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NASA Is Now Tracking Air Pollution From Space

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Steve DaSilva
·1 min read
Tropospheric Composition Program Manager of NASA Barry Lefer speaks during a news briefing on NASA’s TEMPO instrument at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on March 14, 2023 in Washington, DC. The NASA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory hold a briefing on NASA's TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) instrument, "the first space-based instrument to observe major air pollutants across North America every hour during the daytime."

In the three-ish centuries since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, humanity has done some deeply terrible things to the planet. We’ve filled it with tire dust, made the air thick with smog, and generally turned “outside” into a worse place than ever before. Things have gotten so bad that our previous methods of pollution tracking — EPA-run stations on the ground — no longer suffice. Now, we need to track pollution from space, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is stepping up to the task.

NASA has begun the process of monitoring North American air pollution using satellites, as a first step towards creating a more comprehensive picture of global air quality than ever before. Wired looked into the agency’s efforts, and spoke with representatives from the project team to figure out just what kind of impact we can expect from this new research.

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