NASA Launching AQI Sensor That Will Provide Hourly Updates On Air Quality In North America

NASA is speeding up its efforts to monitor the air quality index (AQI) in North America. The space agency is already working with the EPA to boost air quality by using its satellites to refresh the data every three hours.

It is now working on launching an air sensor onboard a satellite, which will orbit the earth. The tool, which is named Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO), will be launched aboard the Maxar 1300 satellite, which will be launched a couple of years from now.

Maxar is a private satellite that is being launched by a company of the same name. It is designed to provide commercial satellite communications to Intelsat customers.

“We are excited about this important step required to lay the operational framework for TEMPO’s critical air quality measurements. We look forward to working closely with both Maxar and Intelsat for the successful integration, launch, and deployment of TEMPO,” Stephen Hall, Project Manager, TEMPO at the NASA Langley Research Center, stated in an official press release Monday.

Despite the name, TEMPO will also measure the level of ozone, Nitrogen Dioxide and Aerosols in the air over North America. It will provide a detailed picture of the air quality in the region by providing hourly updates.

NASA is milking its tie-ups with private space players such as SpaceX and Maxar. It gives the government-run agency significant savings in terms of its budget and helps it work on tools such as TEMPO. Putting TEMPO on a private satellite in a geostationary orbit is much cheaper than launching a spacecraft for the purpose.

TEMPO will be used alongside similar tools launched by the South Korean and European space agencies to make the analysis even more accurate.

It is set to remain in orbit 22,236 miles above the earth’s equator when it launches.