The only way to prepare for future change is to study the complex set of events that control Earth's behavior. Powerful new approaches are being used to understand these profound global changes and their impact on the habitability of planet Earth. ASD's atmospheric science research is part of the Mission to Planet Earth program, NASA's contribution to the United States Global Change Research Program, a national effort to understand why the air we breath is changing and to forecast long-term effects. Radiation Sciences at Langley focus on understanding the radiation budget of the Earth atmosphere system. Heat from the sun combined with heat emitted from the Earth and atmosphere establish our radiation budget.
Clouds play a key role in the overall radiation budget.
Five years of highly successful data from the Langley instrument in space called ERBE has been of critical importance in judging the quality of climate models and provided definitive measurements of major radiative events such as the El Nino southern oscilation and the Mt Pinatubo eruption. The EOS Earth satellite observations will represent a great advance in our ability to observe global and regional radiative fluxes at the top of the atmosphere as well as at the surface of the Earth and within the atmosphere. Middle atmospheric research focuses on aerosols and trace gases. Aerosol observations are vital due to their role in modifying atmospheric chemistry composition and impacting climate. ASD measurements have been crucial in determining critical ozone trends in climatology.