NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument has successfully launched, marking a significant step forward in the monitoring of major air pollutants. The instrument will provide unprecedented resolution, allowing scientists to observe air quality from space with accuracy down to just four square miles. The TEMPO mission aims to revolutionize the way air quality is monitored, helping to improve life on Earth.
More About The Launch of NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument
The instrument was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The Intelsat 40E satellite carried the payload, which separated from the rocket around 32 minutes after launch. The signal acquisition occurred at 1:14 a.m. TEMPO commissioning activities will begin in late May or early June.
Significance of NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has said that the TEMPO mission is about more than just studying pollution. It aims to improve life on Earth by monitoring the effects of everything from rush-hour traffic to pollution from forest fires and volcanoes. NASA data will help improve air quality across North America and protect our planet.
The observations provided describe a new scientific instrument that is capable of monitoring air quality over North America at a high resolution and with a high frequency. This instrument is hosted in geostationary orbit, which means that it can continuously monitor the same region of the Earth’s surface, allowing for the tracking of changes in air quality over time.
What will it Observe?
The instrument is designed to measure several key pollutants, including ozone, nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide, and formaldehyde. These pollutants are all known to have harmful effects on human health and the environment, so monitoring their levels is important for understanding and mitigating their impacts.
TEMPO, a NASA instrument, is set to revolutionize the way scientists observe air quality from space by providing unparalleled resolution of monitoring major air pollutants down to four square miles. As a fixed geostationary orbit above the equator, TEMPO will be able to measure air quality over North America hourly during the daytime, surpassing existing limits of about 100 square miles in the U.S.
