NASA Tournament Lab

6,854

NASA Airathon

Air pollution is a serious environmental threat to our health. Strengthen public health with accurate, high-resolution air quality estimates

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Data Science Energy, Environment & Resources Government

stage:

Won

prize:

$50,000

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Data Science Energy, Environment & Resources Government

Partners

Summary

Timeline

Forum

Teams11

Press

FAQ

Particulate Track

Trace Gas Track

About the Project

Overview

Air pollution is one of the greatest environmental threats to human health. It can result in heart and chronic respiratory illness, cancer, and premature death.

Currently, no single satellite instrument provides ready-to-use, high resolution information on surface-level air pollutants. This gap in information means that millions of people cannot take daily action to protect their health. Help NASA deliver accurate, high-resolution air quality information to improve public health and safety!

This challenge focuses on two critical air quality measures: particulate matter 2.5 (PM_2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). Each measure is the target for a predictive track in the challenge.

Particulate Track (PM_2.5)
PM_2.5 refers to particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in size. It can last days to weeks in the atmosphere and penetrate deep into human lungs, increasing the risk of heart disease, lower respiratory infections, and poor pregnancy outcomes.
Trace Gas Track (NO₂)
NO₂ forms in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, or gas, and has a short lifetime on the order of hours near the surface. It can cause respiratory issues, while also contributing to the production of ozone and nitrate aerosols, a component of PM_2.5.

Existing high-quality ground monitors measure PM_2.5 and NO₂, but are expensive and have large gaps in coverage. Models that make use of widely available satellite data have the potential to provide local, daily air quality information. Recent studies have described such algorithms, but leave unsettled what data inputs or models produce the highest performance. Additionally, these experimental models have yet to be made available for easy public consumption.

In this challenge, your task is to use remote sensing data and other geospatial data sources to develop models for estimating daily levels of PM_2.5 and NO₂ with high spatial resolution. Successful models could provide critical data to help the public take action to reduce their exposure to air pollution.

Prizes

Particulate Track (PM_2.5) - $25,000

Trace Gas Track (NO₂) - $25,000

Total: $50,000

Breakdown

Particulate Track

Evaluated on predicted PM_2.5 values across all 5x5km grid cells in the test set.

1st - $12,000

2nd - $8,000

3rd - $5,000

Trace Gas Track

Evaluated on predicted NO₂ values across all 5x5km grid cells in the test set.

1st - $12,000

2nd - $8,000

3rd - $5,000

Note on prize eligibility:

NASA Employees are prohibited by Federal statutes and regulations from receiving an award under this Challenge. NASA Employees are still encouraged to submit a solution. If you are a NASA Employee and wish to submit a solution please contact shobhana.gupta@nasa.gov who will connect you with the NASA Challenge owner. If your solution meets the requirements of the Challenge, any attributable information will be removed from your submission and your solution will be evaluated with other solutions found to meet the Challenge criteria. Based on your solution, you may be eligible for an award under the NASA Awards and Recognition Program or other Government Award and Recognition Program if you meet the criteria of both this Challenge and the applicable Awards and Recognition Program.

If you are an Employee of another Federal Agency, contact your Agency's Office of General Counsel regarding your ability to participate in this Challenge.

If you are a Government contractor or are employed by one, your participation in this challenge may also be restricted. If you are or your employer is receiving Government funding for similar projects, you or your employer are not eligible for award under this Challenge. Additionally, the U.S. Government may have Intellectual Property Rights in your solution if your solution was made under a Government Contract, Grant or Cooperative Agreement. Under such conditions, you may not be eligible for award.

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About the Project

Air pollution includes gases (e.g., measures of NO2) and particles (e.g., measures of PM2.5). Source: NASA JPL

In order to take effective action against the ill health-effects of air pollution, the public needs air quality data that is low-latency (daily), high-resolution, and has widespread coverage. No single existing or in-formulation NASA satellite instrument provides ready-to-use data products on important surface-level air pollutants that meet these requirements. This gap in information means that millions of people cannot take action daily to protect their health.

Retrieval algorithms, which combine the available satellite data with ground-based monitor measurements, model outputs, and other data, appear to be the best route to provide local, daily air quality information at the surface-level in situations where traditional, but expensive, regulatory-grade ground monitors alone are not sufficient.

The science of using satellite data to study the health effects of trace gas and particulate pollutants is relatively new, rapidly evolving, and often relies on integration of satellite data with ground-based monitor measurements, atmospheric models, and a host of ancillary datasets. Many studies have been published in recent years describing such algorithms, but the science is not yet settled on what data inputs or what model types produce the highest performance. By contrast, public crowdsourcing can provide head-to-head comparisons of the best- performing NO2 and PM2.5 algorithms, which can aid in the dissemination of more accurate and value-added data products to the public.

This project is seeking the development of algorithms specifically focused on NO2 and PM2.5 that combine existing NASA satellite data, model outputs, and ground measurements to disseminate valuable air quality data to the user community, while advancing the state of the science for future NASA projects, including MAIA, TEMPO, and the Atmosphere Observing System (AOS) mission identified by the most recent Earth Science Decadal Survey.

NASA is working with representatives of the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on this project. Successful results will potentially be used by the State Department at designated embassy locations providing useful information to their employees as well as the general public in those locations.

About Our Partners

This competition was created in partnership with teams at NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

NASA JPL (MAIA): Currently in development, the MAIA (Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols) instrument will make radiometric and polarimetric measurements needed to characterize the sizes, compositions and quantities of particulate matter in air pollution. As part of the MAIA investigation, researchers will combine MAIA measurements with population health records to better understand the connections between aerosol pollutants and health problems such as adverse birth outcomes, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and premature deaths.

The MAIA instrument is being developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). MAIA represents the first time NASA has partnered with epidemiologists and health organizations on a satellite mission to study human health and improve lives.

NASA (TEMPO): The TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) mission aims to answer “What's in the air we breathe?” with more detail and precision than ever before, by creating a revolutionary new dataset of atmospheric chemistry measurements from space. TEMPO will be the first space-based instrument to monitor major air pollutants across the North American continent every hour during the daytime.

The instrument, an ultraviolet and visible spectrometer, was completed in 2019 and will hitch a ride in 2022 on a commercial satellite to a geostationary orbit (GEO) about 22,000 miles above Earth's equator. This vantage point will enable TEMPO to monitor daily variations in nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and ozone, along with other key elements of air pollution from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Mexico City and the Yucatan Peninsula to the Canadian oil sands. The instrument will also resolve pollution levels at unprecedented spatial scales (around 10 square kilometers).