Converting Paper into Hardware: A Status of the TEMPO Instrument Design and Manufacturing

Abstract:

The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument is part of NASA’s Earth Venture Instrument (EVI) program, and will be the first hosted payload sensor to make tropospheric gas observations from geostationary (GEO) orbit using an ultraviolet/visible spectrometer. The instrument is designed to provide key trace gas measurements important to understanding tropospheric air pollution chemistry. The baseline design measures ozone (O₃), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), and formaldehyde (H₂CO). The TEMPO instrument will provide hourly daylight measurements of these trace gases on urban-regional spatial scales. These remote sensing measurements augment current ground-based air quality measurements and will offer improvements in air quality modeling and prediction. The TEMPO project has completed its confirmation review as well as the Critical Design Review (CDR). The updated TEMPO design, instrument performance estimates and technical challenges will be presented.