NUST receives NASA's air quality monitoring system

NASA's Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) satellite now allows the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) to monitor air quality in real time.

So far, NUST is the first institute in South Asia to receive the system.

NASA's orbit-based GEMS satellite was the first to include NUST as a member institution in the entire region.

Dr. Muhammad Fahim Khokhar, Head of Department (HoD) at the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE), said NUST became the first institute in the region to be part of the geostationary orbit-based satellite after it received equipment to record, compile, and calibrate air quality data in real time.

Scientists have changed the way they look at the quality of the air in large portions of the northern hemisphere thanks to the GEMS satellite instrument.

Over Asia, GEMS monitors atmospheric gases every hour during the day from a fixed orbit over the equator. Satellites have greatly improved scientists' ability to track air pollution from space.

Pakistan ranks among the worst countries in terms of air quality index for low- and middle-income countries. Studies have found that majority of people in said countries breathe in air that is much more contaminated than the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends.