NASA's DC-8, an in-situ aircraft, is stationed in Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 60 kilometers south of Seoul, for a joint investigation on air quality in the Asian region, Feb. 16. Yonhap

Korea and the United States will kick off a research campaign to uncover the cause of air pollution across Asia during the winter season as part of efforts to better address air quality challenges and come up with policies designed to improve air quality.

The ASIA-AQ, a joint effort by Korea's National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), aims to collect detailed air quality data over several locations in Asia using aircraft, satellites, and ground sites.

It has already completed four flights in the Philippines and Taiwan over the past few weeks.

"This campaign seeks to find the causes behind air quality deteriorating in the Korean Peninsula during wintertime," said Yoo Myung-soo, the NIER director general of the climate and air quality research department, during a media briefing at the Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 60 kilometers south of Seoul, on Friday.

"The results of the joint investigation will also be used to enhance the effectiveness and reliability of domestic policies concerning the atmospheric environment," he added.

The joint research, tentatively set for Feb. 19-26, comes eight years after Korea led the KORUS-AQ campaign with NASA in 2016, which found that 52 percent of ultrafine particles examined in Seoul were picked up from within Korea and 48 percent from overseas, including 34 percent coming in from China.

The main differences between the KORUS-AQ and the new initiative is the time of the year the research is conducted, which changed from spring to winter, and the mobilization of the newly launched GEMS satellite, Barry Lefer of NASA said.

Jim Crawford, the lead scientist of ASIA-AQ from NASA, answers reporters' questions during a media briefing at Osan Air Base, Feb. 16. Yonhap

In 2020, Korea launched the world's first geostationary environment satellite, or GEMS, to monitor air pollutants across Asia from 36,000 kilometers above ground.

The research team will also utilize detailed ground measurements from 11 air quality research sites, including in Seoul and on the islands of Baengnyeong and Jeju, and collect aircraft sampling of the lower atmosphere using NASA's DC-8, an in-situ aircraft flying within the altitude of 2,000 feet.

"This means that from the ground we can measure what you breathe but from space we can measure the accumulation of total pollutants," said Jim Crawford from NASA leading the ASIA-AQ project.

The campaign is also designed to cross-check the measurements of the GEMS, which monitors the air quality in Asia eight times a day, as the data requires verification through comparison with ground-based observations.

"It will take time to calibrate the raw data and turn it into data that is useful for science," said Crawford, adding the interpretation and findings from the data will be open to the public the following year. (Yonhap)