Multi-Angle Imager For Aerosols Mission:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced on Wednesday that it is partnering with the Italian Space Agency ASI (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana) to build and launch the MAIA mission.
- It is a joint mission between NASA and the Italian Space Agency ASI.
- This will investigate the health impacts of air pollution in the world’s most populated cities.
- Its primary goal is to benefit societal health. Epidemiologists and public health researchers will be directly working on the development of a satellite mission.
- It will consist of the PLATiNO-2 satellite, which will be provided by ASI, and a science instrument that will be built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
- The MAIA mission will collect and analyse data from the observatory, sensors on the ground and atmospheric models.
- The JPL hosts a pointable spectropolarimetric camera which captures images from multiple angles in the ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared and shortwave infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
- During the course of the three-year mission, MAIA will focus on 11 primary target areas that include major urban centres across the world: Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Rome, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Barcelona, Spain, Beijing, Johannesburg, New Delhi, Taipei, Taiwan; and Tel Aviv.
- The MAIA observatory is set to launch before the end of 2024.
