Sentinel-5P

What's Sentinel-5P?

Imagine a space detective that “sniffs” the air from space.

Sentinel-5P doesn’t take photos — it smells gases in the air and tells us what’s clean and what’s polluted.

Detects harmful gases like nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) from traffic and factories

TROPOMI is a spectrometer. It looks at how sunlight is absorbed and scattered by different gases in the atmosphere:

Spectral Absorption: Every gas has a unique "fingerprint" in how it absorbs sunlight at different wavelengths. TROPOMI measures these absorption patterns very precisely across a wide range of ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light.
Sunlight Reflection/Emission: By analyzing these patterns and how much light returns to the satellite, scientists can calculate the amount of each gas present in the atmosphere.

Sentinel-3 uses 4 instruments or sensors to give us land ocean data. These sensors are nothing but special tools:

NO₂ (Nitrogen Dioxide)
A reddish-brown gas that tells us how polluted the air is — especially in cities. It’s harmful to lungs.
Comes mostly from cars, buses, and factories burning fossil fuels like coal or oil.
O₃ (Ozone)
This is not the “good” ozone that protects us from the sun — this is the “bad” kind that forms smog.
Created when pollution from vehicles and factories reacts with sunlight.
CO (Carbon Monoxide)
A dangerous gas that has no color or smell. It can make people very sick or even be deadly.
Released by engines (like cars), wildfires, and anything burning without enough oxygen.
CH₄ (Methane)
A powerful greenhouse gas — it traps heat in our atmosphere and contributes to climate change.
Comes from cow burps, garbage landfills, and leaking oil or gas pipelines.
SO₂ (Sulfur Dioxide)
A gas that irritates eyes and lungs — and can cause acid rain.Produced by volcanoes and factories that burn coal or oil.
Aerosols
Tiny particles floating in the air — like smoke, dust, or pollution — that can make the sky hazy.
From deserts (dust), fires (smoke), pollution, and even sea spray or volcanoes.