NASA Satellite Data to Enhance One Health Collaborations in Air Quality Monitoring

Abstract Description: To comprehensively examine emerging and reemerging environmental risks, multidisciplinary and multisectoral collaborations are essential to integrate cross-cutting scientific methods and analyses and identify timely solutions to promote environmental resiliency and public health. The 2024 Lancet Countdown on health and climate change underscored that multiple events, including extreme heat temperatures and air quality (concentrations of ground-level ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter), can lead to compounding and cascading health effects. Higher temperatures linked with drought conditions are associated with frequent dust storms and increased wildfire risks, which can negatively affect the natural and built environment, service delivery (like roads and power lines), and physical and mental health. By understanding the One Health approach (human-animal-environment nexus), environmental scientists and quality managers can lead collaborative efforts to better understand these environmental risks and develop operational tools that can identify harmful emission hotspots affecting surrounding communities. This presentation will highlight at least three examples where NASA satellite data can help promote research-stakeholder collaborations and the development of novel air quality management tools. It will present opportunities for scientific networking (NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team, Group of Earth Observations’ Health Community of Practice), training (NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training Program), and public engagement (interagency-supported Earth Information Center, tri-agency Earth Observing Dashboard).