Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) Instrument

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Space technology

Concept :

About TEMPO

The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument was launched by NASA in a Falcon 9 rocket.
The instrument will measure pollution and air quality across greater North America on an hourly basis during the daytime.
TEMPO will have multiple applications
measuring levels of various pollutants
providing air quality forecasts
helping the development of emission-control strategies
Existing pollution-monitoring satellites are in low Earth orbit (LEO), but TEMPO will be hosted in geostationary orbit.
TEMPO will allow scientists to monitor air pollutants and their emission sources from space more comprehensively than before.
A geostationary orbit is 36,000 kilometers above the equator, where the orbiting satellite will match the rotation of the Earth. (meaning it will stay over the same location)

Similar Instruments

TEMPO will be part of a constellation of instruments measuring air quality over the Northern Hemisphere which includes the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-4 (under development) and South Korea’s Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer.