Ball Aerospace pollution monitoring tool launches with NASA’s TEMPO Mission

11 Apr 2023 --- Ball Aerospace is launching its Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument aboard a commercial satellite from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, US, to provide critical data on air pollution across North America.

TEMPO is said to be NASA’s first Earth Venture instrument mission and will provide high-resolution daytime measurements of key air pollutants hourly as it scans across the continent, giving the scientific community a new tool to improve the detail and accuracy of air quality forecasts, explains Ball. 

“The TEMPO instrument is going to revolutionize the way scientists understand air quality and pollution, and it will make a meaningful difference in the everyday lives of people who are sensitive to air pollutants,” says Dr. Alberto Conti, vice president of Civil Space, Ball Aerospace. 

“This important piece of technology to the mission will help keep the public informed with vital health information and provide a robust dataset for additional research purposes.”

Air pollutant issues 
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates nationwide emissions of ambient air pollutants and the pollutants they are formed from (their precursors). The estimates are based on actual monitored readings or engineering calculations of the amounts and types of pollutants emitted by vehicles, factories, and other sources. 

Emission estimates are based on factors such as levels of industrial activity, technological developments, fuel consumption, vehicle miles traveled and other activities that cause air pollution.

In 2021, about 67 million metric tons of pollution were emitted into the atmosphere in the US, finds EPA.EPA finds that emissions of air pollutants continue to play an essential role in several air quality issues. In 2021, about 67 million metric tons of pollution were emitted into the atmosphere in the US. These emissions mostly contribute to the formation of ozone and particles, the deposition of acids and visibility impairment. 

Identifying pollutants with TEMPO
The TEMPO instrument uses a geostationary ultraviolet and visible spectrometer to determine the concentration and hourly variations of atmospheric pollutants such as ozone and nitrogen dioxide.

The improved spatial resolution and increased frequency of measurements enabled by TEMPO will also provide new insights into area sources of pollution, how it moves and the impacts of natural phenomena like volcanic eruptions.

The Ball-built instrument was produced in tandem with the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS), which launched in 2020 and provides similar measurements for South Korea’s National Institute of Environmental Research.

In addition to Ball Aerospace, the TEMPO team includes the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA’s Langley Research Center. The instrument is integrated and hosted on Intelsat’s Intelsat 40e satellite built by Maxar.  

Mapping environment destruction
Ball Aerospace creates innovative space solutions, enables more accurate weather forecasts, drives insightful observations of our planet and delivers actionable data and intelligence.

Since last year, governments, industry and community organizers can view plastic waste sites through an interactive map developed using satellite imagery and machine learning. The Global Plastics Watch map provides information on land attributes like water presence, drainage, earth density, soil content and human population. 

The map can detect waste sites as small as five square meters and measure changes in surface areas. It was created by the Australian philanthropic society and the Minderoo Foundation in collaboration with digital environmental product company Earthrise Media.

Andrew Forrest, chairman and co-founder of the Minderoo Foundation, said, “the world has no idea how dangerous plastic waste is to the organic environment, particularly humans. Preventing illegal and legal plastic waste stockpiles from entering the oceanic environment is critical to limit this harm.”

By Natalie Schwertheim