NASA Mission Monitoring Air Quality from Space Extended
Since its launch in 2023, Tropospheric emissions from NASA: surveillance of the pollution mission, or tempo, measured the air quality that we breathe at 22,000 miles above the ground. On June 19, marked the successful completion of the initial initial mission of 20 months of tempo, and on the basis of the quality of the measures to date, the mission was extended at least September 2026. The tempo mission is the first of NASA to use a spectrometer to collect hourly data of the quality of the air continuously during North America during the hours of day. He can see details with a few square miles, a significant progression on previous satellites.
“NASA satellites have a long history of missions during far beyond the calendar of the primary mission. Although Tempo has completed its main mission, life for tempo is far from over, “said Laura Judd, a physical scientist and a member of the Tempo Science team at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. “It is a big jump that passes images once a day before this mission with hourly data. We are continuously learning to use this data to interpret how the emissions change over time and how to follow abnormal events, such as misty days in cities or the transport of forest smoke. ”
When air quality is modified by SMOG, forest smoke, dust or emissions from the circulation of vehicles and power plants, the tempo detects traces that accompany these effects. These include nitrogen dioxide, ozone and formaldehyde in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the earth’s atmosphere.
“A major breakthrough during the primary mission was the successful test of data delivery in less than three hours with the help of the working group on satellite needs of NASA. This information authorizes decision -makers and the first stakeholders to issue a timely warning of air quality and to help the public to reduce external exposure in times of atmospheric science pollution, “said Hazem Mahmoud, NASA data research center.
Hazem Mahmoud
NASA Data Scientist
Tempo data is archived and distributed freely via the scientific data center of the atmosphere. “The Tempo mission has established a revolutionary record such as the first mission to exceed two petacts, or 2 million gigabytes, data downloads in a single year,” said Mahmoud. “With more than 800 unique users, the substantial demand for tempo data highlights its critical role and the immense value it offers to the scientific community and beyond.” Air quality forecastists, atmosphere scientists and healthy researchers have so far been most of data users.
The tempo mission is a collaboration between NASA and the astrophysical observatory of the Smithsonian, including the Harvard & Smithsonian astrophysics center oversees the daily operations of the Tempo instrument and produces data products via its instrument operations center.
Tempo data sets will be extended thanks to collaborations with partner agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which draws aerosol products which can distinguish the particles of smoke and dust and offer information on their altitude and concentration.
“These data sets are used to inform the public of rush hour pollution, alerts of air quality and forest smoke movement,” Xiong Liu, Tempo principal researcher at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. “The library will soon develop with the significant addition of aerosol products. Users will be able to use these extended tempo products for air quality monitoring, improving forecasting models, derivating the quantities of pollutants in emissions and many other scientific applications. ”
“The validation of tempo data has really been a community effort with more than 20 agencies at the federal and international level, as well as a community of more than 200 scientists in research and university establishments,” added Judd. “I can’t wait to see how tempo data will help fill the knowledge gaps at the moment, sources and the evolution of air pollution from this unprecedented spatial vision.”
An agency examination will take place in the fall to assess the achievements of the tempo and the prolonged mission objectives and identify the learned lessons that can be applied to future missions.
The Tempo mission is part of the NASA Earth Venture Instrument Program, which includes small targeted scientific surveys designed to complete the wider research missions of NASA. The instrument is also part of a virtual constellation of air quality monitors for the northern hemisphere which includes the South Korea geostationary environmental surveillance spectrometer and the Sentinel-4 satellite of ESA (European Space Agency). Tempo was built by Bae Systems Inc., Space & Mission Systems (formerly Ball Aerospace). It flies aboard the Intelsat 40th satellite built by Maxar Technologies. The tempo instrument operations center and the science data processing center are exploited by the astrophysical Smithsonian observatory, which is part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge.
For more information on the instrument and the tempo mission, visit:
