NASA TEMPO Data Powers Teen Air Quality Investigations in Classrooms

The NASA Science Activation program's CosmicDS project, led by Harvard University, partnered with the Smithsonian Institution's BEST AQI initiative to host a three-day Leadership Institute at the Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from July 27 to 29, 2026.

Thirteen formal and informal educators who advise the Breathing Easier: Supporting Teen Air Quality Investigations (BEST AQI) project attended the workshop to co-develop curriculum resources.

On the first day, CosmicDS principal investigator Pat Udomprasert introduced participants to TEMPO-Lab, a free online tool that enables learners to explore near-real-time air quality measurements from NASA's TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) mission, which measures pollution across North America hourly during daylight.

During the following two days, educators used TEMPO-Lab to build case studies around real-world scenarios including wildfire smoke, rush-hour traffic emissions, power plant pollution, and agricultural emissions.

A notable moment occurred when TEMPO scientist Heesung Chong announced that a new beta-version ground-level ozone data product had become available; CosmicDS software developer John Lewis integrated the dataset into TEMPO-Lab overnight, allowing participants to explore the cutting-edge data the next morning.

Erika Wright, education specialist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and BEST AQI principal investigator, said the institute reinforced TEMPO-Lab's value for empowering youth to investigate local air quality issues using authentic NASA data.

The attending educators plan to share the BEST AQI toolkit and TEMPO-Lab with approximately 100 additional educators across partner sites in South Dakota, Maryland, and New York, potentially reaching thousands of teen researchers.

CosmicDS is supported by NASA cooperative agreement award number 80NSSC21M0002 and is part of the NASA Science Activation Program portfolio.