Nitrogen Dioxide Air Pollution Over D.C/Philadelphia/New York City Region By NASA's TEMPO Instrument

High nitrogen dioxide concentrations may be seen over D.C./Philadelphia/New York City region in this visualisation. High amounts of nitrogen dioxide over cities in the morning and increased levels over key roads may be seen in detailed views of three different locations. The early-morning smog frequently disappears as the day goes on. As the cities reach their second rush hour of the day later in the afternoon, it will climb once again. Because TEMPO measures using visible sunlight, it is unable to detect pollution beneath clouds. Cloudy places show up in the visualisation as missing data.

On August 2, 2023, the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) sensor measured the "first light" nitrogen dioxide air pollution over North America. The equipment scanned the continent hourly for six hours starting at 11:15 Eastern Daylight Time (8:15 Pacific Time).

TEMPO quantifies the amount of sunlight that is reflected and dispersed by the atmosphere, clouds, and Earth's surface. Sunlight is absorbed by gases in the atmosphere, and the resultant spectra are used to calculate the concentrations of various gases, including nitrogen dioxide, in the Earth's atmosphere. The quantity of nitrogen dioxide is given as a "column density," which is the total number of molecules of nitrogen dioxide in a column of air above a square centimetre on the surface of the Earth. The quantity of nitrogen dioxide in the lower atmosphere, from the surface to roughly 10 km in height, is known as the tropospheric column density. The majority of such nitrogen dioxide is close to the ground in contaminated areas.

Nitrogen dioxide is largely produced in North America by burning fossil fuels for industrial, transportation, and power generating purposes, as well as by wildfires. Nitrogen dioxide is a hazardous gas that contributes significantly to the development of ground-level ozone and particulate matter pollution. The health of humans and ecosystems are both harmed by these contaminants.

Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

[edricm]

Look at New York.
Very high levels of nitrogen.
It’s a mandatory clean idle state.
All Diesel engines that idle are required to have def scrubbers.
High nitrogen oxide/low crop yields.

[edricm]

Def scrubbers on Diesel engines. Decrease carbon monoxide but increases nitrogen oxide. Plants loves carbon but it can trap heat. Too much nitrogen dioxide can stunt crop growth but releases heat faster. The solutions for global warming with def system to me is more dangerous because your slowly killing off the full potential of a plants ability to maintain and store CO2 emissions from the atmosphere.