NASA and South Korea have forged a partnership to develop a study plan for air quality assessments as part of an effort to monitor air pollution with the use of aircraft, ground systems and satellites.
The research team will conduct the field study in May and June to test the quality of air in urban, rural and coastal areas of South Korea under the Korea U.S.-Air Quality program meant to build ground and space sensors and computer models for air quality evaluation, NASA said Thursday.
“KORUS-AQ is a step forward in an international effort to develop a global air quality observing system,†said James Crawford, a lead U.S. scientist on the project from NASA’s Langley Research Center.
“Both of our countries will be launching geostationary satellites that will join other satellites in a system that includes surface networks, air quality models, and targeted airborne sampling,†Crawford added.
NASA will fly the DC-8 flying laboratory to measure atmospheric data and the Hanseo King Air will fly overhead with remote-sensing instruments to make separate measurements in areas less accessible to DC-8.
Korean scientists will then gather ground and air observations with the King Air aircraft under an agreement NASA and South Korea’s National Institute of Environmental Research recently inked.
