Monitoring Air Quality   
       
   For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit   
   this small planet. We all breathe the same air.. (John F. Kennedy)   
       
   June 27, 2016:  Air quality is a global issue. Currents of air waft gaseous   
   and particulate pollutants from region to region, country to country, and even   
   continent to continent. Emissions from human activities, sunlight, weather,   
   pollution from far away, wildfires, and wind-blown dust can all affect air   
   quality. And it can change from day to day or even hour to hour. Addressing   
   this global issue requires a global effort. And that effort is in the works.   
       
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkY5oFQD2cc   
       
   The US, South Korea, and the European Union will each launch geostationary   
   satellite missions from 2018-2022 that will become part of a global air   
   quality monitoring system including other satellites, ground networks, air   
   quality models, and airborne sampling.  Geostationary satellites stay in place   
   over a single location on the Earth, allowing instruments onboard to collect   
   data continuously throughout the day to monitor the ever-changing state of the   
   air over that part of the globe.   
       
   In May 2016, NASA and the Korean National Institute for Environmental Research   
   began a precursor mission to prepare for this unprecedented global air quality   
   monitoring system. The Korea - United States Air Quality study (KORUS-AQ) is   
   assessing air quality across South Korea using observations from aircraft,   
   ground sites, ships, and satellites. KORUS-AQ is one of several field   
   experiments going on this year that will be monitoring the health of our   
   planet.   
       
   James Crawford of NASA's Langley Research Center says, "KORUS-AQ is helping   
   scientists understand the factors that affect air quality, how surface   
   emissions, atmospheric transport, and chemical transformations interact, and   
   how they're changing over time. KORUS-AQ prepares us to take advantage of the   
   upcoming global system by exercising all of the observational perspectives,   
   integrating the data, and using them to test our models of air quality."   
       
   The Korean peninsula is an excellent locale for studying air quality. The city   
   of Seoul is one of the globe's five most-populated metropolitan areas, and   
   local emissions from its vibrant transportation and industry present   
   challenges to air quality similar to those faced by megacities worldwide.   
   Korea's position downwind of China also highlights the issue of transported   
   versus local pollution; in addition to pollution from Chinese megacities,   
   plumes of dust from the Gobi desert can make their way to the Korean   
   peninsula. This complexity of accounting for local pollution and pollution   
   imported from elsewhere demonstrates the difficulty in devising strategies to   
   improve air quality.   
       
   Three aircraft are involved in these studies. NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory   
   carrying NASA and South Korean instruments is directly measuring the   
   composition of the atmosphere over the Korean peninsula at altitudes between   
   approximately 1,000 and 25,000 feet above the ground. A NASA King Air is   
   flying higher, with remote-sensing instruments that simulate satellite   
   observations. South Korea is flying its own King Air, which carries South   
   Korean and NASA sensors to directly measure the atmosphere in areas the   
   larger, less nimble DC-8 can't access. In addition, Korean scientists are   
   collecting data from their ground-based air quality monitoring network   
   consisting of more than 300 stations. They are also hosting NASA instruments   
   at some of the ground sites.   
       
   Together, the South Korean and US researchers are planning and coordinating   
   the flights. They are jointly providing air quality forecasting from an array   
   of model simulations. The KORUS-AQ data will provide an important test of   
   these models and their ability to accurately forecast air quality conditions.   
       
   "Improving the models is extremely important," explains Crawford. "Confidence   
   in our ability to simulate current air quality allows us to take the next step   
   and predict how air quality would respond to future emission scenarios.   
   Testing how various policies to regulate polluting emissions would improve air   
   quality enables responsible decision making."   
       
   People around the world will benefit from this team effort. Atmospheric   
   scientists using data from KORUS-AQ and the future constellations of   
   geostationary air quality satellites will work together to help make those   
   benefits a reality.   
       
   For everyone who breathes the air, more fresh science news may be found at   
   science.nasa.gov   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- DB 3.99 + Windows 10   
    * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LoUiSiAna (1:3828/7)