The Future Of Monitoring Air Quality From Space
The Future of Monitoring Air Quality from Space
TEMPO’s measurements from geostationary orbit (GEO) will create a revolutionary dataset that provides understanding and improves prediction of air quality (AQ) and climate forcing.
The KORUS-AQ airborne science experiment taking to the field in South Korea this spring is part of a long-term, international project to take air quality observations from space to the next level and better inform decisions on how to protect the air we breathe.
Before a new generation of satellite sensors settle into orbit, field missions like KORUS-AQ provide opportunities to test and improve the instruments using simulators that measure above and below aircraft, while helping to infer what people breathe at the surface.
These geostationary instruments will make up a northern hemisphere air quality constellation to analyze their respective regions.Credits: Image Courtesy of Andreas Richter (University of Bremen) and Jhoon Kim (Yonsei University)
“We want to move beyond forecasting air pollution, we want to influence strategies to improve it,” said Jim Crawford, a lead scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. “This is where satellite observations can play an important role.”
Existing low Earth orbit (LEO) instruments have established the benefit of space-based views of air pollution. From space, large areas can be viewed consistently, whereas from the ground only discrete (often single) points can be measured. As Dave Flittner, TEMPO project scientist, explains, a geostationary (GEO) air-quality constellation can accurately track the import and export of air pollution as it is transported by large-scale weather patterns.
TEMPO, or Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, is one instrument on the road to improving air quality from space. According to Flittner, hardware has recently begun development and TEMPO is on track to be finished no later than fall of 2017, and available for launch on a to be selected commercial communications satellite.
For the first time, TEMPO will make accurate hourly daytime measurements of tropospheric pollutants (specifically ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, formaldehyde, and aerosols) with high resolution over the U.S., Canada and Mexico. With help from related international missions, these observations provide a complete picture of pollution sources in the northern hemisphere and how they influence air quality from local to global scales.
These geostationary instruments will make up a northern hemisphere air quality constellation to analyze their respective regions.
Credits: Image Courtesy of Andreas Richter (University of Bremen) and Jhoon Kim (Yonsei University)
About 22,000 miles above the equator, the Korean Aerospace Research Institute’s GEMS (The Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer), the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-4/UVN, and NASA’s TEMPO, will maintain their positions in orbit as the Earth rotates, covering a majority of the area from East Asia through greater North America and Europe. Together, these instruments will make up a northern hemisphere air quality constellation.. All three of these instruments analyze the same pollutant concentrations in their respective region, from the morning to evening.
Another critical part of the global air quality constellation are the LEO instruments, such as TROPOMI (a.k.a. Sentinel-5P), which will launch in late 2016 and provide a common reference for the three GEO sensors, allowing for a more accurate assessment of air quality within each region.
Denise Lineberry
NASA Langley Research Center
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Leaders from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, described their accomplishments and future missions at NASA’s AeroSpace Days on Feb. 6 and 7 in Richmond.
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NASA officials and representatives from the aerospace industry met with all 140 members of the General Assembly or their staffs, as well as Gov. Ralph Northam, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, and cabinet members.
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Sen. John Consgrove was so fired up to talk with Lindgren that he apologized for it.
“I’m sorry I’m ignoring everybody else, but I don’t get to speak to an astronaut every day,” he said.
Lindgren is used to the outsized attention, and welcomed it as an opportunity to talk about NASA’s contributions to Virginia.
“It’s one of my favorite parts of the job,” he said. “You can see that they’re very enthusiastic, very interested and excited.”
Leaders from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, described their accomplishments and future missions at NASA’s AeroSpace Days on Feb. 6 and 7 in Richmond.
NASA officials and representatives from the aerospace industry met with all 140 members of the General Assembly or their staffs, as well as Gov. Ralph Northam, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, and cabinet members.
One of those lawmakers was newly elected Del. Kathy Convirs-Fowler. When she finished getting autographed pictures of Lindgren for her two children, she asked officials how aerospace initiatives can be advanced to students.
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“We want to excite the next generation,” Langley Deputy Director Clayton Turner told her. “That’s part of what we do.”
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“The collaboration has been really helpful,” Turner said.
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“By having two NASA centers here in Virginia, it also gives our students something to aim for,” Lindgren said. “The state is very fortunate and unique in that respect to have all those resources.”
AeroSpace Days, held for the past 13 years, aims to leverage those resources to recruit the next generation of explorers. That imperative drives Del. Marcia Price.
“If there’s anything I can do to help, especially in my community, to help with the outreach efforts so that they know about programs so my kids can be a part of the excellent things that are going on, let me know,” she said.
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“We’re here to help any way we can,” he said.
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“That was a cool moment,” said Langley spokesman Michael Finneran.” It’s very satisfying to realize that we’re helping improve people’s lives through what we and our partners do. We felt like rock stars for a few minutes.”
To view a photo gallery of 2018 AeroSpace Days, click here.
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Hi everyone!
I’m participating in the NASA Aerospace Scholars program at @nasa‘s Langley Research Center ( @nasalangley ). I wanted to share my team’s Facebook page with you, so you can see what we’ve been up to! It would really help my team out if you liked the page on Facebook!
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