caption": "", "description": "The Ecological Forecasting Applications area promotes the use of Earth observations and models to analyze and forecast changes that affect ecosystems and to develop effective resource management strategies. Primary user communities are natural resource managers (both land and marine) and those involved in conservation and sustainable ecosystem management.", "items": [ { "id": 409695, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 30059, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30059/", "page_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "title": "Mountaintop Mining, West Virginia", "description": "These images illustrate the growth of the Hobet mine in Boone County, WV as it moves from ridge to ridge between 1984 and 2015. The natural forested landscape appears dark green, creased by steams and indented by hollows. Active mining areas, however, appear off-white and areas being reclaimed with vegetation appear light green. The law requires coal operators to restore the land to its approximate original shape, but the rock debris generally can’t be securely piled as high or graded as steeply as the original mountaintop. There is always too much rock left over, and coal companies dispose of it by building valley fills in hollows, gullies, and streams. While the image from 2015 shows apparent green-up of restored lands, it also shows expanded operations in the west. The resulting impacts to stream biodiversity, forest health, and ground-water quality are high, and may be irreversible. || ", "release_date": "2013-07-10T09:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T23:28:26.439530-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 428410, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a030000/a030000/a030059/mountaintop_mining_1984-2012_720p_web.png", "filename": "mountaintop_mining_1984-2012_720p_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "This time-series illustrates the growth of the Hobet mine in Boone County, WV as it moves from ridge to ridge between 1984 and 2015.", "width": 180, "height": 320, "pixels": 57600 } } }, { "id": 409696, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 30215, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30215/", "page_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "title": "Urban Growth in Las Vegas", "description": "The city of Las Vegas—meaning the meadows—was established in 1905. Its grassy meadows and artesian springs attracted settlers traveling across the arid Desert Southwest in the early 1800s. In the 1930s, gambling became legalized and construction of the Hoover Dam began, resulting in the city's first growth spurt. Since then, Las Vegas has not stopped growing. Population has reached nearly two million over the past decade, becoming one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the world. These false-color images show the rapid urbanization of Las Vegas between 1972 and 2018. The city streets and other impervious surfaces appear gray, while irrigated vegetation appears red. Over the years, the expansion of irrigated vegetation (e.g., lawns and golf courses) has stretched the city’s desert bounds. || ", "release_date": "2019-03-15T18:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2024-10-10T00:19:58.735638-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 397087, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a030000/a030200/a030215/landsat_las_vegas_9_image_grid_print.jpg", "filename": "landsat_las_vegas_9_image_grid_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "9 images from the Las Vegas Landsat time series", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } }, { "id": 409697, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 30874, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30874/", "page_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "title": "Sprawling Shanghai", "description": "Shanghai sprawl over time, 1984-2022 || shanghai_2022_00865_print.jpg (1024x576) [263.9 KB] || shanghai_2022_00865_searchweb.png (320x180) [123.1 KB] || shanghai_2022_00865_thm.png (80x40) [7.5 KB] || shanghai_2022_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [37.5 MB] || shanghai_2022_1080p30.webm (1920x1080) [4.1 MB] || 3840x2160_16x9_30p (3840x2160) [0 Item(s)] || shanghai_2022_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [135.9 MB] ||", "release_date": "2017-03-24T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-05-12T14:52:52.713183-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 415508, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a030000/a030800/a030874/shanghai_2022_00865_print.jpg", "filename": "shanghai_2022_00865_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Shanghai sprawl over time, 1984-2025", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } }, { "id": 409698, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 4476, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4476/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Global Terrestrial Water Storage Anomaly (March 2015 - March 2016)", "description": "Animation showing Terrestrial Water Storage Anomaly (TWSA) data from March 2015 to March 2016. Shades of orange indicate areas with less ground water than normal and shades of blue are areas with more ground water than normal, which correlates to droughts and floods in these various regions. || globgrace2016.0365_print.jpg (1024x576) [154.1 KB] || globgrace2016.0365_searchweb.png (320x180) [67.2 KB] || globgrace2016.0365_thm.png (80x40) [6.2 KB] || globgrace2016_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [5.8 MB] || globgrace2016_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [3.2 MB] || dates (1920x1080) [0 Item(s)] || globgrace2016_1080p30.webm (1920x1080) [1.2 MB] || globgrace2016_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [17.0 MB] || globgrace2016_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [1.1 MB] || example_composite (3840x2160) [0 Item(s)] || robinson_projection (3840x2160) [0 Item(s)] || globgrace2016_1080p30.mp4.hwshow [187 bytes] || ", "release_date": "2016-07-28T18:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-01-05T23:03:48.810618-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 436561, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004400/a004476/globgrace2016.0365_print.jpg", "filename": "globgrace2016.0365_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Animation showing Terrestrial Water Storage Anomaly (TWSA) data from March 2015 to March 2016. Shades of orange indicate areas with less ground water than normal and shades of blue are areas with more ground water than normal, which correlates to droughts and floods in these various regions.", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } }, { "id": 409699, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 30730, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30730/", "page_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "title": "High-Resolution Soil Moisture Maps", "description": "These maps combine data from the twin satellites of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) with other satellite and ground-based measurements to model the relative amount of water stored at two different levels: at plant root level and underground. The wetness, or water content, of each layer is compared to the average between 1948 and 2009. The darkest red regions represent dry conditions that should occur only 2 percent of the time (about once every 50 years). All of the maps are experimental products funded by NASA’s Applied Sciences Program and developed by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the National Drought Mitigation Center. The maps do not attempt to represent human consumption of water; but rather, they show changes in water storage related to weather, climate, and seasonal patterns. || ", "release_date": "2015-12-16T12:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T00:34:27.030349-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 433305, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a030000/a030700/a030730/grace_root_zone_groundwater_print.jpg", "filename": "grace_root_zone_groundwater_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Soil moisture in the root zone compared to ground water storage.", "width": 1024, "height": 574, "pixels": 587776 } } }, { "id": 409700, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 30521, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30521/", "page_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "title": "California Drought", "description": "The NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, launched in 2002, maps changes in Earth's gravity field resulting from the movement of water over the planet. As water moves around the globe — for example, due to flooding in some regions and drought in others — GRACE acts like a 'scale in the sky,' mapping the regions of Earth that are gaining or losing water each month. The GRACE mission has been particularly successful in monitoring the melting of the Greenland and Antartic ice sheets, and in mapping changing freshwater storage on land. This animation shows how the total amount of water (all of the snow, surface water, soil moisture and groundwater) varies in space and time, with the passage of dry seasons and wet seasons as well as with flooding, drought and transport due to water management Blue colors represent wetter than average conditions (relative to the 2002-2013 time period) and the red colors represent drier than average conditions. The graph at the left shows the monthly changes for the average of map region outlined in yellow. The yellow line in the graph at the left shows interannual variations.The Sacramento and San Joaquiin River basins are outlined in yellow and the rivers and their tributaries are shown by the blue lines. The basins include California's Central Valley, the most productive agricultural region in the United States. Ongoing drought in California has drained the state of nearly 15 cubic kilometers (12 miillion acre feet; 4 trillion gallons) of water in each of the last 3 years. Much of the loss is a result of groundwater depletion. Limited rainfall and snowmelt throughout the state has forced agriculture and cities to rely more heavily on groundwater reserves, resulting in rapid depletion of the aquifer beneath the Central Valley. At least 50% of the annual water loss is due to the removal of groundwater. || ", "release_date": "2014-10-01T23:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2024-10-13T23:38:45.811659-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 430603, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a030000/a030500/a030521/grace_ca_drought_v4_0128_print.jpg", "filename": "grace_ca_drought_v4_0128_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "GRACE gravity data reveals water deficit in California.", "width": 1024, "height": 574, "pixels": 587776 } } }, { "id": 409701, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 30158, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30158/", "page_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "title": "Drought Cycles in Australia", "description": "Drought is a frequent visitor in Australia. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology describes the typical rainfall over much of the continent as “not only low, but highly erratic.” These satellite-based vegetation images document what farmers and ranchers have had to contend with over the past decade. The images are centered on the agricultural areas near the Murray River—Australia’s largest river—between Hume Reservoir and Lake Tyrrell. The series shows vegetation growing conditions for a 16-day period in the middle of September each year from 2000 through 2010 compared to the average mid-September conditions over the decade. Places where the amount and/or health of vegetation was above the decadal average are green, average areas are off-white, and places where vegetation growth was below average are brown. || ", "release_date": "2013-10-17T12:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2024-10-10T00:19:31.126377-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 428822, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a030000/a030100/a030158/woc_DroughtCycles_Australia_web.png", "filename": "woc_DroughtCycles_Australia_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Vegetation conditions for a 16-day period in September, 2000 to 2010.", "width": 320, "height": 180, "pixels": 57600 } } }, { "id": 409702, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 30693, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30693/", "page_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "title": "Southwestern Europe and Australia at Night 2014-2015", "description": "One way to study the spatial distribution, or arrangement, of human settlements is to view the planet from space during nighttime hours. Scientists have observed the Earth’s lights at night for more than four decades using military satellites and astronaut photography; however, the view became significantly clearer after using satellite data from a low-light sensor onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite, launched in October 2011. The satellite’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) “day-night band” can observe dim signals such as city lights (down to the scale of an isolated highway lamp), wildfires, gas flares, auroras, and reflected moonlight during nighttime hours. Swaths of VIIRS data are processed to find moonless, non-cloudy pixels. These “good” pixels are averaged at each location to produce a global image that depicts the Earth’s lights at night. Each pixel shows roughly 0.46 miles (742 meters) across.The top image, centered on France, is a composite of VIIRS data acquired between October 1, 2014 and April 30, 2015. Paris is visible just above the center of the image. North of Paris and across the English Channel (black), London is visible. The relatively dim Alps, characterized by their crescent-shaped geography, are speckled with lights from car headlights and lit roadways. South of the Alps several major cities in Italy are visible with the brightest spot being Milan. Rome is visible in the bottom right of the image. Strings and clusters of light out at sea are produced by ship lights. The second image, centered on France, is a composite of data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) acquired during 2013. Each pixel shows roughly 1.86 miles (3 kilometers) across. The DMSP OLS night-lights data are available starting in 1992, and provide the ability to measure changes in light extent and locations over the past two decades.The image of Australia at night is a composite of VIIRS data acquired between January 1, 2015 and July 31, 2015. Major cities such as Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth are well lit along the coast. Alice Springs—situated in the geographic center of Australia—is some 1,500 kilometers from the nearest major city. Transient lights—those visible in only one monthly image—are colored red. These lights are mainly from brushfires burning during the dry season (May-July) in Australia’s Northern Territory and northern parts of Western Australia. Aside from fires, some of the transient lights could be attributed to natural gas flares, lightning, oil drilling, or mining operations. || ", "release_date": "2015-10-20T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-01-05T00:26:29.782545-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 432924, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a030000/a030600/a030693/france_night_lights_201410-201504_print.jpg", "filename": "france_night_lights_201410-201504_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "A night lights image centered on France", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } }, { "id": 409703, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 30194, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30194/", "page_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "title": "Burn Recovery in Yellowstone", "description": "In the summer of 1988, lightning- and human-ignited fires consumed vast stretches of Yellowstone National Park. By the time the first snowfall extinguished the last flames in September, 793,000 of the park’s 2,221,800 acres had burned.This series of images shows the scars left in the wake of the western Yellowstone fires and the slow recovery in the twenty years that followed. Taken by Landsat-5, the images were made with a combination of visible and infrared light (green, short-wave infrared, and near infrared) to highlight the burned area and changes in vegetation. In the years that follow, the burn scar fades progressively. On the ground, grasses and wildflowers sprung up from the ashes and tiny pine trees took root and began to grow. Though changes did occur between 1988 and 2010, recovery has been slow. In 2010, the burned area is still clearly discernible.Images acquired by Landsat satellites Reference: NASA’s Earth Observatory || ", "release_date": "2013-10-17T12:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2024-10-10T00:19:52.359226-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 429111, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a030000/a030100/a030194/woc_BurnRecovery_Yellowstone_web.png", "filename": "woc_BurnRecovery_Yellowstone_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Landsat images show recovery after 1988 Yellowstone fires, 1987 to 2011.", "width": 320, "height": 180, "pixels": 57600 } } }, { "id": 409704, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 3868, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3868/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Global Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI", "description": "This visualization leads viewers on a narrated global tour of fire detections beginning in July 2002 and ending July 2011. The visualization also includes vegetation and snow cover data to show how fires respond to seasonal changes. The tour begins in Australia in 2002 by showing a network of massive grassland fires spreading across interior Australia as well as the greener Eucalyptus forests in the northern and eastern part of the continent. The tour then shifts to Asia where large numbers of agricultural fires are visible first in China in June 2004, then across a huge swath of Europe and western Russia in August, and then across India and Southeast Asia through the early part of 2005. It moves next to Africa, the continent that has more abundant burning than any other. MODIS observations have shown that some 70 percent of the world's fires occur in Africa alone. In what's a fairly average burning season, the visualization shows a huge outbreak of savanna fires during the dry season in Central Africa in July, August, and September of 2006, driven mainly by agricultural activities but also by the fact that the region experiences more lightning than anywhere else in the world. The tour shifts next to South America where a steady flickering of fire is visible across much of the Amazon rainforest with peaks of activity in September and November of 2009. Almost all of the fires in the Amazon are the direct result of human activity, including slash-and-burn agriculture, because the high moisture levels in the region prevent inhibit natural fires from occurring. It concludes in North America, a region where fires are comparatively rare. North American fires make up just 2 percent of the world's burned area each year. The fires that receive the most attention in the United States, the uncontrolled forest fires in the West, are less visible than the wave of agricultural fires prominent in the Southeast and along the Mississippi River Valley, but some of the large wildfires that struck Texas earlier this spring are visible. More information on the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) is available at http://maps.geog.umd.edu/firms/. || ", "release_date": "2011-10-18T01:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T00:01:39.789904-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 481530, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003800/a003868/africaNDVIPrintRes.1996_web.png", "filename": "africaNDVIPrintRes.1996_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "A 10 year sequence of global fires as seen by NASA's MODIS instruments.", "width": 180, "height": 320, "pixels": 57600 } } }, { "id": 409705, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 3947, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3947/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Watching the Earth Breathe: