Pan-Asia Partnership for Geospatial Air Pollution Information Project and the Pandora Asia Network (PAPGAPI-PAN) Philippines Project
The Pan-Asia Partnership for Geospatial Air Pollution Information Project and the Pandora Asia Network (PAPGAPI-PAN) Philippines Project is a technology transfer, data-sharing, capacity-building, and international cooperation initiative on air pollution. The project is possible with the support of the Republic of Korea (ROK) through the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER). The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UNESCAP) and the Korea Environment Corporation (KECO) also serve as implementing partners. In the Philippines, the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) will serve as the lead executing agency for PAPGAPI-PAN.
PAPGAPI-PAN will monitor the condition of air quality in participating countries using data from the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) aboard the GEO-KOMPSAT-2B Satellite and a network of ground-based remote sensing instruments for data validation called Pandora. Pandora, a Fiducial Reference Measurement (FRM), is a compact, modestly priced sun/sky/lunar passive UV/VIS grating spectrometer. It will monitor air quality and atmospheric composition in the region where it is installed and it will also serve as a tool to monitor satellite data quality for GEMS and LEO missions. Two (2) Pandora instruments will be deployed in the Philippines and will be part of the Pandora Asia Network (PAN).
PAPGAPI-PAN will provide participating countries with the information of key data products for air quality monitoring, (i.e., O3, aerosol and their precursors - NO2, SO2, HCHO and CHOCHO) measured as column density and possibly vertical profile, and various application techniques (surface concentration conversion, top-down emission and long-range transport flux estimation, etc.). GEMS field of view includes up to 20 Asian countries from India in the west to Japan in the east, from Indonesia in the south to Mongolia in the north.
The PAPGAPI-PAN project also aligns with the PhilSA’s Inclusive SSTA Know-How Utilization, Exchange, and Localization Activities (ISKUELA) initiative through conduct of national level capacity building activities intended to integrate satellite-based and ground-based products in decision making tools for air quality management.
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The Korean government, through the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) signed a partnership agreement to strengthen national capacity to monitor the condition of air quality and improve air quality plans and policies in the Philippines on 02 August 2023. The Pan-Asia Partnership for Geospatial Air Pollution Information and the […]
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