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NASA and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian have announced the public availability of "high-quality, near real-time air quality data" from NASA's TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) mission. Launched on May 30, 2024, this data release is part of an ongoing effort to enhance public understanding of air quality. The NASA Science Activation program's Cosmic Da by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 14, 2024
NASA and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian have announced the public availability of "high-quality, near real-time air quality data" from NASA's TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) mission. Launched on May 30, 2024, this data release is part of an ongoing effort to enhance public understanding of air quality. The NASA Science Activation program's Cosmic Data Stories team, led by Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, has introduced a new "Data Story"-an interactive digital platform that showcases scientific imagery, provides exploration ideas, and highlights key scientific findings through brief videos and narrative text. This resource enables the public to visualize TEMPO's extensive data set easily.
TEMPO's hourly daytime scans offer an unprecedented level of detail, allowing monitoring of air quality down to neighborhood scales across North America. The data focuses on pollutants like NO2, which is often produced by fossil fuel combustion and can pose severe health risks, especially for individuals with conditions such as asthma. Through the TEMPO Data Story, users can access and explore the same data used by scientists to analyze local air quality patterns. Questions like "How do NO2 emissions change throughout the day in my area?" or "How does our air quality compare with neighboring urban or rural areas?" can now be answered using this hyper-localized data, empowering communities to make informed decisions and take proactive measures to improve air quality.
The Cosmic Data Story team expresses gratitude to TEMPO scientists Xiong Liu and Caroline Nowlan, who provided early access to the data and insights into NO2 phenomena that can be explored. The TEMPO Data Story, now available on TEMPO's public webpage, adds Earth science data to the existing portfolio of Cosmic Data Stories, which has already made astrophysics data accessible to the public.
Caroline Nowlan, Atmospheric Physicist from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, remarked, "TEMPO produces data that are really useful for scientists, but are also important for the general public and policy makers. We are thrilled that the Cosmic Data Stories team has made a tool that allows everyone to explore TEMPO data and learn about pollution across North America and in their own communities."
The Cosmic Data Stories project is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number 80NSSC21M0002 and is part of NASA's Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to engage in science that stimulates curiosity and fosters a deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn
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TEMPO at Smithsonian
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