NASA has collected the first continuous global observations of the biological engine that drives life on Earth. Researchers expect this new detailed record of the countless forms of plant life that cover land and oceans may reveal as much about how our living planet functions today as fossil and geologic records reveal about Earth’s past.

Newly discovered, narrow rings of cold air over Earth’s poles help form colorful clouds that destroy ozone. Scientists reporting the findings in the journal Science believe they have solved a decade-old mystery of how glowing, ozone-destroying clouds that contain nitric acid and water form particles that later spread to decompose ozone.

A massive Antarctic iceberg-in-the-making was captured by NASA’s Landsat 7 satellite . Landsat 7 provides the most detailed observations available of the remote continent, many parts of which have never been mapped in such detail before.

Researchers have discovered that smoke and smog move in different ways through the atmosphere. The new study in Science may soon help scientists do a better job of tracking pollution plumes around the world.