The TEMPO instrument is a grating spectrometer that is sensitive to visible and ultraviolet wavelengths of light. The instrument is attached to the Intelsat IS-40e telecommunications satellite, which was manufactured by Maxar and launched on April 7, 2023, into a geostationary orbit over the U.S. and parts of Canada and Mexico. The TEMPO instrument faces Earth, which allows TEMPO to maintain a constant view of North America so that the instrument's light-collecting mirror can make a complete East to West scan of the "field of regard" every hour.
By measuring sunlight reflected and scattered from Earth's surface and atmosphere back to the instrument's detectors, TEMPO's ultraviolet and visible light sensors provide spectra of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and other elements of daily atmospheric chemistry cycles. Data from TEMPO will eventually supplement regional air-quality data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), improving the agency's ability to deliver high-quality air-quality data to the public, including real-time pollution reports and forecasts.
