NASA's TEMPO Satellite Delivers Hourly Air Pollution Data Across North America
Launched in September 2025, the TEMPO satellite has been delivering hourly observations of pollutants over North America from an altitude of 22,000 miles above the equator. This collaborative project between NASA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory monitors nitrogen dioxide (NO2), formaldehyde, aerosols, and ground-level ozone with a resolution of approximately four square miles. Unlike its predecessors, TEMPO provides insights into 'chemical weather.' In August 2026, smoke from wildfires rendered Portland, Oregon's air quality the worst in the world, impacting cities such as New York and Chicago. Researchers are studying formaldehyde in smoke plumes and connecting high-ozone days to NO2 emissions from industrial zones. Air pollution is responsible for around 100,000 premature deaths and incurs an annual economic cost of $800 billion in the U.S.
Key facts
- TEMPO launched operations in September 2025 and orbits 22,000 miles above the equator
- The satellite is a joint effort by NASA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
- TEMPO provides hourly daytime pollution snapshots at about four-square-mile resolution
- Portland, Oregon had the world's worst air quality in August 2026 due to wildfire smoke
- The EPA's ground-based monitoring system covers only about one-third of 3,000-plus U.S. counties
- Air pollution causes an estimated 100,000 premature deaths and 200,000 child-onset asthma cases yearly in the U.S.
- Maryland had ten ozone exceedance days by August 2026 after meeting all NAAQS in 2022
- Connecticut recorded 13 ozone exceedances by July 4, 2026, its earliest such milestone
Entities
Artists
- Laura Judd
- Tracey Holloway
- Shobha Kondragunta
- Mary Uhl
- Amanda Fritz
- Jennifer Kaiser
- Joel Dreessen
- Iván Gutiérrez-Avila
- Allan Just
Institutions
- NASA
- Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
- NASA Langley Research Center
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research
- Western States Air Resources Council
- Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Maryland Department of the Environment
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Brown University
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team
- Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology
- Annual Review of Biomedical Data Science
- Smithsonian Magazine
Locations
- Portland
- Oregon
- United States
- New York City
- New York
- Denver
- Colorado
- Chicago
- Illinois
- Toledo
- Ohio
- Canada
- Hampton
- Virginia
- College Park
- Maryland
- Hartford
- Connecticut
- Atlanta
- Georgia
- Mexico City
- Mexico
- Rhode Island
- Chesapeake region
- Interstate 95