[Hwankyung Ilbo] The National Institute of Environmental Science (NIES), part of the Ministry of Environment, announced that it will conduct a joint survey on Asian air quality (ASIA-AQ/SIJAQ) with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from February to March to verify observations from the Global Air Quality Improvement and Environmental Satellite (GEMS) in Asia, including Korea.

The National Institute of Environmental Science and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have expanded the target area and participating countries from Korea to Asia (Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand) since the first Joint International Survey of Air Quality (KORUS-AQ, May-June 2016), and will jointly conduct observations for about a week from February 19 to 26 in Korea.

In particular, unlike the First International Joint Survey of Air Quality in 2016, the world's first geostationary environmental satellite will be utilized as an important tool, and Korea will represent the Asian region as a partner of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with four research aircraft from Korea alone.

The Asian Air Quality Collaborative involves more than 500 people from about 45 teams, including research organizations from both countries, including the National Institute of Environmental Science and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as well as government and research organizations, societies, and academic experts from Asian countries.

Among them, the National Meteorological Institute will participate in air, ship, and ground observations to measure greenhouse gases, and the Korea Aerospace Administration will support weather forecasting.

Participating organizations include the National Institute of Environmental Science, Seoul Institute of Health and Environment, National Institute of Meteorology, Korea Aerospace Administration, Korea University, Korea University of Foreign Studies, Seoul National University, Seoul National University, Pukyonggi University, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Princeton University, Philippines Department of Environment, Malaysia Department of Environment, Kebangsaan Kebangsaan University, Geological and Space Development Authority of Thailand, and Ratchapat University.

In Korea, environmental satellites, six aircraft, four ground stations, 12 remote sensing stations, and air quality modeling are used simultaneously.

NASA will deploy two research aircraft (DC-8, Gulfstream) to Korea, and Korea will directly participate in NASA's aerial observations and simultaneously conduct its own four aircraft, satellite and ground observations, and air quality modeling.

Overseas, a team of Korean researchers will jointly participate in aerial observations by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to conduct a regional air quality survey in Asia.

The ground research team has a ground station in Chiang Mai, Thailand, to investigate the causes and impacts of wintertime smog, and a remote station in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to perform environmental satellite validation.

Following the observation, the two organizations agreed to jointly publish a preliminary synthesis and final report for policymakers, as well as related research papers based on the findings, and will also participate in analyzing the results in other Asian countries such as the Philippines.

For the full article in Korean, see related articles↓