Tag Archives: pollutant
NASA satellite data adds key pollutant to national environmental justice database
NASA Space Technology Average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide for 2022 over the U.S., as detected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA's Aura satellite. Higher concentrations are in red and purple. Lower concentrations are in blue.(Image credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio)Scientists harnessed satellite technology to track a key air pollutant previously absent from a national database, NASA announced earlier this week, marking a crucial step forward in monitoring differences in air quality across the U.S. and identifying groups whose health is unfairly affected.Measurements of nitrogen dioxide, which is primarily released into air through the burning of fossil fuels and can lead to respiratory diseases like asthma among other health problems, had been missing from the Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool, or EJScreen. The database is maintained by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and...
