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Earth’s atmosphere is a thin veil of gas surrounding the planet. Although it only extends a few hundred kilometers above the surface, it contains a mixture of gases, such as oxygen and nitrogen, that are critical for life to exist. It distributes incoming solar radiation, protecting life from harmful ultraviolet radiation but also driving ...
Atmospheric Ozone is one of the most important trace gases in our atmosphere that both benefits and harms life on Earth. High ground-level ozone amounts contribute to poor air quality, adversely affecting human health, agricultural productivity, and forested ecosystems. Ozone absorbs infrared radiation, and is most potent as a greenhouse gas in ...
Atmospheric Rivers. NASA’s Earth-observing satellites help scientists identify atmospheric rivers, which enables studies of climate change, water management, and weather. Atmospheric rivers are narrow, elongated corridors of concentrated moisture transport that occur in the lower atmosphere, ahead of the cold front in an extratropical cyclone.
Air mass/density is a fundamental property of atmosphere. Mixture of gases forming Earth's atmosphere, consisting of nitrogen (∼78%), oxygen (∼21%), water vapor, and other trace gases such as carbon dioxide, helium, argon, ozone, or various pollutants. The concentration of water vapor is very variable, being a strong function of temperature ...
Lightning is the electrical discharge between positively and negatively charged regions within clouds. Visually, lightning is comprised of bright flashes of light called strokes. The loud sound of thunder that accompanies lightning is a sonic shock wave produced by the rapid expansion of the air surrounding the lightning channel during the ...
NASA biosphere data are critical for understanding Earth's species diversity, climate regulation and change, and its ecosystem processes. Life within Earth’s biosphere consists of millions of species living in various types of biomes such as grassland, forest, desert, aquatic, and tundra areas. Biomes are often divided into numerous subtypes ...
The atmosphere is a gaseous envelope surrounding and protecting our planet from the intense radiation of the Sun. Biosphere The biosphere encompasses all life on Earth and extends from root systems to mountaintops and all depths of the ocean.
Earthdata. Radiation budget refers to the difference between the absorbed solar radiation and the net infrared radiation. The radiation budget takes into account the sum of all radiation, transferred in all directions, through the Earth's atmosphere and to and from space. The radiation budget (or radiation bal.
Atmospheric Water Vapor. (Also called aqueous vapor, moisture.) Water substance in vapor form; one of the most important of all constituents of the atmosphere.Air in motion relative to the surface of the earth. Definition source: National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Jun 6, 2022 · Explore Learning Resources. NASA’s massive archive of Earth science data are free and open to any user for any purpose—but accessing, analyzing, visualizing, and applying these data requires a certain degree of knowledge about Earth observation data and how it is collected and optimized. Check out our catalog of learning resources to better ...