SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched carrying a new NASA device named Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) designed to monitor air pollutants and their emission sources across North America from space more comprehensively than ever before.

What is TEMPO?

• TEMPO is an instrument developed by NASA, which will enable scientists to monitor air pollutants and their emission sources from space, down to the neighbourhood level.
• This instrument will measure pollution and air quality across greater North America on an hourly basis during the daytime.

TEMPO’s special features

• TEMPO is unique because it will be hosted on an Intelsat communications satellite in geostationary orbit, about 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above the equator.
• This will allow the instrument to match the rotation of the Earth, meaning it will stay over the same location (North America) at all times.
• It will be able to measure atmospheric pollution down to a spatial resolution of 4 square miles (10 square km), or neighbourhood level.

Applications of TEMPO

• TEMPO will have multiple applications from measuring levels of various pollutants to providing air quality forecasts and helping the development of emission-control strategies.
• The data will be used by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and other agencies responsible for tackling atmospheric pollution.

Importance of the mission

• According to the American Lung Association, more than 40% of the US population, 137 million people, live in places with unhealthy levels of particle pollution or ozone, and air pollution is blamed for some 60,000 premature deaths a year.
• TEMPO will track pollutants like nitrogen dioxide, produced from the combustion of fossil fuels, formaldehyde, and ozone.

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