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Read. Follow. Verify.NASA Funding for TEMPO Pollution Monitoring Project
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What This Bill Does
NASA has awarded $31.19 million to the Smithsonian Institution to develop and operate the Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument. This project will provide hourly, high-resolution data on air pollution across North America from a .
This project provides public access to real-time air quality data and improves the accuracy of air quality predictions by 50%, which informs regional emission-control strategies.
Who It Affects
Groups the bill's text affects, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Smithsonian Institution
The institution is the recipient of the $31.19 million award and is responsible for the TEMPO mission.
General Public
The public will have access to near-real-time air quality data products generated by the mission.
Key Facts
- NASA awarded $31.19 million to the Smithsonian Institution for the TEMPO project.
- TEMPO measures air pollution across North America hourly at sub-urban spatial resolution.
- The instrument operates from a geostationary orbit to capture the diurnal cycle of emissions.
- TEMPO tracks O3, NO2, SO2, H2CO, C2H2O2, H2O, aerosols, cloud parameters, and UVB radiation.
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- The project aims to reduce uncertainty in air quality predictions by 50%.
- Data collected by TEMPO will be made widely and publicly available in near-real-time.
- The project was selected under the NASA SALMON-2 Announcement of Opportunity.
- TEMPO is part of the Earth Venture Instrument-1 (EVI-1) element of the Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) program.
- The project builds on the heritage of five previous spectrometers flown in low-earth-orbit.
- TEMPO fulfills atmospheric measurement capabilities recommended in the 2007 National Research Council Decadal Survey.
- TEMPO will function as part of a global constellation alongside Europe's Sentinel 4 and Asia's GEMS.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the TEMPO instrument actually measure?
Will the data collected by this project be available to the public?
How does this project improve current air quality monitoring?
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Global Pollution Monitoring Constellation
The project is explicitly designed to integrate with international efforts (Europe's Sentinel 4 and Asia's GEMS) to create a global pollution monitoring network.
Connected Entities
Sources
www.usaspending.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance65How much this matters to a regular citizen
- Controversy10Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz20Current news / social attention level
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