About

HAQAST is part of a decade-long effort by NASA’s Applied Science Program to re-envision how applied science teams work. The effort began with the Air Quality Applied Science Team (AQAST), which ran from 2011 – 2016. Recognizing that health was an integral component of applied air quality research, NASA formed the first HAQAST team, which ran from 2016 – 2020. Due to the success of both AQAST and HAQAST, NASA expanded the newest version of HAQAST (2021 – 2025) to fourteen members composed of air quality and public health scientists led by Dr. Tracey Holloway at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Though HAQAST is headquartered at UW-Madison, its members are spread across the U.S., in government offices and public and private universities.

Our interests are both focused – we use NASA satellite data to help solve real-world public health and air quality problems – and diverse: we work all around the world on issues from wildfire smoke to diesel emissions. We collaborate with public stakeholders, who help guide our research. We also pursue short-term, high-impact projects in small groups called Tiger Teams – you can find out more about those here.

Ultimately, our goal is to use NASA’s data and satellites to pursue cutting edge applied research in order to keep you healthy and safe. If you’d like to be in touch, sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Twitter, attend our next public meeting, or reach out to us via e-mail.

Topographic map of the US showing Nitrogen Dioxide Levels across the country.
Photo Credit: NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio/T. Schindler – See more at: http://isthmus.com/news/news/uw-professor-is-putting-NASA-satellite-data-to-work/#sthash.ZBJNezr2.dpuf