How Does NASA’s Earth Expeditions KORUS-AQ Campaign Study Korea–U.S. Air Quality?

TL;DR

NASA’s Korea U.S. Air Quality Campaign, or KORUS-AQ, combines aircraft, satellites, and more than 300 ground-based sites to study the processes controlling air quality and improve forecasts. South Korea provides a natural laboratory of cities, towns, forests, oceans, and varied pollution sources, while the campaign helps validate space-based measurements and inform future pollution-tracking satellites. Read on to see how the instruments and flight missions work together.

Transcript

[MUSIC] Anyoung-haseyo. That's hello in Korean. Because today our investigators are in South Korea to study air quality. Air quality is a lot like your breath, Tom. Most people aren't going to say anything unless it's bad. At NASA, we're constantly looking at air quality around the globe from space. Today we're showing you how we do this with aircr... Read More

Key Insights

• 👾 Air quality is a global problem, and studying it from space provides a comprehensive view.
• 🛩️ Measuring air pollution from space is challenging due to small particles, cloud interference, and the need for surface-level measurements.
• 🇰🇷 KORUS-AQ mission in South Korea helps calibrate and validate future pollution tracking satellites.
• 👱 Data collected during KORUS-AQ will be analyzed over the next few years to improve understanding of air pollution processes.
• 😫 Korea's diverse pollution sources and natural laboratory setting make it an ideal location for air quality studies.
• 👱 Ground-based air quality sites, combined with satellite data, help validate measurements and improve forecasts.
• 👱 KORUS-AQ contributes to global efforts in monitoring air quality changes over time.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is NASA’s Korea U.S. Air Quality Campaign, or KORUS-AQ?

KORUS-AQ is a NASA Earth science mission conducted with Korean colleagues to study air quality in South Korea. It uses aircraft and ground instruments to deepen understanding of the processes controlling air quality and improve forecasts of air quality conditions.

Q: Why did NASA choose South Korea for KORUS-AQ?

NASA has a special relationship with Korean partners, who are building a sister satellite to NASA’s TEMPO satellite. South Korea is also a natural air quality laboratory containing big cities, small towns, forests, and nearby oceans, allowing researchers to monitor how different pollution sources interact.

Q: How does KORUS-AQ measure air pollution?

The campaign combines multiple views from aircraft, ground instruments, and satellites. Aircraft carry tools such as LIDAR, which uses lasers to measure atmospheric particulates, while ground stations measure gases such as nitrogen oxide.

Q: What roles do the NASA DC-8 and King Air play in KORUS-AQ?

The NASA DC-8 flies patterns described as walls to build views of the atmosphere. The NASA King Air flies high and looks down with an airborne simulator that duplicates what an unlaunched satellite is expected to see.

Q: Why is measuring air pollution from space difficult?

Very small amounts of pollution can affect human health, making sensitive measurements necessary. Clouds can obstruct observations, and satellites measure the entire column of pollutants even though researchers particularly care about pollution near the surface.

Q: How does ground data support NASA’s satellite measurements?

KORUS-AQ collects continuous data from more than 300 ground-based air quality sites. These observations help validate measurements from space and improve understanding of the challenges involved in observing air quality by satellite.

Q: What pollution sources does KORUS-AQ investigate?

The campaign considers natural pollutants such as fires and windblown dust, as well as pollution caused by human activities. It also examines pollutants transported over long distances, including across oceans, and recognizes that harmful pollution can be visible or invisible.

Q: What happens to the KORUS-AQ data after collection?

Researchers expect to spend the next two to four years analyzing and modeling the data. They also plan to write scientific papers and present the findings at conferences, while using the results to support the design of the next generation of pollution-tracking satellites.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• NASA's Earth science mission, KORUS-AQ, is studying air quality in South Korea to deepen our understanding of air pollution processes and improve forecasts.

• The mission involves using multiple airplanes and ground instruments to collect data and analyze it over the next few years.

• South Korea's diverse pollution sources make it an ideal location for this study.