Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO)
P Zoogman1, X Liu1, R M Suleiman1
1Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer
|August 21, 2020
Summary
NASA's TEMPO mission will provide hourly, high-resolution satellite measurements of atmospheric pollution over North America. This will improve air quality predictions and emission control strategies.
Area of Science:
- Atmospheric science and remote sensing.
- Environmental monitoring and air quality assessment.
- Space-based Earth observation.
Background:
- The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) mission was selected by NASA in 2012.
- Existing low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites provide limited diurnal data on atmospheric pollution.
- Accurate, high-resolution data is needed to understand and manage air quality.
Purpose of the Study:
- To measure atmospheric pollution over greater North America hourly from geostationary orbit.
- To provide key tropospheric measurements for air pollution chemistry and carbon cycle research.
- To enable improved emission inventories, population exposure monitoring, and control strategies.
Main Methods:
- Utilizes ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy from a geostationary (GEO) host spacecraft.
- Achieves high spatial resolution (approx. 2.1 km N/S x 4.4 km E/W).
- Measures spectra to retrieve ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, formaldehyde, and other pollutants.
Main Results:
- TEMPO will provide hourly, high-resolution measurements of critical air quality parameters.
- Data will cover North America, from Mexico City to the Canadian oil sands, and coast-to-coast.
- Near-real-time air quality products will be publicly available.
Conclusions:
- TEMPO's unique temporal and spatial resolution will significantly advance air quality monitoring and research.
- It will serve as the North American component of a global geostationary pollution monitoring constellation.
- The mission will reduce uncertainty in air quality predictions and support environmental policy.
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