Since launching in 2023, NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Air pollution mission, or TEMPO, has been measuring the standard of the air we breathe from 22,000 miles above the bottom. June 19 marked the profitable completion of TEMPO’s 20-month-long preliminary prime mission, and based mostly on the standard of measurements thus far, the mission has been prolonged by a minimum of September 2026. The TEMPO mission is NASA’s first to make use of a spectrometer to collect hourly air high quality knowledge constantly over North America throughout daytime hours. It might see particulars right down to just some sq. miles, a big development over earlier satellites.
“NASA satellites have a protracted historical past of missions lasting effectively past the first mission timeline. Whereas TEMPO has accomplished its major mission, the life for TEMPO is much from over,” mentioned Laura Judd, analysis bodily scientist and TEMPO science group member at NASA’s Langley Analysis Heart in Hampton, Virginia. “It’s a huge bounce going from once-daily photos previous to this mission to hourly knowledge. We’re regularly studying learn how to use this knowledge to interpret how emissions change over time and learn how to observe anomalous occasions, reminiscent of smoggy days in cities or the transport of wildfire smoke.”
When air high quality is altered by smog, wildfire smoke, mud, or emissions from automobile site visitors and energy vegetation, TEMPO detects the hint gases that include these results. These embody nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and formaldehyde within the troposphere, the bottom layer of Earth’s ambiance.
“A significant breakthrough throughout the major mission has been the profitable take a look at of information supply in below three hours with the assistance of NASA’s Satellite Needs Working Group. This data empowers decision-makers and first responders to situation well timed air high quality warnings and assist the general public cut back outside publicity throughout occasions of upper air pollution,” mentioned Hazem Mahmoud, lead knowledge scientist at NASA’s Atmospheric Science Data Center situated at Langley Analysis Heart.
hazem mahmoud
NASA Information Scientist
TEMPO knowledge is archived and distributed freely by the Atmospheric Science Information Heart. “The TEMPO mission has set a groundbreaking document as the primary mission to surpass two petabytes, or 2 million gigabytes, of information downloads inside a single 12 months,” mentioned Mahmoud. “With over 800 distinctive customers, the substantial demand for TEMPO’s knowledge underscores its crucial function and the immense worth it supplies to the scientific group and past.” Air high quality forecasters, atmospheric scientists, and well being researchers make up the majority of the information customers to date.
The TEMPO mission is a collaboration between NASA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, whose Heart for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian oversees every day operations of the TEMPO instrument and produces knowledge merchandise by its Instrument Operations Heart.
Datasets from TEMPO might be expanded by collaborations with accomplice companies just like the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is deriving aerosol merchandise that may distinguish between smoke and dirt particles and provide insights into their altitude and focus.
“These datasets are getting used to tell the general public of rush-hour air pollution, air high quality alerts, and the motion of smoke from forest fires,” mentioned Xiong Liu, TEMPO’s principal investigator on the Heart for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. “The library will quickly develop with the necessary addition of aerosol merchandise. Customers will be capable to use these expanded TEMPO merchandise for air high quality monitoring, bettering forecast fashions, deriving pollutant quantities in emissions and plenty of different science functions.”
“The TEMPO knowledge validation has really been a group effort with over 20 companies on the federal and worldwide stage, in addition to a group of over 200 scientists at analysis and tutorial establishments,” Judd added. “I sit up for seeing how TEMPO knowledge will assist shut information gaps concerning the timing, sources, and evolution of air air pollution from this unprecedented space-based view.”
An company evaluation will happen within the fall to evaluate TEMPO’s achievements and prolonged mission targets and determine classes realized that may be utilized to future missions.
The TEMPO mission is a part of NASA’s Earth Enterprise Instrument program, which incorporates small, focused science investigations designed to enrich NASA’s bigger analysis missions. The instrument additionally varieties a part of a digital constellation of air high quality screens for the Northern Hemisphere which incorporates South Korea’s Geostationary Setting Monitoring Spectrometer and ESA’s (European House Company) Sentinel-4 satellite tv for pc. TEMPO was constructed by BAE Programs Inc., House & Mission Programs (previously Ball Aerospace). It flies onboard the Intelsat 40e satellite tv for pc constructed by Maxar Applied sciences. The TEMPO Instrument Operations Heart and the Science Information Processing Heart are operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, a part of the Heart for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge.
For extra details about the TEMPO instrument and mission, go to: