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    "results": [
        {
            "id": 3492,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3492/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2009-03-09T12:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Atlantic Transport of Anthropogenic Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD)  in 2003",
            "description": "In a new NASA study, researchers taking advantage of improvements in satellite sensor capabilities offer the first measurement-based estimate of the amount of pollution. The new measurements from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite substantiate the results of previous model-based studies, and are the most extensive to date. Hongbin Yu, an associate research scientist of the University of Maryland Baltimore County working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., grew up in China and taught there as a university professor, , where he witnessed first-hand and studied how pollution from nearby power plants affected the local environment. Yu points out, however, that the matter of pollution transport is a global one. \"Our study focused on East Asian pollution transport, but pollution also flows from Europe, North America, the broader Asian region and elsewhere, across bodies of water and land, to neighboring areas and beyond,\" he said. \"So we should not simply blame East Asia for this amount of pollution flowing into North America.\" In fact, a recent model study conducted by Mian Chin, co-author of this study and an atmospheric scientist at NASA Goddard suggests that European pollution also makes significant contribution to the pollution inflow to North America. \"Satellite instruments give us the ability to capture finer measurements, on a nearly daily basis across a broader geographic region and across a longer time frame so that the overall result is a better estimate than any other measurement method we've had in the past,\" said study co-author Lorraine Remer, a physical scientist and member of the MODIS science team at NASA Goddard. The MODIS instrument can distinguish between broad categories of particles in the air, and observes Earth's entire surface every one to two days, enabling it to monitor movement of the East Asian pollution aerosols as they rise into the lower troposphere, the area of the atmosphere where we live and breathe, and make their way across the Pacific and up into the middle and upper regions of the troposphere. Remer added that the research team also found that pollution movements fluctuate during the year, with the East Asian airstream carrying its largest \"load\" in spring and smallest in summer. The most extensive East Asian export of pollution across the Pacific took place in 2003, triggered by record-breaking wildfires across vast forests of East Asia and Russia. Notably, the pollution aerosols also travel across the ocean quickly, journeying into the atmosphere above North American in as little as one week. \"We cannot determine at what level of elevation in the atmosphere the pollution ends up once it crosses over to North America, so we do not have a way in this study to assess what actual impact it has on air quality here,\" said Remer. \"Nevertheless, we realize there is indeed impact. For example, particles like these have been linked to regional weather and climate effects. Since pollution transport is such a broad global issue, it is important moving forward to extend this kind of study to other regions, to see how much pollution is migrating from its source regions to others, when, and how fast,\" said Remer. || ",
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        },
        {
            "id": 3491,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3491/",
            "result_type": "Visualization",
            "release_date": "2008-03-13T12:00:00-04:00",
            "title": "Pacific Anthropogenic Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD)  in 2003",
            "description": "According to measurements taken with a satellite instrument, vast quantities of industrial aerosols and smoke from biomass burning in East Asia and Russia are traveling from one side of the globe to another. Explosive economic growth in Asia has profound implications for the atmosphere worldwide. Data collected by a NASA satellite shows a dense blanket of polluted air over the Northwestern Pacific. This brown cloud is a toxic mix of ash, acids, and airborne particles from car and factory emissions, as well as from low-tech polluters like coal-burning stoves and from forest fires. This image generated by data from NASA's instrument called MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) onboard the Terra satellite demonstrates how large and pervasive this transport phenomenon is across vast areas. China's exports fill shelves around the world, but according to a new NASA research paper, China also heavily exports pollution. This week, space agency scientists reveal how Chinese industrialization and Russian forest fires in combination with pollution transported eastward from Europe send roughly 18 teragrams - almost 40 billion pounds-of pollution aerosols into the atmosphere over the Northwestern Pacific every year. The MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite has been tracking the particulate pollution for more than seven years, gathering data as most of it drifted east across the Pacific Ocean. About 4.5 teragrams of particulate pollution each year could reach the western boundary of North America, which is about 15% of local emissions of particulate pollutants from the U.S. and Canada. In the last two decades, China has more than doubled its pollution production. This boom may be contributing to substantial changes in climate and weather in places far from the origin of the particulates. Never in human history-anywhere-has there been industrial growth like that in modern China. But with fast growth comes unintended consequences, and from space evidence of those consequences is starting to emerge. The research relies on measurements of something called \"aerosol optical thickness\". It's a quantitative measurement about how well a slice of atmosphere transmits light. The greater the value of optical thickness for a given location, the less light of a particular wavelength can pass through it. Measurements of aerosol optical thickness describe quantities of tiny particles in a given volume. By measuring how much light can penetrate a region of atmosphere across a variety of wavelengths, scientists can make certain inferences about the quantity and type of particles blocking that light. This visualization shows the seasonal variations of transport of pollution aerosols across the North Pacific. The East Asian airstream carries its largest pollution loading in spring and smallest in summer and fall. With heavy concentrations of aerosols represented by shades of brown, scientists can track the origins and distribution of the particles as they travel in the atmosphere. The sequence also shows a trail of substantial aerosol concentrations from a variety of sources. These sources include heavy industrial activity in East Asia associated with high population density represented in this sequence by gradations of black covering the land surface, and intense Russian forest fires in high latitudes. || ",
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        }
    ]
}