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Quiz: The air we breathe

Quiz: The air we breathe

Our atmosphere is vital to all living things on our planet. How much do you know about the air we breathe? Take our quiz.

Browse our collection of climate-related quizzes here.

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NASA Climate Change website

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This image shows a spinning formation of ice, clouds and low-lying fog off the eastern coast of Greenland. This image was acquired by the Landsat 7 satellite on May 14, 2001. This is a false-color composite image made using infrared, red and green wavelengths.
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Whirlpool
Whirlpool
These cloud formations were seen over the western Aleutian Islands. Their color variations are probably due to differences in temperature and in the size of water droplets that make up the clouds. This image was acquired by the Landsat 7 satellite on June 16, 2000.
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Aleutian clouds
Aleutian clouds
Karen St. Germain, NASA's director of Earth science, gave a presentation at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
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Video: What NASA Knows from...
Video: What NASA Knows from Decades of Earth System Observations
Video: The NASA satellite fleet in 2017, from low Earth orbit to the DSCOVR satellite taking in the million-mile view.
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Video: NASA's vantage point to view Earth
Test your knowledge about global temperature change and its impact on Earth's climate.
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Test your knowledge about g...
Quiz: Global warming
Track Earth's vital signs and fly along with NASA's Earth-observing satellites.
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Eyes on the Earth
Interactive: Eyes on the Earth
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Interactive: Climate time machine
Graphic: Global surface temperature changes versus the Sun's energy that Earth receives in watts (units of energy) per square meter since 1880.
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Graphic: Temperature vs Solar Activity
This visualization presents methane emissions across the United States for the year 2012.
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Video: Methane Emissions in...
Video: Methane Emissions in the United States
The IPCC's four key findings
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The IPCC's four key findings
Graphic: The IPCC's four key findings
Perhaps the most impressive of cloud formations, cumulonimbus (from the Latin for “pile” and “rain cloud”) clouds form due to vigorous convection (rising and overturning) of warm, moist and unstable air. Surface air is warmed by the sun-heated ground surface and rises; if sufficient atmospheric moisture is present, water droplets will condense as the air mass encounters cooler air at higher altitudes. The air mass itself also expands and cools as it rises due to decreasing atmospheric pressure, a process known as adiabatic cooling. This type of convection is common in tropical latitudes year-round and during the summer season at higher latitudes. As water in the rising air mass condenses and changes from a gas to a liquid state, it releases energy to its surroundings, further heating the surrounding air and leading to more convection and rising of the cloud mass to higher altitudes. This leads to the characteristic vertical “towers” associated with cumulonimbus clouds, an excellent example of which is visible in this astronaut photograph. If enough moisture is present to condense and heat the cloud mass through several convective cycles, a tower can rise to altitudes of approximately 10 kilometers at high latitudes and to 20 kilometers in the tropics before encountering a region of the atmosphere known as the tropopause—the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere. The tropopause is characterized by a strong temperature inversion. Beyond the tropopause, the air no longer gets colder as altitude increases. The tropopause halts further upward motion of the cloud mass. The cloud tops flatten and spread into an anvil shape, as illustrated by this astronaut photograph. The photo was taken from a viewpoint that was at an angle from the vertical, rather than looking straight down towards the Earth’s surface. The image, taken while the International Space Station was located over western Africa near the Senegal-Mali border, shows a fully formed anvil cloud with numerous smaller cumulonimbus towers rising near it. The high energy levels of these storm systems typically make them hazardous due to associated heavy precipitation, lightning, high wind speeds and possible tornadoes.
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Cumulonimbus cloud over Africa
Cumulonimbus cloud over Africa
Video: how different factors, both natural and industrial, contribute to global warming.
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How global warming stacks up
Video: How global warming stacks up
This visualization shows carbon emissions from fires from January 1, 2003 through December 31, 2018. The color bar reflects the quantity of carbon emitted.
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Carbon Emissions from Fires...
Carbon Emissions from Fires: 2003-2018
Video: Simulation of global clouds and aerosols from September 1, 2005, to December 31, 2005.
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Video: Simulated clouds and...
Video: Simulated clouds and aerosols
This animation shows how various temperature records and Arctic sea ice have changed between 1850 and 2018 from human and natural drivers of climate change.
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Human and Natural Drivers of Climate Change (1850-2018)
Graphic: A simplified animation of the greenhouse effect.
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The Greenhouse Effect
Graphic: The Greenhouse Effect
This visualization shows the complex patterns of methane emissions produced globally from January 2018 to November 2018.
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Video: Methane Sources
Video: NASA scientists release the first new global map of Earth at night since 2012.
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Video: Lights of human activity shine in NASA's image of Earth at night
Video: Using observations from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) satellite, scientists developed a model of the behavior of carbon in the atmosphere from September 1, 2014 to August 31, 2015.
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Trick or treat? How many pumpkins would it take to equal the mass of the world’s annual fossil fuel carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions? Hint: This isn’t a trick 👻
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Graphic: Carbon Dioxide Emi...
Graphic: Carbon Dioxide Emissions as Pumpkins
How much do you know about glaciers and ice caps?
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Test your knowledge of the ...
Quiz: Ice and glaciers
Las nubes son complicadas cuando se trata de la ciencia del clima, ya que calientan y enfrían la Tierra.
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Las nubes.
Las nubes
Test your knowledge of sea level rise and its effect on global populations.
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Test your knowledge of sea ...
Quiz: Sea level rise
This animated map shows monthly temperature anomalies (changes from an average) from summer 1880 to summer 2023 measured with respect to NASA's 1951-1980 baseline period.
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Video: Summer 2023 Record High Global Temperatures
NASA Earth Right Now promo
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NASA Earth Right Now promo
Video: NASA Earth Right Now promo

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Interactives, galleries and apps

Images of Change

Images of Change

Explore a stunning gallery of before-and-after images of Earth from land and space that reveal our home planet in a state of flux.
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Climate Time Machine

Climate Time Machine

Travel through Earth's recent climate history and see how increasing carbon dioxide, global temperature and sea ice have changed over time.
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Eyes on the Earth

Eyes on the Earth

Track Earth's vital signs from space and fly along with NASA's Earth-observing satellites in an interactive 3D visualization.
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Global Ice Viewer

Global Ice Viewer

Earth's ice cover is shrinking. See how climate change has affected glaciers, sea ice, and continental ice sheets.
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