NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) have been trusted workhorses for earth and ocean scientists since they launched on the Terra-1 (1999) and Aqua-1 (2002) satellite platforms over a decade ago. The industrious researchers and artists over at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have turned some of the data obtained through the MODIS sensors into a gorgeous animation of the movement of aerosol pollution across the globe. Space borne sensors like MODIS don’t produce pretty pictures, they provide imagery containing real geophysical data that scientists can use to better understand our pale blue dot.