Databases: Satellites Zoom in on Air Pollution Hotspots
Urban air pollution is linked to up to one million premature deaths each year. If you live in one of world’s biggest and most heavily congested cities, the evidence of air pollution can be seen clearly outside your window–on a smoggy day, buildings once in plain sight can be completely blocked from view. But for those of us who live outside urban areas, the threat of air pollution is less obvious. Invisible to the naked eye, nitrogen dioxide and other air pollutants can be carried by the wind thousands of miles from their urban sources.
With the help of modern satellite technology and a project known as TEMIS, scientists are now measuring and mapping the concentrations and transboundary movements of air-polluting emissions. For the first time, anyone with an Internet connection can access near-real time satellite images of health-threatening pollutants. You can even download the data into Google Earth, which will project the images onto the globe in a series of short films.
Source: WRI
This entry was posted
on Monday, October 29th, 2007 and is filed under Databases, Directories, and Guides, Geographic, Resources for Educators, Source File.
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