Monitoring air quality from space

Published on 23/09/2024

Air quality is a public health issue. Satellite data can help enrich atmospheric emission inventories and define action plans to improve air quality. This is demonstrated by three SCOlutions presented on Thursday 12 September 2024 at the fourteenth SCO France Quarterly Meeting.

[fr]

Vegetation plays a major role in urban air quality. © Getty Images

According to the United Nations Environment Programme UNEP, "air pollution, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 6 million people every year, is the most significant environmental health risk of our time".

We are dealing here with a complex subject where greenhouse gases (GHGs) and pollutant emissions are intertwined, in both cases caused by human activities. Invisible, on the move and unaffected by borders, it is extremely difficult to quantify them and, as a result, to draw up action plans to improve air quality. But thanks to satellites and innovative sensors, it is now possible to track them down and develop high-performance traceability tools.

On Thursday 12 September 2024, the 14th Quarterly Meeting of SCO France welcomed three projects that use space data to help implement measures to improve air quality and optimize emission inventories. The meeting began with a presentation of the Italian American MAIA mission, scheduled for launch at the end of 2024.

If you have any questions about this quarterly, write to us here.

Presentation of the MAIA mission

By Giovanni Rum and Matteo Picchiani (ASI)

Supported by the American (NASA) and Italian (ASI, a member of the SCO) space agencies, MAIA (Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols) is developing an instrument at the cutting edge of space technology. With the aim of exploring the links between exposure to different airborne particles and human health, the mission will provide daily averages of 7 types of particles in target areas around the world. These data will be used for a range of scientific studies (epidemiological, air quality, climate) and will help to improve modelling. Find out more about this remarkable mission in the replay below.

AEROLAB SPACE

By Thomas Lauvaux (AEROLAB - GSMA)

AEROLAB SPACE uses the synergy of in-situ (ground, airplane, drone, balloon) and satellite data to monitor GHGs on a regional scale. Designed to help local authorities in their decarbonization efforts, its real-time GHGs monitoring will feed into emissions assessments, which are essential but currently highly irregular and insufficiently accurate.

To remember

Satellite data used: Tropomi, OCO2/3, MODIS and Sentinel-2
The modelling system is in place, and the team is currently working on optimizing inventories.
When it goes online in 2025, a digital platform will provide mapping and dynamic GHG indicators and will be able to simulate GHG emissions in the pilot area, the Grand Est region (France).
During the quarterly event, a number of contacts were made to explore synergies with other projects and the possibility of scaling up.
💡 News : AEROLAB SPACE shows GHG emissions for the Grand Est region (23/04/2024)

GreenSpace

By Pierre Sicard (Acri-ST)

The European Biodiversity 2030 strategy requires towns and cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants to implement an ambitious urban greening plan. In response to this challenge, GreenSpace is offering towns and cities the opportunity to use satellite data to produce a complete inventory of their private and public tree stock, together with an estimate of the environmental benefits for the town or city and recommendations for planting.

To remember

While trees provide many ecosystem services, some species can be harmful to air quality, for example by producing more ozone than they remove.
The result of a dozen years' preparatory work, GreenSpace is being implemented in two European cities with very different climates and air quality issues: Valencia in Spain and Bucharest in Romania.
Satellite data used: Pléiades and WorldView, from which each tree in the city is identified, geolocated and characterized.
Capable of quantifying the ecosystem services provided by each tree, as well as its impact on air quality, the system generates an overall balance sheet for the city and makes recommendations for planting species, identifying neighborhoods to be greened as a priority (urban heat islands).
The recommendations incorporate various criteria, including pollen allergenicity.
💡 News: GreenSpace: choose carefully trees species (12/02/2024)

EDISON

By Rémi Chalinel (WaltR)

As part of a growing global awareness of the impact of human activities on the environment, EDISON aims to help local authorities and government agencies to take action on the ground by cross-referencing emissions measurements with data on a given area, its activities, population and industry...

To remember

Satellite data used: Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-5P
The system generates daily maps of CO2 (carbon dioxide), NO2/Nox (nitrogen dioxide) and PM1/PM2.5 emissions. It also produces indicators that can be used to track changes or phenomena that may be taking place in the area in order to simulate emission scenarios.
The project is testing two methodologies: ADELE, 100% data, to measure emissions and highlight hot spots, and HERMOSA, which uses a chemistry-transport model, to optimize existing emissions inventories (accuracy improved by 14 to 50% depending on location).
EDISON products will be distributed via a web portal currently under development.
💡News: EDISON: air quality is a question of scales (19/06/2024)