Satellites Show Europe's Pollution Hotspots

Posted on December 9, 2005

A BBC news story says European scientists are getting a much better look at pollution problems in the region thanks to data from the Aura satellite.

The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (Omi) and other key equipment on Aura can build a daily picture of air quality.
The pollution maps, which can see detail at the city scale, will be used to identify problem hotspots.
"This is the first time that we have been able to follow pollution globally from day to day," said Pieternel Levelt, of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, who is Omi's principal investigator.
"This will help us understand how pollution is formed and where it comes from, its sources; and where it goes to, its sinks.

More about the Aura satellite can be found here on the satellite's website. The website provides data, news and details about the satellite.

Aura (Latin for breeze) was launched July 15, 2004. The design life is five years with an operational goal of six years. Aura flies in formation about 15 minutes behind Aqua. Aura is part of the Earth Observing System (EOS), a program dedicated to monitoring the complex interactions that affect the globe using NASA satellites and data systems.

One interesting website using data from Aura is the Ozone Watch, which provides the latest status of the ozone layer where Aura instruments are monitoring.

EARTH