NASA releases data maps from new pollution monitoring instrument above U.S.
WASHINGTON (KDKA) - Late last month, NASA released the first data maps from its new United States Pollution-Monitoring Instrument which is transmitting information regarding major air pollutants over North America.
The instrument is orbiting 22,000 miles above the equator and is the first space-based instrument designed to continually measure air quality.
"Neighborhoods and communities across the country will benefit from TEMPO's game-changing data for decades to come," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "This summer, millions of Americans felt firsthand the effect of smoke from forest fires on our health."
Observations from TEMPO will help improve studies of pollution caused by rush-hour traffic, the movement of smoke from ash from wildfires, and volcanoes, and the effect of fertilizer that is applied to farmland.
Visualizations taken between 11:12 a.m. and 5:27 p.m. EST on August 2 were released a few weeks ago and one of the images captured some pollution over western Pennsylvania.
"TEMPO is beginning to measure hourly daytime air pollution over greater North America," said Kelly Chance, SAO senior physicist and TEMPO principal investigator. "It measures ozone, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, aerosols, water vapor, and several trace gases. There are already almost 50 science studies being planned that are based around this new way to collect data."
The mission is a collaboration between NASA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
You can check out more on NASA's website at this link.