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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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Video: Methane Emissions in...
Video: Methane Emissions in the United States
NASA scientists are working to understand if our land and ocean can continue to absorb carbon dioxide at the current rate – and for how long.
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Infographic: Earth's carbon cycle is off balance
Video: Southern Hemisphere ozone between July 1 and December 31 for selected years between 1979 and 2018.
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Video: Ozone Watch 2018
Video: Ozone Watch 2018
A super high-definition view of how carbon dioxide in the air moves around the world with the winds.
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Video: Super HD view of global carbon dioxide
NASA Earth Right Now promo
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NASA Earth Right Now promo
Video: NASA Earth Right Now promo
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
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
Video: NASA scientists release the first new global map of Earth at night since 2012.
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Video: Lights of human acti...
Video: Lights of human activity shine in NASA's image of Earth at night
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: Methane Sources
Head into the field with first responders, fire scientists and forest managers to see what challenges they face and how NASA can help mitigate the effects of longer and more intense fire seasons.
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Operation Earth: Wildfires
Video: 'Operation Earth: Wildfires'
Desde 1978, la NASA ha estado monitoreando los vientos oceánicos a través de la dispersometría, cuyos datos han mejorado los pronósticos meteorológicos y de huracanes y nos han ayudado a comprender mejor los patrones climáticos globales.
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Los vientos oceánicos
Los vientos oceánicos
Video: The ocean's important role in absorbing heat and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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Ocean circulation plays an ...
Video: Ocean circulation plays an important role in absorbing carbon from the atmosphere
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
A graphic briefly explains the relationship between volcanoes and climate change.
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Graphic: Volcanoes and Clim...
Graphic: Volcanoes and Climate Change
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
Learn how you can explore Eyes on the Earth's many features, including real-time data visualizations of Earth's vital signs and 3D models of Earth-orbiting satellite missions.
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Tutorial: NASA's Eyes on th...
Tutorial: NASA's Eyes on the Earth
This view of Earth from space is a fusion of science and art, drawing on data from multiple satellite missions and the talents of NASA scientists and graphic artists.
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Twin Blue Marbles
Twin Blue Marbles
This animation shows the change in atmospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels as a result of COVID-19 stay-at-home restrictions.
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COVID-19 Mitigation Leads t...
COVID-19 Mitigation Leads to Reduced Pollution Associated with Decreased Fossil Fuel Use
An animation shows several high impact events across the globe between August 2019 and January 2020, including the Australian bushfires.
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Global Transport of Smoke f...
Global Transport of Australian Bushfire Smoke
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
Visualization of 30 named storms during the 2020 hurricane season
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Video: 2020 Hurricane Season
Video: 2020 Hurricane Season
Climate time machine interactive
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Climate time machine intera...
Interactive: Climate time machine
This video shows the accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) during a single calendar year.
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Global Carbon Dioxide: 2020...
Global Carbon Dioxide: 2020-2021
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
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 o...
Human and Natural Drivers of Climate Change (1850-2018)

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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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