The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) satellite, which is used to track air quality in real time, is now available to the National University of Science and Technology (NUST).
According to the details, NUST was the first institution in the region to join NASA’s orbit-based GEMS satellite.
Dr. Muhammad Fahim Khokhar, the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE) Head of Department, claimed that NUST was the first institution in the area to be included in the geostationary orbit-based satellite after receiving the tools needed to record, compile, and calibrate real-time data on air quality.
It is worth noting that GEMS is the first of three satellite instruments that have transformed how scientists view air quality over a large area of the northern hemisphere.
GEMS monitors atmospheric gases over Asia from a fixed orbit over the equator at all hours of the day. Scientists’ ability to monitor air pollution from space has substantially increased as a result of the satellite.
Furthermore, according to public health experts, nine out of ten people are found to be breathing air that is more harmful than what the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends.
It is worth noting that the majority of countries with poor air quality are low- or middle-income countries, with Pakistan being among the worst in terms of air quality index.