Measuring and Tracking Air Quality
Throughout the world air quality continues to deteriorate due to increasing emissions, threatening human health and life, and contributing to climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and waste. According to the World Health Organization, 99% of the global population breathes impure air. Even though air pollution is a global problem, it disproportionately affects those living in developing nations and particularly the most vulnerable, such as women, children and the elderly.
PM2.5, which refers to particulate matter with a diameter equal to or less than 2.5 micrometres, poses the greatest health threat and is often used as a metric in legal air quality standards. When inhaled, PM2.5 is absorbed deep into the bloodstream. The deadliest illnesses linked to PM2.5 air pollution are stroke, heart disease, lung disease, lower respiratory diseases (such as pneumonia), and cancer. High levels of fine particles also contribute to other illnesses, like diabetes. Children are particularly vulnerable to the damaging health effects of air pollution due to their unique susceptibility and exposure. 20% of newborn deaths globally are attributed to air pollution exposure. It can hinder cognitive development in children and also cause mental health problems. Exposure to PM2.5 reduced average global life expectancy by approximately one year in 2019.
To address the air pollution crisis, experts repeatedly warn that governments must take urgent action to strengthen air quality regulation, including monitoring capacity to track PM2.5 and other pollutants. In 2021, in response to increases in quality and quantity of evidence of air pollution impacts, the WHO updated the PM2.5 annual mean air quality guideline to 5µg/m3, which represents clean air as few impacts have been observed below these levels. The update halves the previous 2005 guideline level of 10µg/m3. On the way to that level, the agency also sets a series of interim targets, air pollutant concentrations that serve as steppingstones. They are meant for areas where air pollution is high, so governments in those areas can develop policies to reduce air pollution that are achievable within realistic time frames. Government actions on air quality are steadily growing, but implementation and capacity gaps hinder progress towards clean air. A 2021 report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) found that air quality monitoring is not a legal requirement in 37 per cent of countries, and experts are concerned about the rigour of monitoring in many others.
“Air quality monitoring and transparent access to data through platforms as the World Environment Situation Room, is critical for humanity as it helps us understand how air pollution impacts people, places and planet. Using this data, governments and countries can identify air pollution hotspots and take targeted action to protect and improve human and environmental well-being and our future.” says Alexandre Caldas, UNEP’s Chief of Big Data, Country Outreach, Technology and Innovation Branch.
How is air quality measured?
Air quality monitors are outfitted with sensors designed to detect specific pollutants. Some monitors use lasers to scan particulate matter density in a cubic metre of air, while others rely on satellite imaging to measure energy reflected or emitted by the Earth. Pollutants linked to human and environmental health impacts include PM2.5, PM10, ground-level ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide. The greater the density of pollutants in the air, the higher the Air Quality Index (AQI), a scale that runs from zero to 500. An AQI of 50 or below is considered safe, while readings above 100 are deemed unhealthy. According to UNEP partner IQAir, only 38 of 117 countries and regions averaged healthy AQI readings in 2021.
How is air quality calculated?
Air quality databanks process readings from governmental, crowd-sourced and satellite-derived air quality monitors to produce an aggregated AQI reading. These databases may weigh data differently based on reliability and the type of pollution measured. UNEP, in collaboration with IQAir, developed the first real-time air pollution exposure calculator in 2021, which combines global readings from validated air quality monitors in 6,475 locations in 117 countries, territories, and regions. The database prioritizes PM2.5 readings and applies artificial intelligence to calculate nearly every country’s population exposure to air pollution on an hourly basis. How is air quality tracked?
NASA uses satellites orbiting Earth to keep an eye on air pollution. Air quality forecasters use information about aerosols from NASA’s Aqua, Terra and Suomi-NPP satellites.
NASA is developing a new instrument called the Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols, or MAIA, to fly aboard a future spacecraft mission. MAIA will help scientists understand the size, makeup and quantity of aerosols in our air. Eventually, scientists will be able to compare this information with health records. This can help us better understand the relationship between aerosol pollution and human health. In early April 2023, NASA, in collaboration with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, launched TEMPO or Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution Instrument – an air quality monitor which aims to improve air quality tracking from space. As per NASA’s media advisory “The NASA-Smithsonian instrument TEMPO is the first space-based tool to monitor major air pollutants hourly in high spatial resolution – down to four square miles – in a region stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Canadian oil sands to below Mexico City, encompassing the entire continental United States.” The American space agency, in a post on Twitter, said that TEMPO would provide hourly daytime measurements of air quality in North America. It will monitor main pollutants and reveal disparities in exposure in cities and communities.
PM2.5, which refers to particulate matter with a diameter equal to or less than 2.5 micrometres, poses the greatest health threat and is often used as a metric in legal air quality standards. When inhaled, PM2.5 is absorbed deep into the bloodstream. The deadliest illnesses linked to PM2.5 air pollution are stroke, heart disease, lung disease, lower respiratory diseases (such as pneumonia), and cancer. High levels of fine particles also contribute to other illnesses, like diabetes. Children are particularly vulnerable to the damaging health effects of air pollution due to their unique susceptibility and exposure. 20% of newborn deaths globally are attributed to air pollution exposure. It can hinder cognitive development in children and also cause mental health problems. Exposure to PM2.5 reduced average global life expectancy by approximately one year in 2019.
To address the air pollution crisis, experts repeatedly warn that governments must take urgent action to strengthen air quality regulation, including monitoring capacity to track PM2.5 and other pollutants. In 2021, in response to increases in quality and quantity of evidence of air pollution impacts, the WHO updated the PM2.5 annual mean air quality guideline to 5µg/m3, which represents clean air as few impacts have been observed below these levels. The update halves the previous 2005 guideline level of 10µg/m3. On the way to that level, the agency also sets a series of interim targets, air pollutant concentrations that serve as steppingstones. They are meant for areas where air pollution is high, so governments in those areas can develop policies to reduce air pollution that are achievable within realistic time frames. Government actions on air quality are steadily growing, but implementation and capacity gaps hinder progress towards clean air. A 2021 report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) found that air quality monitoring is not a legal requirement in 37 per cent of countries, and experts are concerned about the rigour of monitoring in many others.
“Air quality monitoring and transparent access to data through platforms as the World Environment Situation Room, is critical for humanity as it helps us understand how air pollution impacts people, places and planet. Using this data, governments and countries can identify air pollution hotspots and take targeted action to protect and improve human and environmental well-being and our future.” says Alexandre Caldas, UNEP’s Chief of Big Data, Country Outreach, Technology and Innovation Branch.
How is air quality measured?
Air quality monitors are outfitted with sensors designed to detect specific pollutants. Some monitors use lasers to scan particulate matter density in a cubic metre of air, while others rely on satellite imaging to measure energy reflected or emitted by the Earth. Pollutants linked to human and environmental health impacts include PM2.5, PM10, ground-level ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide. The greater the density of pollutants in the air, the higher the Air Quality Index (AQI), a scale that runs from zero to 500. An AQI of 50 or below is considered safe, while readings above 100 are deemed unhealthy. According to UNEP partner IQAir, only 38 of 117 countries and regions averaged healthy AQI readings in 2021.
How is air quality calculated?
Air quality databanks process readings from governmental, crowd-sourced and satellite-derived air quality monitors to produce an aggregated AQI reading. These databases may weigh data differently based on reliability and the type of pollution measured. UNEP, in collaboration with IQAir, developed the first real-time air pollution exposure calculator in 2021, which combines global readings from validated air quality monitors in 6,475 locations in 117 countries, territories, and regions. The database prioritizes PM2.5 readings and applies artificial intelligence to calculate nearly every country’s population exposure to air pollution on an hourly basis. How is air quality tracked?
NASA uses satellites orbiting Earth to keep an eye on air pollution. Air quality forecasters use information about aerosols from NASA’s Aqua, Terra and Suomi-NPP satellites.
NASA is developing a new instrument called the Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols, or MAIA, to fly aboard a future spacecraft mission. MAIA will help scientists understand the size, makeup and quantity of aerosols in our air. Eventually, scientists will be able to compare this information with health records. This can help us better understand the relationship between aerosol pollution and human health. In early April 2023, NASA, in collaboration with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, launched TEMPO or Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution Instrument – an air quality monitor which aims to improve air quality tracking from space. As per NASA’s media advisory “The NASA-Smithsonian instrument TEMPO is the first space-based tool to monitor major air pollutants hourly in high spatial resolution – down to four square miles – in a region stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Canadian oil sands to below Mexico City, encompassing the entire continental United States.” The American space agency, in a post on Twitter, said that TEMPO would provide hourly daytime measurements of air quality in North America. It will monitor main pollutants and reveal disparities in exposure in cities and communities.
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