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Air Quality

Air pollution is a significant threat to human health and our environment. Instruments on NASA satellites, along with airborne and ground-based sensors, are constantly collecting data on major pollutants in our atmosphere.

Where does NASA fit?

According to the World Health Organization, air pollution contributes to millions of premature deaths around the world each year. Pollution also dirties our skylines and harms animal and plant life. NASA instruments — on satellites, planes, and the ground — constantly collect data on major pollutants. NASA-funded scientists track the sources and concentrations of these pollutants and their movement through the atmosphere. They provide managers and policymakers with Earth observations that can inform air quality standards, public policies, and government regulations for economic and human welfare.

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60 Second Science

What Is Air Quality?

NASA's Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring Pollution (TEMPO) mission is a partnership with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics to observe North America's air quality. Watch to learn what air quality is and why it's important we study it!

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Featured Story

Filling an Air Pollution Data Gap

Many cities have shortages of air quality monitors. NASA scientists have developed a tool called GEOS-CF that can help.

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The TEMPO Mission

TEMPO, or Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, is the first space-based instrument to continuously measure air quality above North America with the resolution of a few square miles. It is a collaboration between NASA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO).

TEMPO Home

NASA Shares First Images from US Pollution-Monitoring Instrument

On August 24, NASA released the first data maps from its new instrument launched to space earlier this year, which now is successfully transmitting information.

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TEMPO: Exploring Air Quality

TEMPO will observe air quality over North America. In this video, we explore air quality, air pollution, climate change, and how TEMPO can help us move our planet towards a brighter future!

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New Instrument to Track Air Pollution Hourly, Shed Light on Disparities

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NASA Technologies Receive Multiple Nods in TIME Inventions of 2023

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60 Second Science

The TEMPO Instrument

Air pollution can make breathing a lot harder. To help keep our air clean, it's important for us to know what's actually in the air! NASA's TEMPO mission will be the first satellite instrument to provide hourly data during daylight hours to monitor air quality in North America.

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What NASA Sees In Our Air

Air pollution can appear as a gray or orange haze enveloping a city. What the naked eye can’t see are the hundreds of chemical reactions taking place to produce that pollution. NASA science can reveal a more complete picture of atmospheric chemistry. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Models the Complex Chemistry of Earth's Atmosphere

A NASA visualization shows 96 chemical species that help form one common air pollutant — surface ozone. While ozone in the stratosphere is critical to maintaining life on earth, surface ozone is a toxic gas to most plant and animal species. This visualization uses the GEOS Composition Forecasting (GEOS-CF) computer model, which incorporates 240 chemical species and how they interact with each other and the weather through over 700 chemical reactions. All of these chemical reactions directly or indirectly impact the formation of ozone.

Using new, high-resolution global satellite maps of air quality indicators, NASA scientists tracked air pollution trends over the last decade in various regions and 195 cities around the globe. The United States, Europe and Japan have improved air quality thanks to emission control regulations, while China, India and the Middle East, with their fast-growing economies and expanding industry, have seen more air pollution. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Human Fingerprint on Global Air Quality

Scientist Bryan Duncan and his team examined observations made from 2005 to 2014 by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard NASA's Aura satellite. One of the atmospheric gases the instrument detects is nitrogen dioxide, a yellow-brown gas that is a common emission from cars, power plants and industrial activity. Nitrogen dioxide can quickly transform into ground-level ozone, a major respiratory pollutant in urban smog. Nitrogen dioxide hotspots, used as an indicator of general air quality, occur over most major cities in developed and developing nations.

The air across the entire United States is cleaner than ever – but there’s more to do. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

How NASA Observes Air Quality in DC

The air across the entire United States is cleaner than ever – but there’s more to do. NASA-supported scientist Susan Anenberg reviews air pollution data from satellites, airplanes, and ground sensors and combines it with data on race, ethnicity, poverty, and health. In doing so Anenberg unveils the both the big picture of air pollution and individual neighborhood effects. Information that lets community leaders and other decision makers to make better decisions and address long standing inequities.

NASA, NOAA and university partners are taking to the skies, and the ground, to chase smoke from fires burning across the United States. The Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) is starting in Boise, Idaho, with a long-term of goal of improving our understanding of how smoke from fires affects air quality across North America. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA and NOAA Take to the Air to Chase Smoke

NASA, NOAA and university partners are taking to the skies, and the ground, to chase smoke from fires burning across the United States. The Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) is starting in Boise, Idaho, with a long-term of goal of improving our understanding of how smoke from fires affects air quality across North America.

Air Quality News

4 min read

NASA, EPA Tackle NO2 Air Pollution in Overburdened Communities

Article6 months ago
5 min read

New NASA Satellite To Unravel Mysteries About Clouds, Aerosols

Article1 year ago
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Curious Universe Podcast: Tiny but Mighty

Aerosols! These tiny particles, generated by everything from desert dust storms to car exhaust, play a huge role in our atmosphere, affecting our health when we breathe them in and even changing the weather.

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8 min read

Satellite Data Can Help Limit the Dangers of Windblown Dust

Article1 year ago
10 min read

A Tale of Three Pollutants

Article1 year ago
Satellite observations show that students of color in the U.S. attend public schools with higher concentrations of air pollution than their white peers.

An Unequal Air Pollution Burden at School

Satellite observations show that students of color in the U.S. attend public schools with higher concentrations of air pollution than their white peers.

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Recent Science Results about Air Quality and Pollution

Explore the Air Quality Data Collection via Pathfinder

Dust swirls over the Arabian Peninsula in this image captured by the Suomi NPP satellite in July 2018. NASA’s upcoming Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) will help scientists better understand the role of airborne dust in heating and cooling the atmosphere. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

NASA Data Helps Track Veterans Exposure to Air Pollution

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are using NASA Earth observations of smoke and other air pollution to study the health impacts on veterans who were deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, and other areas of Southwest Asia in the years after September 11, 2001. 

Earth Observatory (EO)

How Dust Affects the World’s Health

NASA research finds that a combination of windblown dust and human-caused particle pollution was associated with nearly 3 million premature deaths in 2019.

Earth Observatory (EO)

Nitrogen Dioxide in the Neighborhood

A team of scientists mapped nitrogen dioxide in California’s air at the neighborhood scale and found hotspots of the air pollutant near high-rise buildings and food processing facilities.

Earth Observatory (EO)

Clearer View of Great Lakes Air Quality

Scientists and regulators are using satellite data and custom models from NASA to help monitor ozone pollution.

Earth Observatory (EO)

Fuel Regulation Reduced Air Pollution from Shipping

A global standard limiting sulfur in ship fuel reduced artificial “ship track” clouds to record-low levels in 2020. Pandemic-related disruptions played a secondary role.

Earth Observatory (EO)

A Global Decline in Carbon Monoxide

The widespread adoption of cleaner-burning technologies and declines in fire activity over the past two decades has drawn down global levels of the pollutant.

Active Missions and Campaigns

NASA engineers and scientists are testing new ways to study air quality from planes and satellites.

5 min read

NASA and Italian Space Agency Join Forces on Air Pollution Mission

Article2 years ago

Getting to the Heart of the (Particulate) Matter

A first-ever partnership between NASA, epidemiologists and health organizations will use data from a new NASA space mission to study how particulate matter air pollution affects our health.

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6 min read

NASA-led Mission to Map Air Pollution in 3D Over Megacities

Article2 years ago
3 min read

Low-Altitude Flights Study Everyday Emissions

Article2 years ago