Value of GeoXO Atmospheric Composition Data for Estimating Air Pollution-Related Health Impacts

The Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite system is the intended successor to NOAA’s GOES-R Series, and it is planned to begin operating in the early 2030s. This next generation system will be outfitted with an Atmospheric Composition Instrument that will provide hourly observations of tropospheric trace gases and aerosol optical depth and will be able to infer surface level pollutants associated with poor health such as nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and particulate matter (PM). In this project, we evaluate the influence that GeoXO remote sensing capabilities could have for assessing air pollution-related health impacts. We conduct health impact analyses for PM_2.5 and NO₂ using a range of synthetic satellite data and WRF-Chem model outputs that resemble potential observations from GeoXO. Specifically, we estimate the possible health benefits associated with using geostationary satellite data over polar-orbiting satellite data for identifying particulate air quality alert days in 2020. We also compare NO₂ concentrations at a polar-orbiting-like overpass time versus a geostationary-like daytime average using WRF-Chem modeling and find that the additional hours of coverage would provide substantially more data that could contribute valuable information to long-term policies to reduce air pollution and its associated health impacts. In both PM_2.5 and NO₂ analyses, we identify impacts for disadvantaged communities versus the national average population. Results indicate that atmospheric composition data from geostationary satellites can be applied in multiple ways to reduce public health impacts of air pollution and data from geostationary satellites can increase public awareness of poor air quality.