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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), outdoor air pollution contributes to millions of deaths every year, making it one of the biggest global health risks. In addition, 99% of people worldwide breathe air that exceeds WHO pollution guidelines. People living in low socioeconomic neighborhoods and communities may be more vulnerable to poor air quality because of factors including proximity to industrial sources of air pollution, higher rates of underlying health problems, poor nutrition, stress, and historical patterns of environmental injustice.

The causes of air pollution vary from human activities (such as coal-fired power plants) to natural events (like wildfires and dust storms). Since air pollution is a global hazard, a combination of airborne, ground, and satellite-based tools is necessary to better understand the movement of pollutants and the impact of events leading to poor air quality. Integrating socioeconomic data with air quality data can provide a more accurate analysis of populations facing greater exposure and vulnerability from pollutants.

NASA's Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program provides unrestricted access to data that can be used to assess air quality, as well as access to tools and applications for analyzing and working with these data. Along with measurements acquired from airborne and satellite missions, NASA collaborates with federal entities and international space organizations to collect and distribute air quality data. Data products include hourly global surface fine particulate matter concentrations, measures of nitrogen dioxide over the United States, and dust scores.

Air Quality Near Real-time Data

Learn more about near real-time air quality data provided by NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for Earth observations (LANCE).

Sustainable Development Goals

NASA provides measurements of air quality, land surface reflectance, land cover, population, and other socioeconomic data that provide metrics for tracking progress toward meeting sustainable development goal (SDG) Targets, specifically SDG 3, good health and well-being, and SDG 11, sustainable cities and communities.

Get Air Quality Data

Access a range of datasets and data tools to further your air quality research.

Learn How to Use Air Quality Data

Access a range of webinars, tutorials, data recipes, and data stories to enhance your knowledge of Earth Observation data.
A view of atmospheric pollution in the Chicago metropolitan area from the TEMPO mission.
Finding Your TEMPO: Products and Data Services for Air Quality Observations over North America
View this Earthdata webinar to learn about NASA's Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument and how its data sheds new light on air quality.
Global Gridded Relative Deprivation Index (GRDI) map showing the relative levels of multidimensional deprivation and poverty
An Introduction to NASA's SEDAC Datasets for Health and Air Quality
In this webinar, learn how data archived by NASA's Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) brings new insight to the connections between air quality and public health.
Discover and Visualize Air Quality Data
NASA data help us understand Earth's changing systems in more detail than ever before, and visualizations bring these data to life, making Earth science concepts accessible, beautiful, and impactful.
Data visualization is a powerful tool for analysis, trend and pattern recognition, and communication. Our resources help you find world-class data visualizations to complement and enhance your research. We also have tools and tutorials to help you translate air quality data into compelling visuals.
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image of TEMPO data over Northeastern US
This image visualizes data collected by the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument, which collects measurements of nitrogen dioxide and other elements of air pollution.

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