Why We Do What We Do
Our Mission
Earth's atmosphere is changing, with consequences for all its inhabitants. CSD's mission is to discover, understand, and quantify the chemical reactions and related processes that affect Earth's atmosphere, so we can better understand its future – and ours.
Our research is centered on three major environmental issues – climate change, poor air quality, and stratospheric ozone layer depletion. CSD also studies the interactions among these issues.
Integral to CSD's work is ensuring that governments, the public, and industry can access our scientific findings. We provide explanations of our research in user-friendly, policy-relevant formats, which may be used to help develop informed decisions.
CSD's work to advance the scientific understanding of atmospheric chemical processes is essential for understanding and predicting changes in Earth's environment – the heart of NOAA's mission.