NASA Launches TEMPO to Monitor Air Pollution from Space.

NASA has launched a new instrument called TEMPO into space to track air pollution and measure the light that gases and particles in the atmosphere reflect back into space. TEMPO will be aboard a satellite cruising along at the same rate as Earth’s rotation at a fixed spot over the equator, allowing the instrument to take hourly measurements over North America for the first time. It will monitor pollution at a high resolution, down to 4 square miles (10 square kilometers), and help fill in big data gaps that hide disparities when it comes to who has to live with the most pollution.