This proposal will utilize an array of NASA earth observations to advance our collective knowledge of the atmospheric chemistry, conditions, and emissions that drive air pollution disparities in…

This federal contract award, valued at $356,471.00, was granted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the Rector & Visitors of the University of Virginia (UVA), a non-profit academic institution, to conduct research on air pollution disparities in U.S. cities. The research will leverage a range of NASA Earth observation datasets, including satellite remote sensing data and in-situ aircraft measurements, to better understand the atmospheric chemistry, conditions, and emissions that contribute to intra-urban air quality variability. The project aims to address uncertainties related to the spatial and temporal patterns of atmospheric composition and their relationship to pollution inequality. This award is not associated with a set-aside designation and is part of NASA's Earth Science Atmospheric Composition research program, which seeks to improve our fundamental understanding of changes in the atmosphere.

This proposal will utilize an array of NASA earth observations to advance our collective knowledge of the atmospheric chemistry, conditions, and emissions that drive air pollution disparities in U.S. Cities. The research will address uncertainties due to a general lack of observations of (a) fine-scale spatial patterns in atmospheric composition, (b) temporal variations that reflect sources and transient extreme events, (c) spatiotemporal variability in chemical mixtures, and (d) the linked effects of chemistry and emissions on inequality. The proposal will demonstrate that NASA earth observations are particularly well-positioned to test hypotheses related to these uncertainties. Methodologically, the research will take an observational approach, leveraging a range of datasets including: novel high-spatial-resolution NASA nitrogen dioxide (NO2) airborne spectrometer observations in situ aircraft measurements of numerous trace species from the discover-AQ, sarp, lmos, and listos campaigns tropomi NO2 columns ground-based monitoring networks emissions inventories and the U.S. Census database. The research will expand and advance the application of satellite remote sensing to study controls over intra-urban spatiotemporal variability generally, and as IT relates to pollution inequality specifically. The research will be most relevant to the NASA earth science atmospheric composition question, how is the atmosphere changing, as IT will improve our fundamental understanding of controls over spatiotemporal variability in intra-urban air quality, including those atmospheric controls linked to future changes in atmospheric composition. In addition, the proposal will directly respond to two NASA discover-AQ mission goals, investigating relationships between column and surface trace species variability and the horizontal distribution of trace species as related to satellite-based air quality analyses.