MULTI ANGLE IMAGER FOR AEROSOLS (MAIA) MISSIONS – SCI
& TECH
News: NASA
and Italian Space Agency join hands for satellite mission to monitor air
pollution
What's in the news?
● NASA
announced that it is partnering with the Italian Space Agency ASI (Agenzia
Spaziale Italiana) to build and launch MAIA, or the Multi-Angle Imager for
Aerosols missions.
Key takeaways:
● The
joint mission between the two national space agencies will investigate the health impacts of air pollution in the
world’s most populated cities.
MAIA Observatory:
● The
MAIA observatory, which is set to launch before the end of 2024 will consist of
the PLATiNO-2 satellite, which will
be provided by ASI, and a science instrument that will be built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
● It
is a three year mission.
Mission:
● The
MAIA mission will collect and analyze data from the observatory, sensors on the
ground and atmospheric models.
Features:
● The
science instrument built by JPL will host a “pointable spectropolarimetric camera,” which captures images from
multiple angles in the ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared and shortwave
infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
● Using
this data, the MAIA science team will explore the size, geographic
distribution, composition and abundance of airborne particles.
● They
will also investigate how these factors relate with the patterns and prevalence
of health problems stemming from poor air quality.
Focused Areas:
● MAIA
will focus on 11 primary target areas
that include major urban centres across the world: Los Angeles, Atlanta,
Boston, Rome, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Barcelona, Spain, Beijing, Johannesburg,
New Delhi, Taipei, Taiwan and Tel Aviv.