As the summer heat intensifies, NASA has set its sights on a mission to tackle the critical issue of air pollution in megacities. As it teams up with various partners, the space agency is deploying innovative tools to observe air quality from ground level to the stratosphere.
The first satellite instrument of its kind, TEMPO, short for Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, will be used to provide hourly measurements of air quality over North America during daylight hours, boasting an unprecedented resolution of just a few square miles.
Launched into orbit earlier this year, TEMPO's field of view reportedly stretches from Mexico City to central Canada and the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. This latest atmospheric chemistry instrument of NASA is expected to start transmitting invaluable data for scientific research soon.
NASA's TEMPO and STAQS
Working in tandem with TEMPO, NASA also launched a separate mission, called the Synergistic TEMPO Air Quality Science (STAQS), operating from the ground level.
This ambitious initiative includes a fleet of aircraft, mobile laboratories, weather balloons, and hundreds of scientists mobilized to track pollution in unprecedented detail.
The summer 2023 campaign will observe the air quality in several North American megacities, such as New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Toronto.
STAQS aims to create detailed 3D maps of air pollutants, tracing their origins and monitoring their fluctuations on an hourly basis. The mission also seeks to identify communities disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air.
According to NASA, the primary pollutant under scrutiny is nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emitted by vehicles and industrial sources and is a major contributor to ground-level ozone or smog.
The missions will also monitor fine particulate matter and volatile organic compounds like formaldehyde, methane, and carbon dioxide - potent greenhouse gases contributing to Earth's warming.
The STAQS campaign receives support from NOAA, which leads the complementary AEROMMA field campaign. This collaboration involves government, university-led, and regional efforts.
A united front of more than 20 universities, regional consortiums, state and local governments, and federal agencies is forming a coast-to-coast air quality community, bolstering research efforts.
Localized Air Pollution
According to NASA, while improved air quality has been a success story in recent decades, localized air pollution poses new challenges.
For instance, in Chicago, a freight hub, a STAQS team will closely monitor ozone concentrations along Lake Michigan's shoreline and high levels of truck exhaust near massive warehouses.
Identifying such disparities is crucial for protecting public health, particularly for individuals living and working in affected areas. The STAQS team deploys two research aircraft with remote sensors, including spectrometers, to enable the mapping of pollutants up to three times daily.
John Sullivan, leading the ground-based operations for STAQS, emphasized the importance of a 3D perspective of air pollution movement and mixing in different atmospheric layers. Ground-support teams will use state-of-the-art sensors while aircraft fly overhead, gathering comprehensive data.
Remote-sensing instruments like TOLNet and Pandora, part of a global network of sky-scanning spectrometers, will serve as observational "anchor points" during the STAQS campaign.
Additionally, STAQS instruments will operate alongside existing trace-gas analyzing equipment managed by national and local air quality agencies, enabling comprehensive comparisons and augmentations of observations.
Ultimately, the collected data will benefit state and local air quality agencies. The mission's findings are expected to help these agencies formulate effective strategies for improving air quality and safeguarding public health.
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