The Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) tool launched this week and will operate in a fixed geostationary orbit above the equator. From there, it can measure harmful pollutants in the atmosphere like nitrogen dioxide and ground-level ozone. It will take measurements once every hour beginning late next month or early June.
Where is the U.S.’s latest air quality monitor?
Answer: In space.
It may not seem like the most ideal location, but it turns out there’s actually a lot we can learn about pollution on Earth from way up in space. That’s why NASA recently sent a powerful air quality monitor into orbit.
The Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) tool launched this week and will operate in a fixed geostationary orbit above the equator. From there, it can measure harmful pollutants in the atmosphere like nitrogen dioxide and ground-level ozone. It will take measurements once every hour beginning late next month or early June.
One of the things that sets TEMPO apart from current technologies is its ability to take measurements at the micro level all the way from the cosmos. Current measurements can only hit an area of 100 square miles, while TEMPO can get all the way down to neighborhood by neighborhood. This allows for a much more comprehensive data set for both micro and macro levels, which will yield a greater understanding of our pollution and, hopefully, what we can do about it.
The Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) tool launched this week and will operate in a fixed geostationary orbit above the equator. From there, it can measure harmful pollutants in the atmosphere like nitrogen dioxide and ground-level ozone. It will take measurements once every hour beginning late next month or early June.
