NASA Portrait of Global Aerosols

Have you ever wondered what climate scientists use to analyze the Earth’s atmosphere, the weather, global warming trends and climate change? Check out this amazing photo from NASA of the Earth showing global aerosols in the atmosphere.

This is an image output by the Goddard Earth Observation System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5). GEOS-5 is an advanced software that runs on the Discover supercomputer at NASA’s Center for Climate Simulation at Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland. The software can simulate global weather at enormous resolutions.

In the photo each color represents a different aerosol: Red is dust (swept up from deserts, like the Sahara); Blue is sea salt, swirling inside cyclones; Green is smoke from forest fires; and white is sulfates that come out of volcanic eruptions and the burning of fossil fuel on Earth.

The high-res version of the photo is particularly interesting, showing hurricanes of sand from the Sahara over the Atlantic Ocean in particular. From the photo we can examine what seems like a lot of fossil fuel burning over the east coast of USA, most of Europe, and parts of eastern Asia. It’s also interesting how it appears that there are still huge fires burning over the Amazon even though so much work being done to curb this practice.

See more at: NASA: Potrait of global aerosols.