Media Advisory: New Space Instrument To Deliver Near Real-Time Air Pollution Data
| WHAT: | Mission and program briefing of the new, space-based instrument TEMPO, which will soon deliver detailed data and analysis of air pollution over greater North America. |
| WHEN: | Tuesday, March 14 8:30 a.m.: coffee and check-in 9 a.m.: TEMPO program briefing and media Q&A |
| WHERE: | Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Sixth Street and Independence Avenue (Independence Avenue entrance) Washington, D.C. |
| WHO: | Christopher Browne, John and Adrienne Mars Director, National Air and Space Museum Ellen Stofan, Under Secretary for Science and Research, Smithsonian Institution Caroline Nowlan, atmospheric physicist, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian Erika Wright, education specialist, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian Barry Lefer, tropospheric composition program manager, NASA Laura Judd, applied sciences health and air quality associate program manager, NASA |
TEMPO, short for Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, is the brainchild of Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) scientists. TEMPO will be the first space-based instrument to observe major 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 the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and NASA to analyze and report emissions information faster and with more detail than ever before to the American public and those in Canada and Mexico as well.
The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace and integrated onto Intelsat 40E by Maxar.
Experts from NASA, SAO, Intelsat, Ball Aerospace and Maxar will be in attendance to answer media questions. SAO is part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.
RSVP to Alison Mitchell at mitchellac@si.edu or 202-633-2376 or Kevin Lamparter at lamparterk@si.edu or 202-633-2347. Reporters who are unable to join in person can join via teleconference by contacting joseph.s.atkinson@nasa.gov no later than one hour prior to the start of the event. For TEMPO images and illustrations, contact nadia.whitehead@cfa.harvard.edu.
This event will be live streamed to NASA TV and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian's Facebook and YouTube channels.
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About the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian is a collaboration between Harvard and the Smithsonian designed to ask—and ultimately answer—humanity's greatest unresolved questions about the nature of the universe. The Center for Astrophysics is headquartered in Cambridge, MA, with research facilities across the U.S. and around the world.
Media Contact:
Nadia Whitehead
Public Affairs Officer
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
nadia.whitehead@cfa.harvard.edu
617-721-7371