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Pollution, forest fires, hurricanes… What does the Earth’s atmosphere look like from space?

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Rédaction feuxdeforet.fr
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NASA has just published satellite images showing the aerosols released into the atmosphere on Thursday 23 August. Aerosols are masses of microparticles, resulting from human activities or natural disasters, which circulate in the air (and which we therefore breathe in). By observing these aerosols, we can identify the locations of forest fires or hurricanes, and visualise the impact of CO₂ emissions on the Earth.

Forest fires, hurricanes, sandstorms, pollution

The red areas show carbon present in smoke from forest fires or in emissions produced by cars and factories. This aerosol has been detected in North America, which has been affected by several fires in recent weeks, particularly in California, but also in Africa, where land is cleared by fire to fertilise the soil, explains theNASA Earth Observatory.   A photograph of the Earth’s atmosphere taken by NASA on 23 August 2018. — Photo: NASA