NASA Found 39 Unreported Man-Made Sources of Toxic Air Pollution

NASA's satellites also function as an observatory for climate change and weather behavior on Earth. These satellites were proven to be helpful in the recent findings by NASA scientists in partnership with the Environment and Climate Change Canada, who discovered that there are 39 unreported sources of toxic air pollution on Earth.

The findings of the recent study were published in the journal of in Nature Geosciences. The 39 unreported sources were found guilty of emitting toxic sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is one of the six air pollutants regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Agencies concerned with monitoring these air pollutants need to locate the sources first in order to measure and moderate them. The recent study managed to identify the "hotspots" where unreported toxic air pollutants are coming from.

Experts are now hoping that they can alleviate the toxic air pollutants emitted by the newly identified sources.

"When you look at a satellite picture of sulfur dioxide, you end up with it appearing as hotspots - bull's-eyes, in effect -- which makes the estimates of emissions easier," said Chris McLinden, an atmospheric scientist with Environment and Climate Change, in a press release by NASA.

To help scientists identify the sources, a new satellite-based process was developed to allow the scientist to pinpoint the exact location of the man-made toxic emissions, which is vital in regulating them. The identified sources are mainly power plants and gas and oil operations from Mexico, Middle East and Russia. Scientists working with the data, recognized the importance of the satellites in their study.

"Quantifying the sulfur dioxide bull's-eyes is a two-step process that would not have been possible without two innovations in working with the satellite data," said co-author and Nickolay Krotkov, atmospheric in a report by TechTimes.

In total, the newly identifies man-made sources of toxic air pollutants accounts for 12 percent of the total man-made sulfur dioxide emissions according to a report by Engadget. And now that the sources were identified, experts are hopeful that they can drastically alleviate and regulate the emissions of the said sources after they have been named.