NASA, SpaceX Launch TEMPO Satellite To Monitor Earth's Air Pollution

NASA, SpaceX launches new TEMPO satellite to monitor Earth's air pollution
The new instrument will track air pollution every hour to provide new data
The data could help scientists keep better track of which areas are more at risk from pollution

In coordination with SpaceX, NASA has successfully launched its new TEMPO satellite, a powerful new instrument designed to monitor Earth's air pollution every hour.

The satellite's data would give scientists more information regarding air quality changes from neighborhood to neighborhood. This could fill in gaps that cause disparities in which population has to live with the most pollution.

NASA, SpaceX Launch New TEMPO Satellite

The new instrument is known as the Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution and will monitor three harmful pollutants: nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, and ground-level ozone. These three together are known as the key ingredients for smog.

The launch of the satellite comes as three out of eight Americans live in countries that received F markings for smog from the American Lung Association's State of the Air report. As per The Verge, this burden also tends to fall along racial and economic lines.

Data showed that people of color were 3.6 times more likely than white people to live in a country with multiple failing grades for different types of pollution. Lower-income communities across North America were also found to experience more air pollution.

In a March 30 press release, TEMPO program applications lead at NASA, John Haynes, said they have known for some time that oil refineries or chemical plants tend to be in lower-income neighborhoods. He noted that this was one of the reasons that property values were lower because of the air quality in these areas.

However, he argued that they had never before had any ground-based monitors stationed in every neighborhood to confirm such a theory. Scientists hope the new instrument could help eliminate these uncertainties by measuring the light that gases and particles in the atmosphere reflect into space.

Monitoring Air Pollution on Earth

The TEMPO satellite was launched onboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and is a joint project with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. According to Weather, Erika Wright, who was with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said that TEMPO would measure several key air quality constituents that impact human health, agriculture, and the environment.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12:30 a.m. on Friday. The weather at the time of the rocket's launch was near perfect, and it glowed against clear skies.

TEMPO will orbit roughly 22,000 feet above our planet, which is geostationary, meaning that its orbital speed is the same as the Earth's rotation. This provides the opportunity to take measurements of North America once every hour.

Laura Judd, a TEMPO researcher, said in an interview that instead of seeing clouds, they can use the satellite to see largely invisible pollutants in what they call "chemical weather." She added that the instrument would allow scientists to see where these pollutants originate and how they are moving across our planet, said CBS News.