Intro music.
NASA's latest addition to its fleet of Earth-observing satellites is getting down to business and breaking new ground.
Launched in July of 2004, Aura --a powerful research platform in space --
is offering new insight into something we take for granted here on Earth: our atmosphere.
Aura is providing the first daily, direct global measurements of the ozone and pollution that affects the quality of the air we breathe.
Aura's perspective from space will help in understanding how
pollutants travel around the globe and affect areas far from their source -- something not readily apparent from the ground.
In Aura's first images, this perspective has revealed the dramatic chemical processes that form the Antarctic ozone hole.
Aura and the two other Earth Observing System satellites --
Terra and Aqua -- allow scientists to study how land, water and the atmosphere work together as a system.
Keep checking www.NASA.gov for more updates on this and other missions.