Overview

The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) mission is a collaboration between NASA, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and several US universities. The TEMPO mission is a project that will measure air pollution across North America using a special tool called a spectrometer. The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) mission will measure atmospheric pollution across most of North America from a geostationary orbit, providing high spatial and temporal resolution data on tropospheric ozone, ozone precursors, aerosols, and clouds. This data will improve understanding and prediction of air quality and climate forcing, enabling effective emission-control strategies. It will also measure a suite of atmospheric constituents including ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, formaldehyde, glyoxal, aerosols, cloud parameters, and UV-B radiation. TEMPO is part of a constellation of instruments measuring air quality over the Northern Hemisphere.

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More About TEMPO

TEMPO will provide hourly measurements of atmospheric pollutants at a high spatial resolution, covering an area from Mexico City to the Canadian tar/oil sands, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Its measurements will include tropospheric ozone, ozone precursors, aerosols, and clouds, providing a revolutionary dataset that will improve understanding and prediction of air quality and climate forcing.

The TEMPO instrument will use spectroscopic measurements in the ultraviolet and visible to capture the inherent high variability in the diurnal cycle of emissions and chemistry. Its small product spatial footprint will resolve pollution sources at a sub-urban scale, enabling effective emission-control strategies.

In addition to TEMPO, other instruments measuring air quality over the Northern Hemisphere include the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-4 and South Korea’s Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer. Together, these instruments will provide valuable data for improving air quality and reducing the negative impacts of air pollution on human health and the environment.

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