From October, the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER, President Jang Yoon-seok), an affiliate organization of the Ministry of Environment, will begin to operate an international verification team with domestic and foreign researchers. This is to verify and improve the data accuracy of the geostationary orbit environmental satellite (the payload of the Cheollian Satellite 2B), which was launched on February 19.

Although the geostationary orbit environmental satellite has the advantage of being able to observe daily changes, long-distance movement, generation and dissolution of air pollutants, it can be used only when its observation data accuracy is evaluated and corrected.

For example, advanced organizations such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency (ESA) have formed and operated the international verification teams as well.

NIER has recruited the international verification team members from March this year through online notification. The final 20 teams* consisting of 8 North American teams, 7 European teams and 5 Asian teams were selected through expert reviews.

The final 20 teams include NASA and ESA with various satellite launches and operation experiences, the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory which is developing the data processing technology for the US environmental satellite and the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute as well as German Max Planck Institute which are the leading developers of European environmental satellites.

Also, the team included the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China as well as Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology as they operate the ground observation network within the geostationary environmental satellite observation area. 

Starting in October this year, the international verification team will conduct observational data verification and improvement studies every two years for 10 years, which is the mission life of the geostationary environmental satellite. The first report is planned to be submitted at the end of 2021.

Its main tasks include evaluation of the satellite data processing technology, error analysis and comparison analysis with various data (data from other satellites, ground observation data and numerical models). The results will be presented at the international conferences related to satellites.  

In addition, it is expected to contribute to the use of environmental satellites by developing an observation technology for new materials such as bromine monoxide (BrO) and nitrous acid (HONO). The team will also conduct the expansion studies for the various air pollutant usages such as ground concentration shift of the air pollutants.

* BrO: a substance that destroys the ozone layer and is used as a disinfectant or oxidizing agent / HONO: Smog-causing substances

"We will continue to conduct the international joint verification to secure the reliability of the world's first geostationary environmental satellite data, which is receiving a lot of attention and interests of the people. We will cooperate with the world's best researchers to improve the domestic technology level," said Kim Young-woo, NIER's Climate and Air Quality Department Chief.