Atmospheric River Storms hitting the US West Coast shown with AIRS brightness temperature data

Surface air temperature maps with geopotential height contours overlaid over North America and the Arctic on December 13th and 22nd, 2022, showing the breaking polar vortex and extremely cold air plunging into the US.

Sulfur dioxide plume from Mauna Loa volcanic eruption

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder aboard the Aqua satellite captured the outer bands of the powerful tropical cyclone as the storm approached the Korean Peninsula.

The visualizations and images in this story show several quantities AIRS has observed over its 20 year lifetime. Most of these quantities have a common trait: the effects over the past two decades of human activities are easily seen in the AIRS observations.

May marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of JPL’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite, on May 4, 2002. A selection of features, videos and animations highlight what AIRS has observed over the 20 years and the impact it has had.