Air quality and public health
Exposure maps for the people who breathe the data.
Cities clean their air on paper. Orbits tell a different story.Tropospheric NO2 exposure mapping from orbit
Satellite spectrometers measure nitrogen dioxide columns daily at sub-city resolution, exposing gaps between reported emissions and actual population exposure. TROPOMI, GEMS and TEMPO together now offer both the spatial detail and the hourly diurnal cycle needed for credible public-health burden estimates.
Sentinel-5P TROPOMIGEMS (GEO-KOMPSAT-2B)TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution)
The column sees haze. The ground breathes it. Bridging that gap is the hard part.PM2.5 surface concentration estimation via aerosol optical depth
Satellite aerosol optical depth measures how much sunlight a column of air scatters, not what anyone inhales at street level. Converting AOD to PM2.5 requires physical and statistical modelling that is honest about its own limits.
MODIS MAIAC (Terra / Aqua)VIIRS Deep Blue (Suomi NPP / NOAA-20)MISR (Terra)
The ozone column thins invisibly. The UV dose at ground level does not.Stratospheric ozone column mapping and UV index health risk
Satellite retrieval of total ozone column in Dobson units, translated into surface UV-B irradiance and WHO UV Index, underpins public health advisories on skin cancer and photokeratitis risk. TROPOMI, OMI, GOME-2 and EPIC together provide daily global coverage with sub-daily revisit near the poles where depletion events matter most.
Sentinel-5P TROPOMIOzone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on AuraGOME-2 on MetOp-A/B/C
Dust crosses borders in hours. Detection lags can cost lives.Dust storm detection and health-warning forecasting
Mineral dust plumes from the Sahara, Arabian Peninsula and Gobi routinely push PM10 past WHO thresholds within hours of lofting. Satellites detect the plume; models translate it into surface concentrations and 72-hour health warnings.
Sentinel-5P TROPOMIMODIS Deep Blue AOD (Terra and Aqua)Meteosat SEVIRI (MSG)
Smoke moves. Knowing which fire sent it is harder than it looks.Wildfire smoke attribution and downwind population exposure
Satellite fire radiative power retrievals and Lagrangian dispersion modelling can trace PM2.5 episodes at receptor cities back to specific fire events, but separating wildfire smoke from co-located industrial aerosol remains genuinely difficult.
VIIRS I-band active fire detection (NOAA-20 / Suomi NPP)MODIS Fire Radiative Power (Terra / Aqua)Sentinel-3 SLSTR fire radiative power
Mosquitoes need warm, still, sunlit water. Satellites can find it first.Malaria vector habitat mapping from land surface and water data
Sentinel-2, Landsat and MODIS land surface temperature data can locate Anopheles breeding habitat weeks before peak transmission, giving vector-control teams a spatial head start. Cloud cover during the wet season is the hard limit.
Sentinel-2 MSILandsat 8/9 OLIMODIS Land Surface Temperature (MOD11A1/MOD11A2)
Mosquitoes breed in heat and shade. Satellites can see both.Dengue transmission risk mapping using urban heat and greenness
Urban heat islands and patchy vegetation create the thermal and habitat conditions that Aedes mosquitoes exploit. Satellite-derived land surface temperature, greenness and rainfall anomalies can map where those conditions converge weekly, giving health authorities a spatial head start before case counts rise.
ECOSTRESS (ISS-mounted)Sentinel-2 MSIMODIS Land Surface Temperature (Terra/Aqua)
Floodwater recedes. The pathogens it leaves behind do not.Flood-driven waterborne disease risk from SAR inundation mapping
SAR satellites map flood extents through monsoon cloud cover within hours of acquisition. Overlaid with sanitation infrastructure and population data, those extents become actionable cholera, typhoid and hepatitis A risk surfaces for public health responders.
Sentinel-1 C-band SAR (ESA / Copernicus)ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 L-band SAR (JAXA)Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) Rapid Mapping
The hottest block is rarely the richest one.Urban heat health vulnerability mapping for excess mortality risk
Satellite land surface temperature at 30–70 m resolution, combined with census social vulnerability data, pinpoints city blocks where heatwave excess mortality risk is highest. The method is powerful and honest about its limits: LST is not air temperature.
ECOSTRESS (ISS-mounted)Landsat 8/9 TIRSSentinel-2 MSI
The satellite sees green-up. Pollen follows. The gap is the science.Pollen season onset and allergen load tracking via vegetation phenology
Satellite vegetation indices from MODIS, Sentinel-2 and Landsat track canopy green-up timing as a proxy for pollen season onset. The signal is real but indirect: local calibration against pollen trap networks is required before regional allergen forecasts become actionable.
MODIS MOD13 / MYD13 (Terra and Aqua)VIIRS VNP13 (Suomi NPP / NOAA-20)Sentinel-2 MSI (ESA)
Stacks emit at ground level. Satellites read the column from orbit.SO2 plume mapping for industrial pollution health burden assessment
UV backscatter retrievals from TROPOMI and OMI can pinpoint large SO2 point sources at 3.5 × 5.5 km resolution, feed dispersion models, and estimate downwind population exposure for health impact assessments.
Sentinel-5P TROPOMI SO2Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) SO2GEMS SO2
Forests and factories both emit VOCs. Satellites can now tell them apart.Formaldehyde column mapping as a secondary ozone and VOC precursor indicator
Tropospheric formaldehyde columns retrieved from satellite UV measurements act as a proxy for volatile organic compound emissions, a primary driver of ground-level ozone and secondary organic aerosol. Distinguishing biogenic from anthropogenic sources requires careful multi-day averaging and source attribution, but the public record of TROPOMI and OMI data makes it tractable.
Sentinel-5P TROPOMIOzone Monitoring Instrument (OMI, Aura)GOME-2 (MetOp-A/B/C)
Euclidean buffers assume flat roads. Terrain does not.Health facility catchment and physical access mapping using terrain and road data
Satellite-derived elevation, road extraction and gridded population data combine to produce travel-time surfaces that show which communities genuinely cannot reach a clinic within an hour. Static maps lie; this method quantifies the gap.
Copernicus DEM GLO-30SRTM (NASA/NGA)Sentinel-2 MSI
The grid says the clinic is powered. The satellite disagrees.Nighttime light as a proxy for health infrastructure reliability and energy poverty
VIIRS Day/Night Band radiance time series can expose chronic power instability at health facilities long before a ministry's grid reports register a fault. This page explains the physics, the products, and the honest limits of the method.
VIIRS Day/Night Band (Suomi NPP / NOAA-20)NASA Black Marble VNP46 product suiteDMSP-OLS archive (NOAA, 1992–2013)
A foetus gestates for nine months. The satellite watches every week.Prenatal NO2 exposure mapping for adverse birth outcome risk
TROPOMI measures tropospheric NO2 at 3.5 km resolution with near-daily global coverage. Combined with land-use regression and trimester-resolved residential records, those columns can estimate gestational exposure windows linked to preterm birth and low birthweight at neighbourhood scale.
Sentinel-5P TROPOMILandsat 8 / 9 OLIERA5 reanalysis (ECMWF)
Fertiliser goes on fields. The PM2.5 arrives in lungs downwind.Agricultural ammonia plume mapping and respiratory disease burden
TROPOMI measures atmospheric ammonia columns at 3.5 km resolution, exposing livestock and fertiliser hotspots invisible to ground networks. Secondary PM2.5 chemistry links those columns to respiratory disease burden across downwind populations.
Sentinel-5P TROPOMIIASI (MetOp-A, B and C)GEOS-Chem chemical transport model
The smoke you cannot see still leaves a chemical signature overhead.Co-emitted methane and CO as combustion health-exposure proxies
Where ground-level PM monitors are absent, co-emitted CH4 and CO columns from TROPOMI and MOPITT reveal incomplete combustion intensity and let analysts map downwind health-exposure corridors, with honest limits on vertical resolution.
Sentinel-5P TROPOMIMOPITT (Terra)VIIRS (Suomi-NPP / NOAA-20)
Fires emit glyoxal. Glyoxal becomes PM2.5. The column tells you where.Glyoxal column mapping for biomass-burning secondary aerosol exposure
TROPOMI's 3.5 km glyoxal retrievals let analysts trace secondary organic aerosol formation back to specific fire events and vegetation types, though bright surfaces and mixed land cover complicate source attribution.
Sentinel-5P TROPOMIGOME-2 (MetOp-A/B/C)MODIS Burned Area Product (MCD64A1)
Stratospheric ozone protects you. The ozone at street level does not.Tropospheric ozone burden mapping for surface-level health risk
Tropospheric ozone forms in sunlight from NOx and VOC precursors and peaks in afternoon hours, when respiratory risk is highest. Geostationary sensors TEMPO and GEMS now resolve this diurnal cycle hourly, enabling city-scale exposure mapping that was impossible with daily LEO overpasses alone.
TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution)GEMS (Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer)Sentinel-5P TROPOMI
Soil remembers what smelters left behind. Satellites can read it.Legacy lead contamination risk mapping via spectral soil proxies
Hyperspectral sensors identify bare-soil mineral assemblages that co-occur with lead contamination at smelter fallout zones, mine tailings and demolition sites, producing spatial risk priors for childhood blood-lead exposure. Satellite data cannot directly detect lead or see through vegetation.
EnMAPDESIS (ISS)Landsat 8/9 OLI
The virus arrives weeks after the rain. The rain is visible from orbit.Rift Valley fever outbreak risk mapping from flood and vegetation anomalies
Anomalous flooding and rapid vegetation green-up create the temporary breeding pools that amplify Rift Valley fever in Aedes mosquitoes. Sentinel-1 SAR and MODIS NDVI anomalies can flag high-risk dambos 2–4 weeks before outbreak reports reach health authorities.
Sentinel-1 SAR (C-band, 5.405 GHz)MODIS Terra/Aqua (bands 1–7)GPM IMERG (Global Precipitation Measurement)
Snails hide in plain sight. Satellites can find their water.Schistosomiasis transmission risk from freshwater snail habitat mapping
Bulinus and Biomphalaria snails colonise slow, warm, vegetated freshwater bodies detectable from orbit. Sentinel-2 water indices and MODIS land surface temperature can map suitable habitat at sub-kilometre scale to focus mass drug administration where transmission risk is highest.
Sentinel-2 MSILandsat 8/9 OLI + TIRSMODIS Terra/Aqua LST
Sandflies are invisible from orbit. Their preferred soil is not.Visceral leishmaniasis sandfly habitat mapping from land surface data
Phlebotomine sandflies, vectors of visceral leishmaniasis, occupy micro-climatic niches detectable through MODIS land surface temperature, Sentinel-2 bare-soil fraction and SMAP soil moisture. Combined, these layers produce habitat suitability surfaces used to prioritise indoor residual spraying campaigns across South Asia and East Africa.
MODIS Terra and Aqua (LST)Sentinel-2 MSISMAP (NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive)
Triatomines hide in mud walls. Satellites read the landscape around them.Chagas disease triatomine vector habitat suitability mapping
Landsat land cover, MODIS vegetation phenology and SRTM elevation feed species distribution models that flag where triatomine habitat is most suitable across Latin America's dry forests and scrublands. Satellite data maps the environment, not the insect itself.
Landsat 8/9 OLIMODIS Terra/Aqua (MOD13Q1/MYD13Q1)SRTM DEM
Cholera travels with the plankton. Satellites can see the plankton coming.Coastal cholera risk from sea surface temperature and phytoplankton bloom mapping
Vibrio cholerae persists in marine reservoirs tied to phytoplankton and zooplankton blooms. SST anomalies and chlorophyll-a signals from MODIS, VIIRS and Sentinel-3 can precede clinical case surges by one to three weeks, giving health authorities a narrow but real warning window.
MODIS Aqua (ocean colour)VIIRS (SNPP / NOAA-20)GHRSST (multi-sensor SST composite)
The threshold is 28°C WBGT. Satellites get you within two or three degrees of it.Wet-bulb globe temperature estimation for outdoor worker heat stress
Wet-bulb globe temperature integrates heat, humidity, wind and solar load into the occupational standard for outdoor work limits. Satellite inputs from MODIS, VIIRS, CERES and ERA5 can estimate gridded WBGT where no ground station exists, but a ±2–3°C uncertainty is real and must be declared to any user making work-rest decisions.
MODIS Terra / Aqua (Land Surface Temperature)VIIRS SNPP (Land Surface Temperature)CERES (Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System) on Terra / Aqua
Satellites see the fire outside. The smoke killing people is inside.Household solid-fuel combustion mapping as indoor air quality proxy
Where household surveys are thin, combining VIIRS nighttime fire detections, MODIS active fire radiative power, and census fuel-use priors lets analysts estimate district-level biomass and coal combustion intensity as a proxy for indoor PM2.5 burden.
VIIRS Day/Night Band (DNB) and I-band fire product (Suomi-NPP / NOAA-20)MODIS Terra and Aqua (active fire, MOD14 / MYD14)Sentinel-5P TROPOMI (CO column)
Blooms form overnight. Intakes have no warning system.Cyanobacterial bloom detection for drinking water toxin risk
Cyanobacteria produce microcystins and other toxins that overwhelm conventional water treatment. Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 OLCI can track bloom onset and drift toward drinking-water intakes, though cloud cover and sub-pixel patches remain real operational limits.
Sentinel-3 OLCISentinel-2 MSIMODIS Aqua
Arsenic hides underground. Its address is written on the surface.Geogenic arsenic groundwater risk mapping via surface geology proxies
Naturally occurring arsenic in alluvial aquifers cannot be seen from orbit, but the sedimentary and redox conditions that concentrate it leave spectral fingerprints. Satellite-derived geology proxies produce probabilistic risk surfaces that guide where to test, not what the water contains.
Landsat 8/9 OLI/TIRSSentinel-2 MSISRTM DEM
The brain cannot see the air. The satellite can.Long-term PM and NO2 exposure mapping for mental health burden studies
Chronic exposure to PM2.5 and NO2 is associated with depression, anxiety and cognitive decline. Satellite-derived multi-year exposure grids from TROPOMI, MODIS AOD and OMI are now standard inputs for cohort studies, but exposure misclassification remains the central methodological problem.
Sentinel-5P TROPOMIMODIS Terra and Aqua (AOD)OMI (Aura)
Weather stations miss the heat. Pregnant women living on asphalt do not.Urban heat island intensity mapping for preterm birth heat exposure
Urban heat islands impose a thermal burden that regional weather stations systematically underestimate. Landsat and MODIS land surface temperature data, disaggregated to neighbourhood scale, can quantify that extra exposure during the critical third trimester.
Landsat 8/9 TIRSMODIS Terra/Aqua (MOD11/MYD11 LST)Sentinel-3 SLSTR
Settlements appear overnight. Environmental health hazards accumulate just as fast.Environmental health risk mapping in refugee and displacement settlements
Satellite imagery from Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and commercial VHR sensors can map sanitation proximity, vegetation loss and flood-driven waterborne risk across displacement settlements, giving WASH planners spatial evidence they rarely have on the ground.
Sentinel-2 MSISentinel-1 SAR (C-band, 5.405 GHz)Maxar WorldView series (VHR optical)
The pollution is unequal. The satellite record is long enough to prove it.Disproportionate air pollution burden mapping across income and race strata
Satellite-derived NO2 and PM2.5 surfaces, joined to census demographic data, can quantify whether low-income and minority communities bear pollution burdens that exceed their share of emission sources. The method is powerful and the limits are real.
Sentinel-5P TROPOMIAura OMIMODIS Terra and Aqua
Benzene leaves no direct pixel. Its chemistry does.Traffic-related benzene exposure mapping from satellite VOC columns
Ground monitors for benzene are rare and unevenly sited. Satellite VOC columns from TROPOMI, combined with road-network density and land-use regression, let analysts estimate surface benzene concentrations across entire cities at roughly 5 km resolution.
Sentinel-5P TROPOMI (HCHO column)Sentinel-5P TROPOMI (glyoxal column)Landsat-8/9 OLI
Ice looks clean. The aerosols settling on it are not.Black carbon deposition on glaciers and downstream drinking-water health risk
Black carbon deposited on glaciers cuts surface albedo, accelerates melt and shifts the chemistry of downstream drinking water. Combining MODIS and VIIRS albedo anomalies with MERRA-2 aerosol transport reveals source regions and the downstream populations at risk.
MODIS MOD10A1 / MYD10A1VIIRS VNP10A1 (Suomi NPP / NOAA-20)MERRA-2 aerosol reanalysis (NASA GMAO)
Mortality peaks three days after the heat. Stations miss the heat.Satellite land surface temperature for heatwave mortality lag-exposure modelling
Weather-station networks are too sparse to reconstruct the spatially continuous heat-exposure histories that distributed lag non-linear models require. MODIS and Landsat land surface temperature time series fill that gap, letting health authorities calibrate city-specific alert thresholds against locally observed mortality.
MODIS MOD11A1 / MYD11A1 (Terra and Aqua)Landsat Collection 2 Surface Temperature (Landsat 8 and 9 TIRS)ERA5 reanalysis (ECMWF)
Blackflies need fast water. Satellites can find it before they do.River blackfly breeding habitat mapping for onchocerciasis transmission risk
Simulium blackflies breed only in fast, well-oxygenated river reaches. Combining Sentinel-1 SAR, Sentinel-2 vegetation indices and DEM-derived stream-power models lets public-health teams map those reaches and focus larviciding where it counts.
Sentinel-1 SAR (C-band, ESA)Sentinel-2 MSI (ESA)SRTM / Copernicus DEM (30 m)
Schools sit near roads. Satellites can prove exactly how bad that is.School-proximity NO2 exposure mapping for child respiratory burden
Children breathe the air outside their classrooms for hours each day, yet most cities lack the monitoring density to quantify that exposure school by school. TROPOMI, GEMS and road-proximity downscaling change that calculus.
Sentinel-5P TROPOMIGEMS (Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer)Sentinel-2 MSI
Ticks do not read maps. Satellites can redraw them.Tick-borne encephalitis habitat range expansion from vegetation and climate data
Ixodes tick populations are advancing into higher latitudes and elevations as winters shorten. Combining MODIS land surface temperature seasonality, VIIRS snow-cover duration, and Sentinel-2 forest-edge density lets health agencies map where TBE risk is arriving before the first human cases confirm it.
MODIS MOD11A2 (Terra/Aqua LST)VIIRS VNP10A1 (Snow Cover)Sentinel-2 MSI
Smoke reaches the city. The question is which field sent it.Agricultural crop-residue burning and acute PM2.5 episode attribution
Post-harvest burning in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa produces PM2.5 spikes that overwhelm ground monitors. VIIRS fire radiative power, MODIS aerosol optical depth, and HYSPLIT back-trajectories can attribute specific burning events to specific downwind populations.
VIIRS VNP14 Active Fire (Suomi-NPP / NOAA-20 / NOAA-21)MODIS MAIAC AOD (Terra / Aqua)TROPOMI CO columns (Sentinel-5P)
The water looks green. The question is whether it is dangerous.Coastal algal bloom alerts for beach management
Ocean-colour satellites detect chlorophyll-a and phycocyanin proxies at coastal scales, giving beach managers days of warning before harmful algal blooms reach swimmers. This page explains the sensors, methods, honest limits and analytic products.
Sentinel-3 OLCI (Ocean and Land Colour Instrument)Sentinel-2 MSI (MultiSpectral Instrument)MODIS Aqua ocean colour
Tailings dry out. The dust travels. Lungs pay the bill.Mine tailings dust emission mapping for silicosis exposure burden
Dry mine tailings and haul roads emit respirable crystalline silica that causes irreversible silicosis. Sentinel-2 spectral indices, MODIS aerosol optical depth and ERA5 wind fields can map emission potential and downwind exposure corridors around active and legacy sites.
Sentinel-2 MSILandsat 8/9 OLIMODIS MAIAC AOD
The column looks clean. The street is not.Temperature inversion detection for trapped urban pollution health alerts
Thermal inversions cap vertical mixing and compress pollutants into a shallow surface layer that satellite column measurements routinely understate. Combining MODIS/VIIRS land surface temperature, ERA5 boundary-layer height, and TROPOMI NO2 columns makes the trap visible and correctable.
MODIS MOD11A1 (Terra/Aqua)VIIRS LST (Suomi-NPP / NOAA-20)ERA5 atmospheric reanalysis (ECMWF)