A NEW ERA OF AIR QUALITY MONITORING FROM SPACE OVER NORTH AMERICA WITH TEMPO: MISSION STATUS FROM FIRST TWO YEARS IN ORBIT
We present a status overview of the TEMPO mission including its operation, validation and status of baseline data products and upcoming algorithm improvements, development of Near-Real-Time (NRT) and other research data products, science and application highlights.
TEMPO is the North America component of the geostationary (GEO) air quality constellation along with GEMS over Asia and Sentinel-4 over Europe. It is the first spaceborne instrument providing hourly daytime air pollution over North America at neighborhood scale (~10 km2 at boresight). It uses UV/visible spectroscopy to measure key elements of tropospheric air pollution chemistry including O3, NO2, HCHO and aerosols, and capture the inherent high variability in the diurnal cycle of emissions and chemistry. At night, TEMPO can observe city lights, gas flaring, maritime lights, clouds and snow in the moonlight, lightning, aurorae, and nightglow without interfering with its primary daytime air quality mission. After the successful launch of TEMPO on board IS-40E into the GEO orbit at 91W in April 2023, it conducted its first light observations in early Aug. 2023 and started its nominal operation in Oct. 2023, kicking off a new era of air quality monitoring from space over North America. It finished its 20-month of baseline Phase E in June 2025. The baseline mission has been extended to Sep. 2026, with further extension via a NASA senior review in early 2026. Baseline V3 data products were released to the public in May 2024 from NASA’s ASDC. A significantly improved V4 data products is scheduled to be released to the public in early Sep. 2025, including the first public release of the ozone profile product. TEMPO NRT data products with data latency of 2-3 hours and other science quality data products were funded by NASA Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG) to assist in air quality forecasting and modeling efforts and develop better pollution control strategies. Operational processing of V1 NRT products based on baseline V3 started in early May 2025. First public release of NRT products (V2, based on baseline V4) is also scheduled in early Sep. 2025. Many other research data products have been produced by the science community and TEMPO data products have been widely used by the user community including nearly 700 early adopters.