TEMPO Satellite : NASA
NASA’s new satellite TEMPO measures air pollution hourly has shown significant progress and now the space agency officials are already thinking about ways to extend its life.
- Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) monitors major air pollutants across North America.
- Its monitoring range extends from Canada’s oil sands to the Yucatán Peninsula and across the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
- It is part of a virtual constellation with South Korea’s Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) and the European Space Agency’s upcoming satellite, aiming for comprehensive air pollution monitoring over the Northern Hemisphere.
- It will make important scientific observations, including that of ozone, nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and formaldehyde levels.
- It is capable of measuring air quality over North America hourly during the daytime with a resolution of several square miles.
- It monitors the effects of everything from rush-hour traffic to pollution from forest fires and volcanoes.
- The present pollution-monitoring satellites are in low Earth orbit (LEO), but this new monitoring instrument is hosted in geostationary orbit.
- It was designed for a 20-month operation.
