Revolutionizing Air Quality Monitoring with NASA’s TEMPO

NASA’s TEMPO Mission Revolutionizes Air Quality Monitoring

NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) mission, launched in 2023, is transforming how scientists track air quality from space. Located 22,000 miles above Earth, TEMPO uses a spectrometer to collect hourly daytime air quality data over North America.

Key Features of TEMPO

• Hourly Data: TEMPO provides hourly data on pollutants. These include nitrogen oxides, formaldehyde, and ozone in the troposphere. This data allows scientists to study emissions changes over time.
• High Spatial Resolution: TEMPO covers small areas within a few square miles, significantly advancing air quality monitoring technologies.
• Sub-Three-Hour Data Delivery: TEMPO achieves sub-three-hour data delivery, enabling quicker air quality alerts and enhancing decision-making for first responders.

Impact and Applications

• Air Quality Forecasting: TEMPO’s data enhances pollution forecasting, improves models, and supports public alerts during peak emissions.
• Health Research: With over 800 users, TEMPO has passed two petabytes of data downloads in a year. This proves its immense value to health researchers. It is also invaluable to air quality forecasters.
• Collaboration: NASA works with NOAA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory to produce aerosol products and analyze concentration.

Mission Extension

TEMPO’s prime phase was successfully completed within 20 months. The data quality was exceptional, so the mission has been extended till September 2026. This extension will further refine the goals of future space-based air quality efforts