AIR QUALITY FROM SPACE | Air Quality (2024)

NASA's Fleet of Earth Observing Satellites: Monitoring Our Planet's Health

NASA has a fleet of Earth-observing satellites whose instruments observe our planet's oceans, biosphere, and atmosphere. Several of these satellites have instruments that observe air pollutants around the world. The data collected are being used by air quality managers and researchers studying the impact of air pollution on human health and agriculture.

Air Pollutants Observed from Space

Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2): NO₂ is unhealthy to breathe and is primarily generated during fossil fuel combustion, so thermal power plants and automobiles are the dominant sources.

: At Earth's surface, O₃ is unhealthy to breathe and also negatively impacts plants, reducing crop yields.

: PM are tiny particles (e.g., smoke and dust) that cause numerous health issues when breathed in.

Impacts of Air Pollution: How Satellite Data Can Help

Human Health: Exposure to outdoor air pollution is responsible for an estimated 4 million premature deaths annually with about another 3-4 million resulting from exposure to indoor air pollution; that is, air pollution is responsible for about 1 in 9 deaths worldwide (WHO, 2018; Cohen et al., 2017). TheState of the Global Air webtoolallows you to view historical trends of air pollutants for your city with the concomitant impacts on human health.

Agriculture:The economic impact of crop yield loss due to pollution is significant all over the world. Air pollution causes global crop yield losses for wheat, corn, and soybeans that are estimated to range from 11-18 billion annually, with the greatest economic loss estimated to occur in the United States ($3.1 billion).

The slider above shows satellite data ofnitrogen dioxide (NO₂) from the Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) data for two years, 2005 (left) and 2016 (right). The data indicate that levels of this pollutant changed significantly over the last decade in many places around the world. Slide the bar from back and forth to see these changes. More information on NO₂ trends for each region and more than 300 world cities can be found under the Nitrogen Dioxide tab.

COVID-19 Impacts on Global Air Pollution

Efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 led to unprecedented changes in air pollution levels around the world, which NASA satellites observed. Professionals from a number of disciplines have used these data to assess the impact of the pandemic. As an example, one pollutant, nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), is unhealthy to breathe and also a tracer of human activities as it is emitted during fossil fuel combustion. Here are a few examples of how NO₂data were used:

• Air quality managers were interested in NO₂data to assess the impact of lockdowns on air pollution levels.
• Health professionals used NO₂data to gauge the effectiveness (e.g., reduction in emissions from traffic and industry) of lockdown efforts to contain or slow the pandemic in a given area.
• Climate researchers used NO₂data as a proxy for co-emitted CO₂emissions and, thus, inferred the changes in climate gases from cities and power plants.

• Given that most world economies are driven by fossil fuels, economists used NO₂data, a non-traditional source of data for this community, to assess the impact of the pandemic on economic activity around the world, including in countries without reliable economic data.
• The global intelligence community likely used NO₂data for assessing the impact of the pandemic on world countries, including with world governments that purposely misrepresent or withhold the true extent of the pandemic’s impact.

Learn more about impacts from COVID-19

NASA Food Security Initiative

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center'sFood Security Initiativepromotes the use of Earth observations and Earth science data, models, and knowledge provide essential information and tools to support global food security. (Photoby Ishay Botbol from Pexels)

NASA AQ Forecast

The NASAGlobal Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO)develops and maintains theGEOS system of models, which has a suite of capabilities including simulating weather, climate, chemistry-climate interactions, and nowair pollution. Visualize the forecast output withFLUID.

NASA Applied Sciences

The NASApromotes innovation in public and private sector organizations to apply NASA satellite data, model products, and scientific findings in air quality management and policy activities that benefit human health and safety.