Nasa has released the first images captured by its air analysis tool, which was placed in geostationary orbit earlier this year. The objective is to closely monitor pollution levels in the United States, neighborhood by neighborhood. The same system will soon be extended to Europe and Asia.
The US space agency (NASA) has unveiled its initial maps depicting the state of pollution in the United States. These maps are generated by NASA’s Tempo (meaning “Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution”) space instrument. Tempo is designed to observe major atmospheric pollutants across North America and is installed on a telecommunications satellite positioned in geostationary orbit over 35 km above the equator.
The Tempo instrument measures “sunlight reflected and scattered from the Earth’s surface and atmosphere back to the instrument’s detectors” throughout daylight hours to evaluate the levels of various pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, aerosols, and water vapor.
As expected, pollution is concentrated in urban areas. The initial images display high levels of nitrogen dioxide over cities and major roads in the morning. However, as the day progresses, this morning pollution tends to dissipate, only to rise again in the late afternoon during rush-hour traffic.
The measurements were conducted in early August, and a fine-tuning phase is scheduled to take place until October, at which point Tempo is expected to be fully operational. The data collected will then be shared with various partners, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The aim is to assist scientists in conducting a comprehensive study of air quality throughout North America, with hourly data reporting. Examples provided by NASA include analyzing the impact of rush-hour traffic, smoke and ash from forest fires, and the influence of fertilizers on farmlands. NASA’s goal is for neighborhoods across the country to benefit from Tempo data for years to come.
“If this summer’s wildfires in Canada are any indication, it’s clear that pollution emitted in one place can impact communities thousands of miles away, especially communities that are more susceptible to the negative effects of poor air quality,” stated Raid M. Suleiman, an astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) and Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), in a news release.
Tempo is part of a significant “climate plan” initiated by US President Joe Biden’s administration. This tool will soon be deployed on two other satellites to observe air quality in Europe and Asia. – AFP Relaxnews
This map shows the consequences of climate change on the planet
Credit: The Star : News Feed
