The National University of Science and Technology (NUST) has again brought honor to the country by receiving the most advanced PANDORA instrument and access to NASA’s GEMS satellite for real-time air quality data monitoring.
NUST not only received NASA’s latest satellite but also became a part of the most modern geostationary orbit-based satellite observations (GEMS-Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer) of air quality as the region’s first institute to receive the equipment to record, collate, and calibrate real-time air quality data, according to the Head of Department Environmental Sciences, NUST Institute of Environmental Sciences.
Dr. Khokhar stated, “Air quality has become a global issue with its impact on the society, economy, industry, diplomacy, public health and natural resources in addition to environmental science.
He emphasized that Asia, with its rapid industrialization and population growth, was an important source of global-scale emissions. Thus, it is crucial to monitor the concentration of relevant gases and aerosols over Asia in high temporal and spatial resolution from geostationary orbit satellite.
He further underlined that no such facility in the country provided 24-hour satellite-based data on air pollution.
According to Dr. Fahim Khokhar, the NUST Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE) has emerged as a globally trusted institution for high-level research projects and the hard work of its faculty.
Pandora is the result of a programmatic shift by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) toward long-term fixed locations focused on providing long-term quality observations of the total column and vertically resolved concentrations of various trace gases.
A major joint goal is to help validate and verify more than a dozen UV-visible sensors in low-Earth and geostationary orbit.
Moreover, he stated that the prestigious global space agency NASA entrusted NUST with the responsibility of becoming the regional focal point for its geostationary satellite and being a part of the PGN.
He added that the NUST low-cost quality sensors had been deployed throughout the country, including Islamabad and Rawalpindi.