Our universe is a wild and wonderful place. HOST JACOB PINTER: This is NASA’s Curious Universe. And they affect our life on Earth in ways that can be hard to wrap your head around… HOST JACOB PINTER: A erosols are everywhere. And you can look at a place like the Sahara n Desert, and the dust that’s produced there gets blown out over the oceans, and makes it as far as say, the Amazon basin. So for example, dust blowing off of a desert is one example of an aerosol. The little liquid particles they spray out, like hairspray or paint… are also aerosols. Wherever aerosols originally come from… your car’s tailpipe, a forest fire or the salty sea… they don’t stay put. Once they rise high into the air, they can cross oceans and continents with ease… and affect the whole world. HOST JACOB PINTER: When you hear the word aerosols, you might also think of spray cans. So sea salt, sea breeze, and that that’s a type of aerosol as well. There’s other types of aerosols that are naturally generated by, say, wind on the surface of the ocean. There’s types of aerosols that are created as byproducts of human emissions from vehicle emissions, or for industrial emissions. HOST JACOB PINTER: Smoke from your campfire… or from a raging wildfire… isn’t the only place you’ll find aerosols. These microscopic particles floating around the atmosphere have a lot of sources down here on the ground, both natural… and manmade. He’s an atmospheric scientist at NASA, and his lab studies aerosols.Īnother way of saying it might be that we observe microscopic phenomena from space. HOST JACOB PINTER: That’s Kirk Knobelspiesse. ![]() We think about bad air quality days downwind from a big smoke event or something like that. HOST JACOB PINTER: So, your campfire produces aerosol pollution on a small scale… enough to make you a little uncomfortable. Now… think about what a raging wildfire would generate.Ī lot of what’s emitted from a fire is particles or gasses that turn into particles. So aerosol is sort of a blanket term to refer to particulate matter that’s suspended in the atmosphere. HOST JACOB PINTER: Have you ever wondered exactly what was in that smoke? It turns out smoke is made up of gases and these teeny tiny particles called aerosols. HOST JACOB PINTER: Have you ever sat by a crackling campfire and leaned back to watch the gray, sooty smoke rise up into the night sky? Then, maybe the wind shifted a bit and it headed toward you, making you cough and scoot your chair away… So find your favorite episode at /curiousuniverse or wherever you listen to podcasts. HOST JACOB PINTER: Whether you’re a total space nerd or a first time space explorer, I’m telling you, there is a Curious Universe episode for you. We have over 50 episodes exploring all sorts of fun topics, from human spaceflight to astrophysics, and more. HOST PADI BOYD: We’re very happy to have you here. ![]() HOST JACOB PINTER: We’re hard at work making new episodes, but we just wanted to stop for a minute and say thank you. If you’re new to the show, and excited to learn more about the universe around us, welcome. HOST PADI BOYD: Thank you for listening to NASA’s Curious Universe. Through new satellite missions, NASA atmospheric scientists like Kirk Knobelspiesse and public health experts like Susan Anenberg are working together to untangle aerosol mysteries. Globally, they play an even bigger role, changing how much sunlight gets through to Earth’s surface and heating or cooling our entire planet. What do air pollution, thunderstorm clouds and climate change have in common? Aerosols! These tiny particles, generated by everything from desert dust storms to car exhaust, play a huge role in our atmosphere, affecting our health when we breathe them in and even changing the weather.
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