1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,368 Chemistry. 2 00:00:01,835 --> 00:00:02,869 Biology. 3 00:00:03,003 --> 00:00:03,803 Physics. 4 00:00:04,104 --> 00:00:08,375 A NASA mission has gathered experts in all three disciplines...and more.... 5 00:00:08,375 --> 00:00:11,378 for an ambitious project to study Earth's climate. 6 00:00:11,378 --> 00:00:14,180 It's called the North Atlantic Aerosols and 7 00:00:14,180 --> 00:00:15,982 Marine Ecosystem Study. 8 00:00:16,182 --> 00:00:17,917 NASA calls it NAAMES. 9 00:00:18,084 --> 00:00:20,754 It's a complex mission with a million moving parts, 10 00:00:20,754 --> 00:00:22,522 but there are three big ones to note. 11 00:00:23,056 --> 00:00:27,761 First, there's the research vessel Atlantis, a laboratory at sea. 12 00:00:28,561 --> 00:00:33,066 Then there's NASA's own C130 Hercules, a laboratory in the sky. 13 00:00:33,633 --> 00:00:38,605 And one more...but we'll get to that. It's big hardware for sure, 14 00:00:38,605 --> 00:00:42,342 but the stars of the show, besides a crackerjack team of scientists, 15 00:00:42,709 --> 00:00:45,311 are these guys: ...phytoplankton. 16 00:00:46,012 --> 00:00:49,382 In the north Atlantic there are trillions, and springtime is when 17 00:00:49,382 --> 00:00:50,683 they bloom. 18 00:00:50,683 --> 00:00:54,954 Phytoplankton produce a gas called dimethymsulfide, or DMS, 19 00:00:54,954 --> 00:00:59,159 and as that gas passes into the atmosphere, it rapidly breaks down. 20 00:00:59,159 --> 00:01:04,130 The resulting sulfur compounds become aerosols, microscopic particles 21 00:01:04,130 --> 00:01:07,367 in essence, and water condenses around them. 22 00:01:07,734 --> 00:01:09,769 And you know what you get when countless water droplets 23 00:01:09,769 --> 00:01:13,373 condense in the atmosphere? Clouds. 24 00:01:14,074 --> 00:01:18,445 There's a startling connection: phytoplankton affect cloud formation! 25 00:01:19,512 --> 00:01:23,650 But phytoplankton growth depends on available carbon, and the warmer the 26 00:01:23,650 --> 00:01:27,187 temperatures of the ocean, the less carbon that water can hold. 27 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:31,024 Less carbon could restrict phytoplankton growth, which 28 00:01:31,024 --> 00:01:33,960 in turn could affect global cloud cover, 29 00:01:33,960 --> 00:01:35,061 among other things. 30 00:01:35,895 --> 00:01:41,167 When one part of the system changes, everything shifts, and that's why NASA 31 00:01:41,167 --> 00:01:44,537 has teams out in the field, studying how that system 32 00:01:44,537 --> 00:01:46,506 works from all sorts of angles. 33 00:01:47,674 --> 00:01:50,009 So what's the mission's third big moving part? 34 00:01:50,009 --> 00:01:55,081 That would be The Agency's fleet of spacecraft, currently in orbit 35 00:01:55,081 --> 00:01:59,552 gathering global information 24-7-365. 36 00:01:59,552 --> 00:02:03,189 Lessons learned from NAAMES and related research will help 37 00:02:03,189 --> 00:02:05,458 experts develop the next generation 38 00:02:05,458 --> 00:02:08,995 of spacecraft, some of which are already on the drawing board. 39 00:02:09,762 --> 00:02:12,632 Most people know NASA for its interplanetary adventures. 40 00:02:12,632 --> 00:02:17,103 But that high-flying know-how also enables it to conduct some of the 41 00:02:17,103 --> 00:02:21,141 most important scientific research right here, on the planet where 42 00:02:21,141 --> 00:02:22,876 you're watching this video. 43 00:02:22,876 --> 00:02:29,015 ♪ music ♪