{"id":2568905,"date":"2023-04-05T17:11:09","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T21:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-1016567-4521551.cloudwaysapps.com\/plato-data\/nasa-air-quality-sensor-ready-for-launch-with-intelsat-satellite\/"},"modified":"2023-04-05T17:11:09","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T21:11:09","slug":"nasa-air-quality-sensor-ready-for-launch-with-intelsat-satellite","status":"publish","type":"station","link":"https:\/\/platodata.io\/plato-data\/nasa-air-quality-sensor-ready-for-launch-with-intelsat-satellite\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA air quality sensor ready for launch with Intelsat satellite"},"content":{"rendered":"
Artist\u2019s illustration of the TEMPO instrument\u2019s scan of air quality across North America. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A $210 million NASA mission to improve air pollution monitoring over North America is set to launch Friday with an Intelsat communications satellite blasting off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, or TEMPO, instrument is attached to the Intelsat 40e communications satellite for a ride into geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator. Intelsat 40e will lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket during a nearly two-hour launch window opening at 12:30 a.m. EDT (0430 UTC) Friday.<\/p>\n

The TEMPO instrument, about the size of a washing machine, will scan North America to measure pollutants in the atmosphere, collecting data for scientists to study how concentrations of chemicals produced from human activity and natural processes change throughout the day. Forecasters will also use the measurements to predict air quality in cities, which can have significant impacts on human health.<\/p>\n

\u201cTEMPO will be measuring pollution and air quality across greater North America on an hourly basis during the daytime, all the way from Puerto Rico up to the tar sands of Canada,\u201d said Kevin Daugherty, TEMPO\u2019s project manager at NASA\u2019s Langley Research Center.<\/p>\n

For the first time, scientists will receive air quality measurements multiple times per day once TEMPO begins observations after this year. There are similar instruments monitoring air pollution from satellites in low Earth orbit, but those missions provide just a single observation each day.<\/p>\n

Flying in geostationary orbit, Intelsat 40e and TEMPO will circle Earth at the same rate as the planet\u2019s rotation. The orbit gives the satellite, parked over the equator at 91 degrees west longitude, an interrupted view of North America 24 hours a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day we can get measurements, say, over New York City at 1:30 in the afternoon, but that\u2019s just one data point over New York over a day, and a lot is happening in New York City over a day. So we have two rush hours that we\u2019re not able to capture,\u201d said Caroline Nowlan, an atmospheric physicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. \u201cThe great thing about TEMPO is that for the first time we\u2019ll be able to make hourly measurements over North America. We\u2019ll be able to see what\u2019s happening over a whole day as long as the sun is up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The instrument will be able to measure atmospheric chemistry in pre-selected regional areas as often as every 5 to 10 minutes, scientists said. TEMPO also has improved spatial resolution compared to existing low Earth orbit sensors, with the ability to sample air quality in areas as small as 4 square miles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re able to, for the first time really, see down to suburban scales or neighborhood scales at hourly resolution,\u201d Nowlan said.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s TEMPO instrument integrated on the Intelsat 40e communications satellite at Maxar\u2019s factory in Palo Alto, California. Credit: Maxar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TEMPO works by measuring sunlight reflected off particles in Earth\u2019s atmosphere, then splitting the light into different parts of the visible and ultraviolet spectrum. That reveals the chemical fingerprints of atmospheric constituents like nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulfur dioxide, aerosols, and formaldehyde. The resolution of TEMPO will also reveal emission sources for atmospheric pollutants, such as factories and industrial zones, power plants, large cargo ships, or heavily-trafficked roads during rush hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re burning gasoline or diesel to move ourselves around, or electric generation plants burn coal or natural gas, a byproduct of that activity is nitrogen dioxide, and it\u2019s harmful to human health. it\u2019s a primary pollutant, it\u2019s emitted from a smoke stack,\u201d said Barry Lefer, NASA\u2019s tropospheric composition program manager. \u201cIn the atmosphere, it reacts to make ozone and formaldehyde, secondary pollutants which are also harmful to human health.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo TEMPO is going to give us this ability to track chemical weather as it is emitted from sources, and then transported downwind to other receptor sites,\u201d Lefer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, we have a wide range of chemicals that we measure that let us figure where the pollution is coming from, how it\u2019s being transported and transformed,\u201d said Kelly Chance, TEMPO\u2019s principal investigator from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. \u201cThat data then informs air quality products, hopefully, in near real-time enough, so you can decide whether you can go out for a run today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientists will also use TEMPO to track pollution caused by wildfires, volcanic eruptions, and industrial-scale farms.<\/p>\n

Several hundred organizations, including NOAA and the Environmental Protection Agency, have signed up to use TEMPO data. State and local environmental and health agencies also plan to incorporate TEMPO data into their work.<\/p>\n

The TEMPO instrument was built by Ball Aerospace, which developed a nearly identical instrument flying in geostationary orbit on a South Korean weather satellite. That sensor launched in 2020 and is tracking air pollution over the Asia-Pacific region, including China, India, and Japan.<\/p>\n

The Sentinel 4 mission will launch in 2024 to provide air quality measurements over Europe, completing a worldwide network monitoring air pollution. The constellation will be able to see how prevailing winds transport pollutants around the globe.<\/p>\n

This illustration compares the higher spatial resolution of the TEMPO air quality instrument with the OMI instrument on NASA\u2019s Aura satellite and the GOME 2 instrument on Europe\u2019s MetOp weather satellites. The Aura and MetOp satellites are in low Earth orbit, while TEMPO will fly in geostationary orbit. Credit: NASA\/SAO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The TEMPO mission won NASA funding in 2012 through the agency\u2019s Earth Venture program, a series of cost-capped satellite missions and instruments with focused scientific objectives.<\/p>\n

At the time of its selection, TEMPO was supposed to launch in 2017 as a hosted payload on a commercial satellite. Engineers developing the instrument encountered technical problems that delayed the instrument\u2019s completion until 2018, then managers placed TEMPO into storage for more than a year to find a satellite to host it.<\/p>\n

NASA selected Maxar in 2019 to integrate the TEMPO with a geostationary communications satellite it would build for a commercial customer. In 2020, Intelsat joined the mission when it selected Maxar to build the Intelsat 40e communications satellite, which would be positioned in geostationary orbit over the Americas.<\/p>\n

Intelsat will relay data and commands between the satellite and TEMPO\u2019s science team at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

Daugherty, TEMPO\u2019s project manager, said the mission has a budget of about $210 million. About $90 million went toward developing the TEMPO instrument itself, and the rest of the budget goes toward paying Intelsat, Maxar, and engineering support contractors for integration and operations.<\/p>\n

When NASA selected the TEMPO mission in 2012, hosted payloads had a bright future on commercial geostationary satellites with the promise of offering cost savings for scientific instruments, which would not need to launch on their own spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Hosted payloads like TEMPO still have the benefit of lower costs, but the instrument had to wait almost five years from the time Ball Aerospace completed manufacturing until it moved to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. Matching the schedule for the development of a space science instrument with the faster timelines of commercial satellite procurement proved to be a challenge.<\/p>\n

Completing the TEMPO instrument ahead of time allowed NASA to remove uncertainties about the hosted payload\u2019s readiness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat process allowed us to come to the table with a fully-completed, fully-tested instrument, which has helped us to fit into the commercial timeline for spacecraft development that moves at a very rapid rate,\u201d Daugherty said.<\/p>\n

A NASA laser communications demonstration payload faced similar delays after a commercial host satellite opportunity did not materialize as anticipated. That payload eventually launched in 2021 hosted on a U.S. military satellite. NASA is evaluating lessons learned from the TEMPO experience to improve the process for future hosted payloads on commercial satellites, according to Daugherty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prime reason why there have not been more opportunities is the schedule risk,\u201d said Jean-Luc Froeliger, Intelsat\u2019s senior vice president of space systems. \u201cFor a commercial operator, schedule is extremely important. The satellite has to be built quickly, it has to be launched, it has to be in service as fast as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case we had a rare case where the instrument, TEMPO, was already built when we did the contract with Maxar in early 2020,\u201d Froeliger said. \u201cThat risk was retired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Artist\u2019s illustration of the Intelsat 40e satellite in orbit. Credit: Maxar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After launching from Cape Canaveral, SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket will deploy the 13,582-pound (6,161-kilogram) Intelsat 40e satellite into an elliptical transfer orbit. Intelsat 40e will use its own engine to maneuver into a circular geostationary orbit later this month. Intelsat expects the satellite to begin commercial service by the end of May providing internet service to airplanes and ships.<\/p>\n

A protective cover over the TEMPO instrument\u2019s optics will open to allow the sensor to begin collecting atmospheric measurements in July. Scientists calibrate the instrument by comparing its measurements to those collected by airborne and ground-based air quality sensors.<\/p>\n

Regular observations with TEMPO are scheduled to begin in October. The mission is approved for 20 months of air quality observations, but TEMPO could continue tracking pollutants for years if the instrument remains healthy. Intelsat 40e is expected to be on station in geostationary orbit for more than 15 years.<\/p>\n

NOAA plans to put similar air quality instruments on its next generation of operational geostationary weather satellites due to begin launching in the early 2030s.<\/p>\n

\u201cTEMPO will pave the way for the next generation of air quality satellites,\u201d said Xiong Liu, TEMPO\u2019s deputy principal investigator at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.<\/p>\n

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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n