A breath of fresh air 😮‍💨 For the past 17 years, NASA's Aura satellite has watched our air get cleaner. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, such as coal power plants or gasoline and diesel vehicles. This air pollutant has been linked to health problems including asthma. NASA’s Aura satellite has been measuring NO2 for nearly two decades. This animation shows the yearly average NO2 from 2005 to 2022. You can see the air get cleaner. The cleaner air is primarily due to environmental rules that have helped reduce air pollution from power plants and cars. #NASA #EarthData #NitrogenDioxide #AirQuality #Earth #NASAEarth Video Description: A data visualization of average nitrogen dioxide levels over the United States as measured from space from 2005 to 2022. At the start of the animation, dark purple spots are seen over major cities throughout the country indicating high levels of air pollution. Rural areas are shown in light blue indicating low nitrogen dioxide levels. The dark purple spots fade into orange and then yellow as you move away from large city centers, however most of the Northeast is some shade of yellow-purple. As time moves forward the dark purple spots slowly shrink and fade leaving the majority of the map light blue with only small concentrations of dark purple over New York and Los Angeles.