Canada is once again battling a dangerous wildfire season in 2025, with thick smoke plumes sweeping across the country and into the United States echoing the devastating fires of 2023. But this year, a major technological leap is giving scientists and air quality officials a new edge in understanding the true danger hidden in the haze: how close the smoke is to the ground.
While traditional satellites have long tracked the spread of wildfire smoke, their view was two-dimensional. They couldn’t tell whether the smoke was floating high above or lingering near the surface, where it poses serious health risks. That distinction matters and now, a new 3D satellite monitoring system is making it possible.
The Danger Lies in the Depth
When smoke hangs close to the surface, it carries harmful particles known as PM2.5 microscopic pollutants that can lodge deep in the lungs and trigger asthma, heart issues, and other serious health problems. But if a smoke plume stays high in the sky, it often passes by without affecting the air people breathe.
New data from NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) satellite, launched in 2023, is now helping scientists pinpoint exactly where the smoke is and how deep it reaches. TEMPO works by measuring how much sunlight is absorbed by oxygen molecules at a specific wavelength. The result: a near real-time map of smoke plume heights, helping determine where the smoke is most hazardous.
From National Estimates to Neighborhood Precision
This innovation is critical because the current air quality monitoring system a network of ground sensors is patchy and often misses rural or remote areas. For example, Iowa has only around 50 ground sensors across a state spanning over 56,000 square miles. In many places, people have been breathing in hazardous air without real-time warnings.
With TEMPO data, combined with NOAA’s GOES-R satellite observations and aerosol measurements, forecasters can now build a fuller, 3D picture of wildfire smoke movement across North America. The AerosolWatch platform, which streams near-real-time images of smoke, is set to integrate this smoke height information, offering sharper and faster air quality insights.
A prototype system developed by researchers at NASA and partnering institutions, called FireAQ, even allows zooming in to neighborhood levels to see how smoke behaves. While currently updated only once daily and limited by cloud cover, the system shows immense potential for expansion.
Wildfire Smoke: An Escalating Threat
This advancement comes not a moment too soon. Scientists warn that wildfires intensified by rising global temperatures and urban encroachment into wildlands are reversing decades of progress in air quality. In the western U.S., research shows that wildfire smoke has undone nearly 20 years of environmental gains, making breathable air a growing concern.
As more Canadians and Americans live under the threat of recurring fires and lingering smoke, these 3D smoke maps offer more than just insight they offer a chance to protect lives. With the ability to target air quality alerts more precisely, authorities can now help communities prepare, adapt, and stay safe as wildfire risks grow with each passing summer.