 Earth's atmosphere. It's the air we breathe, the force that regulates our temperature, weather, and importantly what cleanses pollutants from the environment. We've begun to realize that our atmosphere has no geographical boundaries when it comes to pollution. Airborne industrial waste in one area can litter forests thousands of miles away with acid rain. Due to our everyday activity, a host of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are being released into the atmosphere of the northern lakes. These greenhouse gases are known to trap heat near the surface of the earth that otherwise would radiate into space, potentially causing serious global warming. This problem has been studied by scientists for many years, but never with the detail an airborne observatory can make flying at all levels of the atmosphere. To do this, U.S. and Canadian scientists teamed up to study greenhouse gases in the remote northern latitudes of Canada. The program called ABLE for Atmospheric Boundary Layer Experiment is the third in a series of NASA-sponsored research expeditions. Initiated in the early 80s, ABLE will eventually study major ecosystems around the globe to better understand the dynamics of our atmosphere. With the help of McGill University, a ground-based site was chosen in northern Quebec that featured a forest and wetlands environment. Scientists from Harvard and the State University of New York built a 100-foot tower at the forest site to sample atmospheric chemistry and collect meteorological data. Meanwhile, NASA biospheric researcher Gary Whiting and assistant Joel Knez spent countless hours at the nearby wetlands, measuring gases given off by these grass-like sedges. Detailed studies of the marsh plants were also made by a group from the University of Delaware to characterize their growth patterns and how they transport methane gas into the atmosphere. Because of their hollow stems, these planets are very efficient transporters of methane, piping the gas directly into the sky. Many other measurements such as balloon sawns track local winds, temperatures, and humidity. An electric aircraft from NASA's Warwick's Flight Facility, Virginia, flew repeated missions over the sites. Seven experiments took air samples and measured various chemical concentrations. Dr. Ed Browle of NASA's Langley Research Center used an instrument that shoots a laser beam above and below the aircraft to plot a cross-sectional view of the atmosphere. The reddish-orange colors represent regions containing higher concentrations of ozone, another greenhouse gas. Studying atmospheric events from the sky and the ground, giving scientists an unprecedented glimpse of the health of our global environment.