Skip Navigation
menu close modal

Explore

Graphic: The Greenhouse Effect

greenhouse effect 11/5/20

May 22, 2019

A simplified animation of the greenhouse effect.

Also find this animated gif on our Causes page.

Credit

NASA-JPL/Caltech

Related

La fuerza de la gravedad no solo evita que nos alejemos flotando, sino que también permite a la NASA estudiar el agua y el hielo de la Tierra desde el espacio.
More
Balanza en el cielo
Balanza en el cielo
By comparing bee data to satellite imagery, NASA research scientist Wayne Esaias uses honey bees as tiny data collectors to understand how climate change is affecting pollination and plants.
More
By comparing bee data to sa...
Video: Sting of Climate Change
A video depicts all seven continents on Earth converging over 250 million years into one new supercontinent called Aurica.
More
Exploring the Climates of E...
Exploring the Climates of Earth's Future Supercontinent with a NASA Supercomputer
Nuestra Tierra tiene fiebre. Nuestros científicos creen que la temperatura de la Tierra podría subir de 3 a 10 grados Fahrenheit durante este siglo.
More
La Tierra tiene fiebre
La Tierra tiene fiebre
Animation showing changes in Greenland ice mass since 2002 based on satellite data.
More
Video: Greenland Ice Mass L...
Video: Greenland Ice Mass Loss 2002-2020
Video: A visualization of the annual Arctic sea ice "minimum" for each year from 1979 through 2020.
More
Annual Arctic sea ice minim...
Video: Annual Arctic sea ice minimum 1979-2020 with area graph
Visualization of 30 named storms during the 2020 hurricane season
More
Video: 2020 Hurricane Season
Video: 2020 Hurricane Season
This documentary traces the efforts of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to measure greenhouse gases.
More
JPL and the Space Age: Sky ...
JPL and the Space Age: Sky High (Video)
Video: Simulation of global clouds and aerosols from September 1, 2005, to December 31, 2005.
More
Video: Simulated clouds and...
Video: Simulated clouds and aerosols
Carbon dioxide is the main heat-trapping greenhouse gas that humans emit. How much do you know about it and its impact on global warming and climate change?
More
Carbon dioxide quiz - how m...
Quiz: Carbon dioxide
Test your knowledge of energy and its role in our climate.
More
Test your knowledge of ener...
Quiz: Energy
Learn how you can explore Earth Now's many features, including real-time data visualizations of Earth's vital signs and 3D models of Earth-orbiting satellite missions.
More
'Earth Now' Tutorial
'Earth Now' Tutorial
Aprende cómo se desplaza el dióxido de carbono alrededor de la Tierra. Además, el archivo descargable incluye una página con definiciones de términos.
More
EL CICLO DEL DIÓXIDO DE CAR...
Página de colorear: El ciclo del dióxido de carbono
Los aerosoles son diminutas partículas sólidas y líquidas suspendidas en la atmósfera.
More
Me llamo Aerosol
Me llamo Aerosol
This video shows the accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) during a single calendar year.
More
Global Carbon Dioxide: 2020...
Global Carbon Dioxide: 2020-2021
Continuing key Earth observations is really important to see how our atmosphere, land, and ocean are changing over time. A long-term record, combined with cutting-edge observations from the new NASA Earth System Observatory, will continue to push boundaries to better understand our ever-changing planet.
More
How NASA Satellites Help Mo...
How NASA Satellites Help Model the Future of Climate
A detailed look at Jupiter's and Earth's atmospheres and cores as we unlock mysteries of the solar system.
More
Jupiter and Earth: Giant di...
Infographic: Jupiter and Earth: Giant discoveries ahead
The visualization shows monthly global temperature anomalies (changes from an average) between the years 1880 and 2021.
More
Video: Climate Spiral
Video: Climate Spiral
Video: Using observations from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) satellite, scientists developed a model of the behavior of carbon in the atmosphere from September 1, 2014 to August 31, 2015.
More
Following carbon dioxide th...
Video: Following atmospheric carbon dioxide
This visualization shows the complex patterns of methane emissions produced globally from January 2018 to November 2018.
More
Video: Methane Sources
Video: Methane Sources
A super high-definition view of how carbon dioxide in the air moves around the world with the winds.
More
Super HD view of global car...
Video: Super HD view of global carbon dioxide
Karen St. Germain, NASA's director of Earth science, gave a presentation at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
More
Video: What NASA Knows from...
Video: What NASA Knows from Decades of Earth System Observations
NASA scientists are working to understand if our land and ocean can continue to absorb carbon dioxide at the current rate – and for how long.
More
Infographic: Earth's carbon...
Infographic: Earth's carbon cycle is off balance
The past decade has been the hottest ever recorded since global temperature records began 150 years ago. This video discusses the impacts of the sun's energy, Earth's reflectance and greenhouse gasses on global warming.
More
The past decade has been th...
Video: Temperature Puzzle
Perhaps the most impressive of cloud formations, cumulonimbus (from the Latin for “pile” and “rain cloud”) clouds form due to vigorous convection (rising and overturning) of warm, moist and unstable air. Surface air is warmed by the sun-heated ground surface and rises; if sufficient atmospheric moisture is present, water droplets will condense as the air mass encounters cooler air at higher altitudes. The air mass itself also expands and cools as it rises due to decreasing atmospheric pressure, a process known as adiabatic cooling. This type of convection is common in tropical latitudes year-round and during the summer season at higher latitudes. As water in the rising air mass condenses and changes from a gas to a liquid state, it releases energy to its surroundings, further heating the surrounding air and leading to more convection and rising of the cloud mass to higher altitudes. This leads to the characteristic vertical “towers” associated with cumulonimbus clouds, an excellent example of which is visible in this astronaut photograph. If enough moisture is present to condense and heat the cloud mass through several convective cycles, a tower can rise to altitudes of approximately 10 kilometers at high latitudes and to 20 kilometers in the tropics before encountering a region of the atmosphere known as the tropopause—the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere. The tropopause is characterized by a strong temperature inversion. Beyond the tropopause, the air no longer gets colder as altitude increases. The tropopause halts further upward motion of the cloud mass. The cloud tops flatten and spread into an anvil shape, as illustrated by this astronaut photograph. The photo was taken from a viewpoint that was at an angle from the vertical, rather than looking straight down towards the Earth’s surface. The image, taken while the International Space Station was located over western Africa near the Senegal-Mali border, shows a fully formed anvil cloud with numerous smaller cumulonimbus towers rising near it. The high energy levels of these storm systems typically make them hazardous due to associated heavy precipitation, lightning, high wind speeds and possible tornadoes.
More
Cumulonimbus cloud over Africa
Cumulonimbus cloud over Africa

Explore

Interactives, galleries and apps

Images of Change

Images of Change

Explore a stunning gallery of before-and-after images of Earth from land and space that reveal our home planet in a state of flux.
More
Climate Time Machine

Climate Time Machine

Travel through Earth's recent climate history and see how increasing carbon dioxide, global temperature and sea ice have changed over time.
More
Eyes on the Earth

Eyes on the Earth

Track Earth's vital signs from space and fly along with NASA's Earth-observing satellites in an interactive 3D visualization.
More
Global Ice Viewer

Global Ice Viewer

Earth's ice cover is shrinking. See how climate change has affected glaciers, sea ice, and continental ice sheets.
More