NASA has launched a high-resolution instrument to monitor air quality across the continental United States, providing data on everything from rush hour pollution to the effects of fertilization.
In the early hours of April 7, 2023, the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring Pollution (TEMPO) mission was launched aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Designed to provide critical scientific analysis of pollution and climate events, it maintains a fixed geostationary orbit. – High Earth orbit, coinciding with Earth’s rotation – Approximately 22,000 miles above the equator, monitoring pollution all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Mexico City and the Yucatan Peninsula to the Canadian oil sands.
TEMPO has an unprecedented resolution of up to 4 square miles (10.4 square km), well above the existing limit of about 100 square miles (259 square km). It will be the first space-based instrument to measure hourly levels of ozone, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and formaldehyde over the continental United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, the Bahamas and parts of Hispaniola. West Indies. This will dramatically improve the amount of data available on air pollution.
“The TEMPO mission is not just about studying pollution, it’s about improving the lives of everyone on the planet,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “From rush hour traffic to pollution from forest fires and volcanoes. By monitoring everything, NASA data will help improve air quality across North America and protect the planet.”
TEMPO’s air quality data will not only help assess and tackle climate change, but will also be available to all.
“NASA makes data from instruments like TEMPO easily accessible to everyone,” said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division. “This means everyone, from community and industry leaders to asthma sufferers, will have access to more detailed air quality information than ever before, both at the time and place.”
TEMPO forms part of an international constellation of air quality satellites focused on measuring air quality with the aim of reducing the impact of air pollution on human health and the environment. It joins Korea’s Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS), which was launched in February 2020 and is making measurements in Asia. Next to join the constellation will be the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Sentinel-4 satellite, scheduled to launch in 2024 to monitor Europe and North Africa.
“This marks a new era in our ability to observe air pollution in North America, including across the continental United States,” said TEMPO program scientist Barry Lefer. “It also opens the door for us to work more closely with international partners to better understand global air quality and its transport.”
Below is the official NASA broadcast of the TEMPO launch.
TEMPO mission launch (NASA official broadcast)
Source: NASA
