2027

The NASA Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) mission is scheduled to launch its satellite in 2022. This satellite is specifically designed to provide some of the finest spatial (2.1 km*4.7 km) and temporal (hourly) resolution estimates of gaseous and particulate air pollutants across North America, including ozone (O₃), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and formaldehyde (H₂CO). Given its geostationary orbit, it will have repeated daytime measurements of each pollutant. These data will provide new opportunities and challenges for exposure science and environmental epidemiology. Within-day measurements allows for epidemiologic analyses of how within-day variability (and peak exposures) of air pollutants effects human health. Simultaneous measurement of multiple pollutants allows for mixtures modeling rather than traditional single pollutant approaches. Finally, increased resolution of measurements can improve understanding of environmental justice and both exposure and health disparities. Potential challenges include identification and use of health datasets matching the fine-scale resolution of exposure, and the management of large exposure and health datasets. Furthermore, careful exposure science will be required to translate satellite estimates (which are integrated over an atmospheric column) into ground-level estimates most relevant to human exposure. Our session will discuss the TEMPO satellite, the epidemiological basis for studying peak exposures rather than daily averages, and the methodological opportunities and challenges that these efforts represent.