New Space Sensor as a Hosted Payload to Track Air Pollution Across North America

Nov. 8, 2012

Steve Cole
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0918
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 12-390

NEW SPACE SENSOR AS A HOSTED PAYLOAD TO TRACK AIR POLLUTION ACROSS NORTH AMERICA

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected a proposal from the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., to build the first
space-based instrument to monitor major air pollutants across the
North American continent hourly during daytime. The instrument, to be
completed in 2017 at a cost of not more than $90 million, will share
a ride on a commercial satellite as a hosted payload to an orbit
about 22,000 miles above Earth's equator.

The competitively selected proposal, Tropospheric Emissions:
Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO), is led by principal investigator
Kelly Chance of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The
investigation will for the first time make accurate observations of
tropospheric pollution concentrations of ozone, nitrogen dioxide,
sulfur dioxide, formaldehyde, and aerosols with high resolution and
frequency over North America.

"NASA is excited to make this initial step into using commercially
available space on geostationary communication satellites to engage
in cutting edge science," said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and
associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
Washington. "We expect to see significant advances in air quality
research with TEMPO. The vantage point of geostationary orbit offers
the potential for many new opportunities in other areas of Earth
system science."

The TEMPO team has extensive experience in measuring the components of
air quality from low-Earth orbit. Chance is on the science teams of
the Ozone Monitoring Instrument now in orbit on NASA's Aura satellite
and two European air quality space sensors. The team includes
partnerships with Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., in Boulder,
Colo.; NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.; NASA's Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park, N.C.; and several U.S.
universities and research organizations.

TEMPO was chosen from 14 proposals submitted to NASA's Earth Venture
Instrument program. Earth Venture missions, part of the Earth System
Science Pathfinder program, are small, targeted science
investigations that complement NASA's larger research missions. In
2007, the National Research Council recommended NASA undertake this
type of regularly solicited, quick-turnaround project. The first
Earth Venture selection was awarded in 2010 for five airborne
investigations. The second was for a full satellite mission, the
Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System, announced earlier this
year. Today's announcement is the first Earth Venture Instruments
award.

The TEMPO investigation will provide an instrument by September 2017
that NASA will seek to deploy on an appropriate satellite in
geostationary orbit. Investigation costs will be capped at $90
million, excluding the launch vehicle and integration to the selected
satellite platform. Numerous commercial communication satellites are
expected to be suitable for the TEMPO instrument in the 2017 time
frame.

After being deployed on a geostationary satellite, TEMPO will observe
Earth's atmosphere in ultraviolet and visible wavelengths to
determine concentrations of many key atmospheric pollutants. From
geostationary orbit, these observations can be made several times
each day when North America is facing the sun instead of once per
day, which is the case with current satellites orbiting a few hundred
miles above the surface. Other space agencies are planning similar
observations over Europe and Asia after TEMPO is in orbit, allowing
for the formation of a constellation of geostationary air quality
satellites.

NASA is planning to announce two new Earth Venture calls for proposals
in 2013 and make awards at regular intervals for investigations using
cutting-edge instrumentation carried on airborne platforms, on small
space missions, or as secondary instruments or hosted payloads on
larger platforms. Langley manages the Earth System Science Pathfinder
program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The missions in this
program provide an innovative approach to address Earth science
research with periodic windows of opportunity to accommodate new
scientific priorities.

For more information about the Earth System Science Pathfinder
program, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/MKvgJO


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