Business View Civil Municipal - Sept 2023

5 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 9 UNPRECEDENTED’ NOAA, NASA RESEARCH PROJECT TO INVESTIGATE AMERICAN POLLUTION Source - https://www.americancityandcounty.com/, Andy Castillo, First published 16, Aug, 2023 The eerie photographs of New York City shrouded in smoke from Canadian wildfires earlier this year brought national attention to the severe impact on quality of life air pollution can have. But even if it isn’t as noticeable, pollution is still a public health hazard. A large scientific research initiative led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and 21 universities aims to help local administrators see the impact on public health by investigating the skies above American cities to better understand how the sources of air pollution are shifting. The organizations will use satellites, seven research aircraft, vehicles, “dozens of stationary installations,” and instrumented backpacks to measure air pollution in all areas of the urban environment, and from all kinds of sources including transportation vehicles, industrial facilities, wildfires, agriculture, and products like paint and perfume. “This is an unprecedented scientific investigation — in scope, scale and sophistication — of an ongoing public health threat that kills people every year,” O p e n i n g L i n e s