Interesting air quality day to say the least. Will be a case study for years to come. At 3 PM, still thick smoke that is extremely hazardous in Michigan, Ohio, and Western PA. In DC, smoke is thinning out a bit, but now there's ozone! Improved in MN and New England, but still a mess in-between.

June 2023 pales in comparison to this event. There were ~3 total monitors back then that recorded a 24-hr AQI in the Hazardous category (all in PA). Yesterday there were dozens affecting tens of millions of people

Every single regulatory grade monitor in the Chicago area is recording over 400 µg/m³ of PM2.5 smoke pollution. This is so far beyond anything in the historical record it’s difficult to communicate how extreme this event really is

NASA MODIS on Terra (27 years old!) to the rescue this morning due to the GOES-19 outage. Showing our wildfire plume extending from Minnesota to New York. Worst surface air quality seems to be on the southern half of the plume

Dan Goldberg, PhD@dgoldbergaq.bsky.social · 2mo ago

At the noon hour, still about the same for most, except for Chicago, which has gotten substantially worse. Absolutely need to stay indoors anywhere between Minnesota and Pennsylvania throughout the day today.

At the noon hour, still about the same for most, except for Chicago, which has gotten substantially worse. Absolutely need to stay indoors anywhere between Minnesota and Pennsylvania throughout the day today.

Dan Goldberg, PhD@dgoldbergaq.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A LOT of major cities getting unhealthy air (purple + red dots) from wildfire smoke this AM including: Toronto, Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and to a slightly lesser extent Philadelphia. Our eye-in-the-sky, GOES-19 is down(!) but we still have our ground monitors and TEMPO to guide us.

A LOT of major cities getting unhealthy air (purple + red dots) from wildfire smoke this AM including: Toronto, Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and to a slightly lesser extent Philadelphia. Our eye-in-the-sky, GOES-19 is down(!) but we still have our ground monitors and TEMPO to guide us.

Watch freedom spread from east to west via particle pollution levels last night. In DC, it was rough as usual -- AQI peaking at unhealthy to hazardous. You'll probably notice lingering effects this morning. Details: www.capitalweather.com/air-quality-...

Worst ozone air quality day in DC on May 18, 2026 since Aug 1, 2024 by my quick look. Will we surpass it today? (probably not since it'll be a tad windier). TEMPO NO2 is a touch lower today than yesterday.

Dan Goldberg, PhD@dgoldbergaq.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Already at 95 ppb ozone (not temperature!) for a 1-hour average, in Baltimore. Definitely our worst air quality of the year so far, and perhaps of one the worst in the past 5 years.

Already at 95 ppb ozone (not temperature!) for a 1-hour average, in Baltimore. Definitely our worst air quality of the year so far, and perhaps of one the worst in the past 5 years.

Dan Goldberg, PhD@dgoldbergaq.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Amazing TEMPO NO2 imagery from this morning, 8 AM on Monday 5/18, an expected poor air quality day in the northeastern US. Using NASA WorldView to display the imagery

Amazing TEMPO NO2 imagery from this morning, 8 AM on Monday 5/18, an expected poor air quality day in the northeastern US. Using NASA WorldView to display the imagery

Earth, seen through 12 different satellites datasets🌎🛰️ Every layer tells a story — and together they help us understand a changing planet. #Earthday2026

On The Climate Brink, I write about different ways of counting heat-related mortality. I think this is important info for everyone who wants to talk about climate impacts. open.substack.com/pub/theclima...

How many people does heat actually kill?

It depends on how you count it

open.substack.com

Whoa, now Dems / liberals are falling for the fossil fuel propaganda. A reminder that air pollution alone causes millions of premature deaths globally. This alone necessitates an urgent switch to renewables, let alone CO2. A LOT of work to do on our messaging. www.pewresearch.org/science/2026...

Americans' Shifting Views on Energy Sources, Policy in 2026 | Pew Research Center

A growing majority of Republicans prioritize the development of fossil fuel energy sources like oil and natural gas.

pewresearch.org

In lighter news, apparently there IS a perfect outdoor temperature: 73.8F! Interesting article: www.mountsinai.org/about/newsro... @capitalweather.bsky.social

This is about as sick as it gets. Trump Administration to Pay $1 Billion to Energy Giant to Cancel Wind Farms. In exchange, the French company TotalEnergies would invest in oil and natural gas projects in Texas and elsewhere. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/c...

Trump Administration to Pay $1 Billion to Energy Giant to Cancel Wind Farms

nytimes.com

People will get sicker. More people will have heart attacks and lung disease and other health challenges because of pollution. People’s lives will get worse, and shorter. People you know. Maybe me. Maybe you.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 8mo ago

Breaking News: The EPA will stop considering lives saved when setting pollution limits and instead calculate only the cost to businesses.

Trump administration to dismantle key climate research center Any such plan "would set back our nation’s ability to predict, prepare for, and respond to severe weather and other natural disasters,” said Antonio Busalacchi, who oversees the center: www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Trump administration to dismantle key climate research center

Russell Vought, who directs the White House Office of Management and Budget, announced plans to split up the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, citing concerns about “clima...

washingtonpost.com

New 📄! We inter-compare satellite-based NASA TEMPO column NO2 with ground monitor surface NO2. Correlation is very good; best in the mid-AM and worst in the late-PM. The work highlights when and where satellite data best represents surface air quality. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Very exciting to see geostationary air quality data to become available over Europe! Lots to learn!

European Space Agency@esa.int · 11mo ago

😎 First glimpses from space! The new #Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission has delivered its first preliminary images during commissioning. Sentinel-4’s spectrometer is hosted on @eumetsat.int's MTG-S1 satellite 🧪🌍 @josefaschbacher.esa.int @ec.europa.eu @esaearth.esa.int

😎 First glimpses from space! The new #Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission has delivered its first preliminary images during commissioning. Sentinel-4’s spectrometer is hosted on @eumetsat.int's MTG-S1 satellite 🧪🌍 @josefaschbacher.esa.int @ec.europa.eu @esaearth.esa.int

Found this somewhat positive news: Maryland & DC have 50% less CO2 emissions than 20 years ago (www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...) A portion of this decrease is because coal plants closed in-state and out-of-state coal plants took some of the load. Nonetheless, don't lose sight of the progress we've made!

Things being what they are these days, genuinely good and encouraging news is the rarest of unicorns. So when I say that this discussion left me heartened and optimistic in a way few things have lately, I mean it. A must listen talk between @chrislhayes.bsky.social and @billmckibben.bsky.social

Chris Hayes and Bill McKibben on 'The Most Important Good Story Right Now'

YouTube video by MSNBC

youtube.com

Happy 21st birthday to NASA’s Aura satellite, launched 15 July 2004. It revolutionized atmospheric composition measurements from space and sustained mutually beneficial validation activities such as our SHADOZ ozonesonde network. science.nasa.gov/mission/aura/

Aura - NASA Science

Earth Orbiter

science.nasa.gov

Almost 2 years of TEMPO NO2 data now available. NO2 air pollution cannot hide! While this NO2 map looks 🤩, NO2 pollution declines have stagnated over the past 10 years or so. The plot should be more blue by now...

MethaneSAT unfortunately has been lost ☹️ BUT there's still about 11 months worth of data that will continue to be useful. AND we still have TROPOMI, GHGSAT, and the GOSAT series as methane-tracking alternatives. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/c...

Methane-Tracking Satellite Is Lost, in a Blow to Climate Efforts

nytimes.com

Sentinel 4 and GOSAT-GW have been successfully launched! New air pollution and climate measurements coming soon led by EU and Japan respectively Sentinel 4: NO2, HCHO, etc. every hr over Europe GOSAT-GW: NO2 & CO2 globally spaceflightnow.com/2025/07/01/l... www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/06/gosa...

Economists warn: Trump’s science cuts threaten the U.S. economy. Slashing funding for NIH, NSF, and NASA hurts every American. These cuts are killing jobs, stalling innovation, and shrinking our economic future. We all pay the price when science is defunded. www.npr.org/2025/05/08/n...

Economists warn Trump's research cuts could have dire consequences for GDP

President Trump has proposed slashing federal scientific funding. Economists say the long-term consequences could be dire.

npr.org

In a series of terrible but unsurprising decisions, this is terrible and surprising... Democrats voting against EVs. It's hard to overstate how successful the oil&gas propaganda machine is. Enough Democrats are falling for it (and to be fair I used to too) www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/c...

Why 35 House Democrats Joined Republicans Against a Major Climate Policy

nytimes.com

Yesterday 30 Apr, the TROPOMI sensor on the Sentinel-5P satellite observed large amounts of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) originating from metro regions in the Northeast US & southern Canada, including New York City, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh & Toronto. @dgoldbergaq.bsky.social

Next exciting satellite to measure air quality and greenhouse gases to launch in less than 2 months, June 24, 2025. GOSAT-GW to be launched by the Japanese (JAXA). Measuring CO2, CH4 and NO2 at the same time 😍 www.nies.go.jp/whatsnew/202...