NASA launches Smog Blog for Central America

NASA launched a new version of its Smog Blog in an effort to deliver timely information about air pollution to government and health officials in Central America and the Caribbean. The MesoAmerican and Caribbean Smog Blog was announced Sept. 20. The Web site interprets local and regional air quality. The blog is written by faculty and students at the University of Panama and staff members from the Water Center for Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is the newest addition to a regional environmental monitoring system that uses satellite data for services in Central America. Posts to Smog Blog are made at least three times a week using information from satellites, air quality forecast models and soon-to-be-operational ground-based monitors. Satellites from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provide air quality information. Data from NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites provide a variety of atmospheric measurements. The NASA-French Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation satellite mission provides bloggers with data about regional airborne particles. A team at the University of Maryland Baltimore County has operated a U.S. Smog Blog for the past five years. The site draws 35,000 visits a month.