Watch as Nasa discusses first space-based air quality monitor

Watch as Nasa and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory discuss TEMPO, the first space-based instrument to observe major air pollutants across North America.

Short for Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, TEMPO is expected to be the first space-based instrument to observe air pollutants hourly in high spatial resolution - down to four square miles - in a region that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Canadian oil sands to below Mexico City.

Launching aboard the Intelsat 40E satellite as early as April, TEMPO will observe major air pollutants in near real-time, allowing scientists at Harvard, Smithsonian and Nasa to analyze and report emissions information faster and with more detail than ever before to the American public.

The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace and integrated onto Intelsat 40E by Maxar.

On Tuesday (14 March), experts from Nasa and Smithsonian discussed the project and answered questions from the media.

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