Background
The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring Pollution (TEMPO) mission, launched in April 2023, provides key measurements of trace gas constituents over North America from a geostationary orbit. These observations are important to the air quality forecasting and regulatory communities.
Survey respondents requested that a subset of the currently planned TEMPO products be expedited to near real-time (NRT) availability to assist in forecasting and modeling efforts. Science-quality products for trace gas measurements — which are more accurate than NRT products but take additional time to produce — are also of interest to support long-term analysis.
Status: Currently in development, but some data are available now
Hourly NRT air quality products for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), formaldehyde (HCHO), and clouds (using O2-O2 absorption) are currently being produced along with a Level 1B radiance product that will enable the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to produce several TEMPO/Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) NRT aerosol products (expected mid-2026). Both the NASA and NOAA TEMPO NRT products are distributed through the Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC).
In addition, an hourly NRT sulfur dioxide (SO2) concentration product and a total ozone (O3) product from TEMPO are currently in development. By adapting established science algorithms from NASA's Ozone Monitoring Instrument, the solution also aims to produce seven science-quality products using trace gas measurements from TEMPO: SO2, ultraviolet aerosol optical depth (UVAER), aerosol height (AOCH), water (H2O), ultraviolet index (UVI), glyoxal (CHOCHO), and bromine monoxide (BrO).
Solution Characteristics
| Products | NRT products: NO2, HCHO, O2-O2, Radiance, SO2, and Total O3 | Science quality products: SO2, UVAER, AOCH, UVI, H2O, CHOCHO, BrO |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Intelsat 40e (IS-40e) | IS-40e |
| Sensor Type | Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrometer | Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrometer |
| Processing Level | Level 2 and 3, with the exception of the Radiance product which is Level 1B | Level 2 and 3 |
| Temporal Coverage | NO2, HCHO, O2-O2, Radiance: September 2025 to Present SO2, and Total O3: March 2028 - | March 2028 - |
| Temporal Frequency | Hourly | Hourly |
| Latency | 3 hours | Within 24 hours |
| Spatial Coverage | North America | North America |
| Spatial Resolution | 2.0 x 4.75 km2 | 2.0 x 4.75 km2 |
| Data Format | NetCDF4/HDF5 | NetCDF4/HDF5 |
Societal Impact
This solution will provide low-latency Level 1B radiance, NO2, HCHO, clouds, and SO2 data, as well as science-quality aerosol, trace gas, and UVI products to support air quality forecasting and modeling and to assist local, state, and federal air quality agencies in efforts to alert the public to poor air quality.
Solution Resources
Need help using this solution? For more information, access the following resources:
- TEMPO NRT products on Earthdata Search portal
- TEMPO/GOES NRT Products: SNWG Solution Fact Sheet
- Training Resources: TEMPO NRT and Enhanced Products
- TEMPO Mission Site
- NASA Worldview TEMPO Data
- TEMPO NRT Data Viewer
Workshops and Open Meetings
| Title and Registration Link | Description | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction to Geostationary Satellite Observations for Air Quality Applications in the Western U.S. | This in-person training from NASA's Applied Remote Sensing Training (ARSET) program provides an overview of TEMPO observations, shows users how to access and visualize the data, and highlights some air quality applications in the Western U.S. | August 5-7, 2025 |
| The Beginning of a New Era of Multidisciplinary NASA Satellite Data Products Enabled by the Satellite Needs Working Group | The SNWG is a government inter-agency organizational body established in 2016 to identify Earth observational gaps and data needs across the U.S. federal civilian agencies. The SNWG effort is a two-year process in which NASA identifies and ultimately implements a range of innovative solutions that benefit the entire Earth science community. In this session, we invited representatives from NASA’s SNWG Implementation Team (NSITE) to describe new capabilities and where to access the data. The discussion included the Harmonized Landsat/Sentinel-2 (HLS), a cloud optimized dataset that standardizes common data bands from the two satellite constellations, effectively doubling the data available to the community. Another SNWG solution is the generation of a global surface water extent products that combine the data frequency of optical satellites and the cloud-penetrating capabilities of radar for a uniformed and frequent surface water product. Other solutions include new radiation and clouds products, global air quality, land surface disturbance, North America land deformation, vegetation indices suite with HLS, and planetary boundary layer products. | December 13, 2023 |