Images released by the European Space Agency on Friday are very revealing -
Showing the level of air pollutants around the world, including the sulfur dioxide, ash, and smoke from the Mount Agung volcano in Bali.
© ESA Earth Online
Artist's rendition of The Sentinel-5P satellite.
On
October 13, this year, the ESA launched its UK-built Sentinel-5P, a pollution monitoring satellite. Sentinel-5P is the first Copernicus satellite solely dedicated to monitoring the Earth's atmospheric chemistry, 24-hours a day, every day., and it has lived up to its name.
The
satellite's instruments, as it orbits over 800 kilometers (497 miles) above Earth, produces one million gigabytes of data that's about the same as 213,000 DVD movies. Pollutant levels are measured across individual countries, providing data on Ozone NO_2, SO_2, Formaldehyde, Aerosols, Carbon dioxide, Methane, and Clouds, according to the ESA website. The monitoring is in support of air quality, climate, and ozone operational monitoring programs.
In a
statement, ESA says that "even though the satellite is still being prepared for service, these first results have been hailed as exceptional and show how this latest Copernicus satellite is set to take the task of monitoring air quality into a new era."
