The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) mission was launched in April 2023 and provides key air quality measurements of trace gas constituents over North America from a geostationary orbit. These observations are important to the air quality forecasting and modeling communities. Survey respondents requested that some of the currently planned TEMPO products be expedited to near real-time (NRT) availability to assist in forecasting and modeling efforts.
This activity is currently in the implementation phase, with the operational phase expected to begin in spring 2025. Hourly NRT air quality products for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), formaldehyde (HCHO), and clouds (using O2-O2 absorption) will be produced along with a Level 1B product that will enable NOAA to produce a NRT TEMPO/Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) aerosol product. The activity as originally proposed in Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG)-2020 also involved adapting established science algorithms from NASA's Ozone Monitoring Instrument to produce additional trace gas measurements. These enhanced products were not funded for SNWG-2020 but were later funded as an SNWG-2022 Solution for TEMPO Near Real-Time Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) and Enhanced Products.
| Thematic Areas |
|---|
| Atmospheric Composition, Disaster Response |
This activity will provide low-latency Level 1B, NO2, HCHO and clouds data that will support air quality forecasting and modeling and help local, state, and federal air quality agencies to alert the public to poor air quality.
Need help using this solution? SNWG's Stakeholder Engagement Program (SEP) curates relevant training resources focused on how to access and use SNWG solutions. For each solution, resources are aggregated into the following categories: Fundamentals of Remote Sensing, Missions and Instruments, Data Products and Descriptions, Data Access and Code Examples, and Use Case and Application Examples. Information on workshops and open meetings are also included. The resources below are for the TEMPO/GOES NRT products.
| Topic | Resource | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Fundamentals of Remote Sensing | Passive Instruments | An overview of passive instruments used for remote sensing of NASA Earth science data, including spectrometers |
| Remote Sensing of Trace Gases | Training on the use of remote sensing data for monitoring atmospheric trace gasses | |
| What is Spectroscopy? | Overview of spectroscopy, the measurement technique used by TEMPO |
| Topic | Resource | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Missions and Instruments | Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) Mission | Background on the TEMPO mission |
| TEMPO Mission Brochure | Overview of the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) mission, instrument, data products, and applications | |
| TEMPO: A Revolutionary Instrument for Measuring Air Pollution | Summary of the TEMPO instrument and its impacts on air quality monitoring (video) | |
| TEMPO Fact Sheet | Background on the TEMPO mission including science questions, mission organization, and instrument capabilities |
| Topic | Resource | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Data Products and Descriptions | TEMPO Synthetic Data | Access to synthetic TEMPO Level 2 data products |
| TEMPO Proxy Data | Summary and animation of TEMPO proxy data with access to a visualization tool by NASA's Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) center | |
| TEMPO/GOES NRT Products - SNWG Fact Sheet | SNWG fact sheet for the TEMPO/GOES Near Real-Time products that includes an overview of the solution, its societal benefit, and data specifications such as temporal coverage and spatial resolution |
| Topic | Resource | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Data Access and Code Examples | TEMPO NRT Data Viewer | Data viewer for TEMPO NRT products provided by NASA's Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) center |
| Topic | Resource | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Use Case and Application Examples | TEMPO: A New Era of Air Quality Monitoring from Space | Article detailing the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) role in the TEMPO mission |
| TEMPO Early Adopters Program: Applications | Overview of TEMPO application areas outlined by the TEMPO Early Adopters Program | |
| Stratosphere - Troposphere Separation of Nitrogen Dioxide Columns from the TEMPO Geostationary Satellite Instrument | Analysis of the TEMPO stratosphere - troposphere separation algorithm for nitrogen dioxide | |
| STAQs - Synergistic TEMPO Air Quality Science Mission | A mission to integrate TEMPO satellite observations with traditional air quality monitoring to improve understanding of air quality science and increase societal benefit | |
| TEMPO Early Adopters Program Workshop Events | TEMPO workshop materials provided by the TEMPO Early Adopters Program covering mission updates, applications, data products, tools, and resources |
| Title and Registration Link | Description | Date |
|---|---|---|
| The Beginning of a New Era of Multidisciplinary NASA Satellite Data Products Enabled by the Satellite Needs Working Group | The Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG) is a U.S. Government inter-agency organizational body that was established in 2016 to identify the Earth observational gaps and data needs across the U.S. Federal Civilian Agencies. The SNWG effort is a 2-year process in which NASA identifies and ultimately implements a wide range of innovative solutions that benefit the entire Earth Science community. There are currently 19 different SNWG activities underway, with many of the products now operational. In this session, we will invite representatives from the implementation teams behind several of the highly successful SNWG products to describe the new capabilities and where to access the data. This includes the Harmonized Landsat/Sentinel-2 (HLS), which is a cloud optimized dataset that standardizes common data bands from the two satellite constellations thereby effectively doubling the data available to the community. Another SNWG activity is the generation of a global surface water extent product that combines the data frequency of the optical satellites and the cloud-penetrating capabilities of satellite radar for a uniformed and frequent surface water product. Other activities include new radiation and clouds products, global air quality, land surface disturbance, North America deformation, vegetation indices suite with HLS, and planetary boundary layer products. | December 13, 2023 |