Published on 19 August 2020
According to a recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is responsible for the death of 400,000 people in Europe and 7 million people worldwide each year, as a result of the inhalation of air laden with fine particles and/or other pollutants. This is more than the cumulative deaths from AIDS (1.1 million), tuberculosis (1.4 million), diabetes (1.6 million) and road accidents (1.3 million).
The World Health Organization (WHO) also recognizes that air pollution is a risk factor for non-communicable diseases such as lung cancer, strokes and heart attacks.
The Sentinel-5P mission is part of a global strategy to mitigate the risks of air pollution and climate change, as both are closely linked. The main objective is to map the state and evolution of the pollution and contribute to an integrated observation system that combines ground measurements, satellite measurements and modeling as developed within the atmosphere monitoring service of the Copernicus Programme (CAMS).
The TROPOMI (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument) instrument, the most advanced multispectral imaging spectrometer to date, enables Sentinel-5P to provide atmospheric composition data with an unprecedented level of detail and accuracy.
In addition to the various European partners involved since the start of the mission in 2009, the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy plays a central role in the mission's validation programme and contributes to the scientific analysis of the data, in particular taking into account mathematical models of the atmosphere.
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Science Connection, the free magazine of the Belgian Science Policy