The National University of Science and Technology (NUST) now has access to the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) satellite, which is used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to monitor air quality in real-time.
According to the details, NUST was the first institution in the region to join NASA’s GEMS satellite, which is in orbit.
The Head of Department (HoD) of the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE), Dr. Muhammad Fahim Khokhar, said that NUST became the first institute in the region to be part of the geostationary orbit-based satellite when it got the equipment to record, compile, and calibrate live air quality data.
GEMS is the first satellite instrument in a group of three constellations that changed the way scientists look at the quality of the air over large parts of the northern hemisphere.
From a fixed orbit above the equator, GEMS checks the air over Asia every hour during the day. Scientists can now track air pollution much better from space because of the satellite.
Separately, public health experts have found that nine out of ten people breathe air that is more contaminated than what the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends.
Most countries with bad air quality have low or middle incomes, and Pakistan is one of the worst countries in terms of the air quality index.
