Speaker
Description
The climate crisis persists, as the global community has yet to fully embrace the actions needed
to tackle it. The decade from 2010 to 2019 was the hottest on record, leading to devastating wildfires,
hurricanes, droughts, floods, and other climate-related disasters worldwide. To limit global
warming to 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels, emissions must already be on the decline and need to
be halved by 2030. Unfortunately, we are far from meeting this target. Sustainable Development
Goal 13 emphasizes the need for urgent climate action, pointing to the rising global temperatures
and increased air pollution that pose significant threats to human health. This highlights the importance
of emission monitoring. In South Africa, however, emission data remains a challenge,
making satellite data especially valuable. Satellites are increasingly used to monitor air quality
and track atmospheric pollution. Around the world, studies are using data from the Tropospheric
Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) to assess emissions and air quality. However, no air quality
dashboard based on satellite data has been developed in South Africa using TROPOMI-Sentinel
5p data. This project aims to compute the Air Quality Index (AQI) using the Google Earth Engine
(GEE) platform. Sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and carbon monoxide (CO) will be
the first pollutants used to calculate the AQI. A functional dashboard will be created to offer users
easy access to standardised satellite data, enabling quick and effortless analysis.
