Launched in July 2004 on NASA's Aura spacecraft, the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) was the first instrument designed to monitor ozone in the lowest layers of the atmosphere directly from space. In doing so, TES was able to help assess the challenges of global climate change and air pollution, as well as improve our understanding of the atmosphere's chemistry. With very high spectral resolution, TES was capable of distinguishing concentrations of gases at different altitudes, a key factor in understanding their behavior and impact. Its high-resolution observations led to new measurements of atmospheric gases that have altered our understanding of the Earth system. Due to mechanical and data collection issues, NASA ended the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer's mission after nearly a 14-year career of discovery, in January 2018.

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