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Air Quality Data Access and Tools
NASA has air quality datasets that help researchers characterize the particular makeup of the air we breathe. Access a range of data and data tools such as AppEEARS, FIRMS, and Giovanni to make the most of air quality data.
Air quality comprises a constellation of scientific topics that inform our understanding of this field. Learn more about data and resources focused on aerosol optical depth, aerosol index, trace gases, land surface reflectance, the effect of dust, ash, and smoke, and human dimensions, including natural hazards.
Many NASA observation methods—platforms, instruments, and space geodesy techniques—provide data that improve our understanding of air quality, including NASA's Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring Pollution (TEMPO) instrument, featured below. Learn more about how the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) continually acquire data about pollutants.
Air Quality Datasets
| Dataset | Platforms | Instruments | Temporal Extent | Location Keywords | Spatial Extent | Data Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sounder SIPS: Suomi NPP CrIMSS Level 3 Specific Quality Control Gridded Monthly CLIMCAPS Normal Spectral Resolution V2 (SNDRSNIML3SMCCPN) at GES DISC | Suomi-NPP | CrIS, ATMS | 2012-04-01 to Present | GLOBAL | N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180 | |
| Sources of Methane Emissions (Vista-CA), State of California, USA | MODELS | Computer | 2005-01-01 to 2019-08-20 | CALIFORNIA | N: 41.9263 S: 32.5378 E: -114.493 W: -124.364 | Shapefile |
| Sources of Methane Emissions (Vista-LA), South Coast Air Basin, California, USA | MODELS | Computer | 2005-01-01 to 2017-03-31 | N: 34.8177 S: 33.4334 E: -116.676 W: -118.913 | Shapefile | |
| STAQS AVIRIS-NG-derived Methane and Carbon Dioxide Plumes, 2023 | G-III | AVIRIS-NG | 2023-06-26 to 2023-08-15 | CALIFORNIA, MICHIGAN, ILLINOIS, PENNSYLVANIA, VIRGINIA | N: 43.6502 S: 33.7137 E: -73.0945 W: -119.678 | multiple |
| STAQS Drone Data | UAV | 2B Technologies | 2023-08-01 to 2023-08-18 | NORTH AMERICA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, NEW YORK, CALIFORNIA, ILLINOIS | N: 42.508 S: 42.504 E: -87.805 W: -87.82 | ICARTT |
| STAQS INSTEP Data | GROUND STATIONS | GAS SENSORS | 2023-06-08 to 2023-11-17 | NORTH AMERICA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, NEW YORK, CALIFORNIA, ILLINOIS | N: 34.96 S: 33.97 E: -117.1 W: -118.2 | ICARTT |
| STAQS SeaRey Data | Airplane | 2B Technologies | 2023-07-18 to 2023-08-19 | NORTH AMERICA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, NEW YORK, CALIFORNIA, ILLINOIS | N: 45.41 S: 38.67 E: -86.8 W: -89.1 | ICARTT |
| STRAT Photolysis Frequencies (J-Values) | NASA ER-2, Data Analysis | CPFM | 1995-03-24 to 1996-12-21 | NORTH AMERICA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CALIFORNIA, NORTHERN HEMISPHERE, WESTERN HEMISPHERE | AMES | |
| Sulfates, Clouds and Radiation Brazil (SCAR-B) University of Washington C131A Data | C-131A | TSI-3562 Nephelometer, COSPEC, FSSP, PCASP, PMS, CHEMILUMINESCENCE | 1995-08-17 to 1995-09-20 | BRAZIL | Binary | |
| TEMPO formaldehyde total column V03 (PROVISIONAL) | IS-40e | TEMPO | 2023-08-02 to 2025-09-16 | NORTH AMERICA | netCDF-4 |
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Featured Air Quality Observation Method: TEMPO
NASA's Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring Pollution (TEMPO) instrument provides hourly measurements of O3, NO2, and other key elements of air pollution.
These new Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) products will aid validation efforts and algorithm development, and will be used to expand the mission’s higher-level products.
5 MIN READ
This webinar provides an overview of the TEMPO mission and its data products and shows how to discover and access TEMPO data products using NASA's Earthdata Search.
The 14 layers from the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution mission offer data on clouds, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and more.
The beta release of Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) mission data products lets users begin developing applications using these data.
Air Quality Data Tools
| Tool Sort descending | Description | Services | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AppEEARS | The The Application for Extracting and Exploring Analysis Ready Samples (AppEEARS) offers users a simple and efficient way to perform data access and transformation processes. | Search and Discovery, Subsetting, Customization, Downloading, Visualization | |
| CASEI | The Catalog of Archived Suborbital Earth Science Investigations (CASEI) is a comprehensive inventory of contextual information for NASA's Earth Science airborne and field campaigns. | Search and Discovery, Cataloging | |
| FIRMS | The Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) provides access to satellite imagery, active fire/hotspots, and related products to identify the location, extent, and intensity of wildfire activity. | Access, Visualization | |
| Panoply | Panoply is a cross-platform application that plots geo-referenced and other arrays from netCDF, HDF, GRIB, and other datasets. | Visualization, Customization, Reformatting, Subsetting, Comparison | |
| VEDA | NASA's Visualization, Exploration, and Data Analysis (VEDA) project is an open-source science cyberinfrastructure for data processing, visualization, exploration, and geographic information systems (GIS) capabilities. | Access, Analysis, Processing, Visualization, Geoprocessing | |
| Worldview | Worldview offers the capability to interactively browse over 1,200 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and download the underlying data. | Analysis, Search and Discovery, Visualization, Access, Comparison, Monitoring Natural Events |
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Frequently Asked Questions
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