National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) will hold the 6th Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) Science Team Meeting from October 6 t0 8 at Hotel Riviera, Busan with an aim to share knowledge and strengthen international cooperation on satellite development, inviting environmental satellite experts from Korea, the United States and Europe.
GEMS has been developed for monitoring climate change as well as emission and movement of air pollutants in East Asia in a joint collaboration of the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and Korea Meteorological Administration since September 2012.
For a successful launch of environmental satellite, NIER launched GEMS Task Force in June 2009 and completed the final stage of designing payload in this February. Production of parts is now underway.
The payload on satellite will observe air pollutants including sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone, formaldehyde and aerosol by applying cutting-edge space technology such as hyper-spectral imager.
NIER will give a presentation and lead a panel discussion on Data Processing Algorithm during the workshop. Data Processing Algorithm is software that converts energy value of air pollutants such as NO2 and Ozone into concentration value needed for atmospheric environment policy and research.
At the workshop, Dr. Kelly Chance from Harvard Smithsonian CFA, and Dr. Pepijin Veefkind from KNMI will share the development status of Trospospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) and Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) respectively.
In addition, Dr. Jay Al-Saddi from NASA LaRC will give a presentation on AQ Constellation Activities in preparation for GEMS: GEO-CAPE, CEOS-ACC and KORUS-AQ Status.
“The workshop will serve as a valuable opportunity to share advanced science and technology of environmental satellite with the ever-growing importance of regular monitoring by GEMS to minimize adverse impact of air pollutants, “said Jang Im-seok, Director General of GEMS Task Force.
“The findings of workshop will be reflected in satellite development. In addition, we will closely work together with leading space research institutions to promote GEMS worldwide and jointly develop satellite,” he added.
NIER has held the international workshop since 2010 to discuss key issues regarding international cooperation and development of environmental satellite. If Korea successfully launches GEMS in 2019, it will become the third nation that possesses GEMS following the United States and Europe.