USM Installs New Air Quality Sensor to Aid in NASA Initiative

An high-tech sensor recently installed at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) will allow anyone in the Hattiesburg area with Internet access to check particulate matter in the air.

USM is one of only three sites in the state to install the PurpleAir sensor being used as part of an air quality initiative with NASA Langley and spearheaded by the University of Toledo.  

The TEMPO instrument is a UV-visible spectrometer that will be the first space-based instrument to monitor air pollutants hourly across the North American continent during daytime. It will collect high-resolution measurements of ozone, nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants, data which will revolutionize air quality forecasts.