[bright tone]
- Do you have any idea what you're breathing right now?
Sure, we call it air.
But what is it really?
What's in it?
Oxygen?
Sure.
Nitrogen?
Yep.
But what else?
Well, take a deep breath as we dive
into the wild world of atmospheric science,
next on "Real World."
[exciting music]
Air is all around us.
And the different layers of air surrounding
the Earth, much like the layers of an onion,
make up the Earth's atmosphere.
From what we breathe on the surface,
all the way out to the boundaries of space,
the atmosphere is super important for life on Earth.
Let's talk with Erika Wright, a researcher and education
specialist who studies Earth's atmosphere.
- Earth's atmosphere is made up of particles
and gases that layer in mixtures.
So we've got the troposphere.
That's the layer closest to us here on Earth.
Then we've got the stratosphere
and the mesosphere
and the thermosphere,
as well as the exosphere.
The troposphere is the layer
closest to us here on Earth.
And it includes the clouds that we see in the sky
as well as the air that we breathe.
And it's mostly nitrogen and oxygen,
as well some trace gases,
the small particles
in the air as well.
Pollution is the things in the air
that are harmful to human health
as well as plant life and our environment.
They come from both man-made things
as well as sometimes natural pollutants exist as well.
And there are things really that we just
don't want to be breathing.
They cause harm to human health,
as well as plant health and our environment.
Some natural causes of pollution
or air that we don't like breathing
include volcanoes and wildfires,
as well as, interestingly enough, heat-stressed plants.
Human causes include vehicles and transportation,
so trucks, planes,
as well as fossil fuel burning and industry
can cause a lot of pollution as well.
Pollutants include nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide,
formaldehyde, as well as many other things
that we don't like breathing,
like aerosols or small particles as well.
- Now, we know the atmosphere isn't just air.
There are many natural systems at play
that help sustain life on Earth.
Sometimes natural and/or man-made pollutants
disrupt those systems, making conditions
less healthy for humans and other living things.
- So air pollution and wildfires affect
your lungs and your heart.
It can affect rates of asthma.
NASA has some campaigns where scientists across the country
work together.
They can fly in airplanes to study pollution.
They can use satellites that measure any spot
on the Earth once a day.
It also has a great new instrument called TEMPO,
or the Tropospheric Emission Monitoring Of Pollution.
TEMPO is an air quality instrument from NASA
that is sitting on a satellite.
And it's looking at North America all day, every day.
It can scan from East Coast to West Coast every hour,
giving us a much more complete picture of what's
happening in our air quality.
And this ability to measure on an hourly basis
is really transformational in how we study air quality.
TEMPO sits in what's called the geostationary orbit.
That means it orbits in synchronous, or together,
with the Earth.
And it allows it to look at North America all the time.
In order to do that, it has to be out 22,000 miles
from the Earth's surface.
In the scientific community,
we often use the metric system.
So in this case, kilometers.
In order to get that, 1 mile is equal to 1.61 kilometers.
That means for TEMPO,
our 22,000 miles above the Earth's surface
times 1.61 kilometers gives us 35,420 kilometers
above the Earth's surface.
The electromagnetic spectrum is all of the light that exists.
And so some of that is the light that we can see,
but it also expands beyond what
we as human's eyes can see.
You might be familiar with it, with things
like if you listen to the radio in your car
or have used a microwave.
Those are other types of light.
So TEMPO is a grating spectrometer
that can measure both the visible light
that our eyes can see, as well as what's
called ultraviolet light.
So it breaks that light up into all those pieces
and is then able to detect it
and measure that amount of light
and see that signature from each of those pollutants.
- So it seems like all types of pollutants in the atmosphere
can cause issues for life on Earth.
Thankfully, NASA is keeping an eye on this
and gathering data for us to keep us informed.
But what's this data look like?
And how can we use it to help us stay safe?
- TEMPO is really going to help us better understand
trends in air quality or these changes over time.
So for instance, if you're looking
at air quality in your city today,
you can see those trends of how air pollution might
rise during your morning commutes or traffic,
maybe drop a little bit during the day
and raise again in the afternoon.
And you can actually see that in the data.
TEMPO data is what we call near real time.
That means the scientific and public community
will have access to it soon after we measure it.
One really important thing about TEMPO
is that it allows us to measure both where pollutants
are being formed and how they're moving
across the country and tracking that motion
across the country.
Knowing about poor air quality is one
of the most important things.
And that allows us to make better decisions
for our own health.
Maybe you don't want to go for a run
if it's really poor air quality outside right now.
So having that information right up front
can be really helpful in protecting us.
TEMPO allows us to learn lots of exciting new things
about the air that we breathe.
TEMPO data is used by air quality researchers
who want to understand what's happening in our atmosphere.
It's used by health researchers who want
to understand the impacts of poor air quality
on human health.
And it's used by air quality forecasters
who want to tell you what's coming in your air quality.
And most importantly, it's used by the public, by you.
You can access it yourself to understand what's happening
in your own community.
- Campfires, cargo ships, cars, and trains.
Pollutants can come from many different things,
making it very tricky to track.
This means that air pollution is almost impossible to assess.
But now, thanks to TEMPO, NASA is
able to monitor air quality better than ever before.
So this means we can all breathe a little easier now.
[sighs]
See you next time on "Real World."