Seoul - South Korea and the United States are carrying out an intensive research campaign to uncover the causes of air pollution in Asia during the winter, as part of the efforts to deal with air quality challenges.
The project "Asian Air Quality Study - Asia-AQ" (ASIA-AQ), jointly conducted by the Korea National Institute for Environmental Research and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), aims to collect detailed data on air quality in several locations in Asia, using aircraft, satellites and ground research sites.
Four flights were operated in the Philippines and Taiwan during the past few weeks within the scope of the project.
“The campaign aims to find the reasons behind the deterioration of air quality on the Korean Peninsula during the winter,” said Yoo Myung-soo, director-general of the Department of Climate and Air Quality Research at the Korea National Environmental Research Institute, adding, “The results of the joint investigation will also be used to enhance the effectiveness of and the reliability of local policies related to the air environment.”
The joint research, which begins today and continues until February 26, comes eight years after Korea led the “Korea-United States Air Quality Study (KORUS-AQ)” campaign in partnership with NASA in 2016, which discovered that 52 percent of ultrafine particles tested in Seoul, was picked up from South Korea and 48 percent from abroad.
The main difference between the two initiatives, is that in the new initiative the timing was changed from spring to winter, and the use of the newly launched GEMS satellite.
In 2020, South Korea launched the first satellite in fixed orbit for environmental purposes, “GEMS,” to monitor air pollutants in Asia from 36,000 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.
The research team will use detailed ground-based measurements from 11 air quality research sites, including in Seoul and the islands of Baingneung and Jeju, and will collect samples from the lower atmosphere using NASA's DC-8 aircraft, which will fly to the site on 2000 feet elevation.
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