NASA Goddard has produced another gorgeous visualization of how various aerosols move around our world. This visualization is constructed from data collected between August 2019 and January 2020, which means that it captures numerous typhoons as well as the extreme bushfires that occurred in Australia.
Different colors represent different aerosol sources: carbon (red), sulfate (green), dust (orange), sea salt (blue), and nitrate (pink). The brighter the color, the higher the concentration of aerosols. With this, we see steady patterns of natural sea salt transport and the billowing flow of dust from Saharan Africa. But we can also see manmade pollution from sources across the Northern Hemisphere, as well as major output from the Australian bushfires. It’s a good reminder that none of us is truly isolated in this interconnected world of ours. (Video and image credit: NASA Goddard; via Flow Vis)