Cheollian Satellite 2B for monitoring fine dust and red tide departs to the overseas launch center for launch in February 19
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Cheollian Satellite 2B for monitoring fine dust and red tide departs to the overseas launch center for launch in February 19
◇ Departing KARI on January 5 to arrive at the Guiana Space Center around January 6
□ The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT, Minister, Choi Ki-young), Ministry of Environment (MOE, Minister, Jo Myeong-rae), and Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF, Minister, Moon Seong-hyeok) announced that they began transporting the geostationary multifunctional satellite (3.4-ton class, “Cheollian Satellite 2B”) on January 5 (Sunday).
◦Cheollian Satellite 2B will depart the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI, located in Daejeon)transported in a vibration-free, thermo-hygrostat satellite container specially manufactured by KARI. It will arrive at Incheon International Airport first, and then be shipped by air to the Guiana Space Center located in Kourou, French Guiana in South America.
□ Cheollian Satellite 2B will undergo launch preparations -- such as satellite inspection, fueling, and launch vehicle integration -- at the Guiana Space Center until the launch date; it will be launched using Arianespace’s launch vehicle (Ariane-5) at around 7:14 AM on February 19 (Wednesday) (around 19:14 on February 18, local time).
◦ It will then go through an orbital transfer process for about a month after the launch to settle in a geostationary orbit at 36,000 km altitude. After several months of initial operations, it will begin providing marine environmental data, such as red tide and green tide, beginning in October this year and atmospheric environmental data such as fine dust beginning in 2021.
□ Cheollian Satellite 2B is the twin satellite of Cheollian Satellite 2A for meteorological observations launched in December 2018. It is equipped with the world's first geostationary environment payload and a marine payload with significantly enhanced performance compared to Cheollian Satellite 1.
ㅇGEMS* is an environmental payload for continuously monitoring the generation and migration of fine dust in East Asia and the Korean Peninsula. The ultra-precision optical observation system can observe more than 20 types of air pollutants, including fine dust and fine dust-inducing materials (nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, formaldehyde, others) and climate change-inducing materials (ozone and aerosol) present in the atmosphere.
* GEMS: Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer
- Cheollian Satellite 2B is the world’s first geostationary orbit satellite dedicated to the observation of the atmospheric environment, ahead of the satellites to be launched by the United States (TEMPO, to be launched after 2022) and Europe (Sentinel-4, to be launched after 2023). Only low-orbit (700-1,000 km) satellites have been developed for the monitoring of the atmospheric environment until now due to the limitation of observation technology.
- Since the observation range of Cheollian Satellite 2B covers 13 countries* in East Asia, from Japan in the east to Northern Indonesia in the west and Southern Mongolia in the north, it will contribute to the international community by providing information on the atmospheric environment of each region.
* Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Mongolia
- Continuous monitoring of atmospheric pollutants, such as fine dust generated and migrated in East Asia and the Korean Peninsula, and analysis of the impact of flows out of the region are expected to secure the reference data in preparation for international disputes regarding the atmospheric environment.
ㅇGOCI-II* is a marine payload that can observe in real time the migration of red/green tide and oil spills in the seas around the Korean Peninsula. The cutting-edge marine observation system with greatly enhanced performance will provide 26 types of information including red tide, floating algae, sea fog, and sea ice.
* GOCI-II: Geostationary Ocean Color Imager-II
- The marine observation data provided in various formats are expected to be utilized by a wide range of fields, such as marine environment protection, fisheries resource management, marine safety, and marine defense, and will be available through the Korea Ocean Satellite Center.
□ “We are able to contribute to responding to the fine dust problem effectively by developing the world’s first geostationary fine dust observation satellite with head-start investment. We intend to continue to provide timely public services through advanced space development,” said Choi Weon-ho, Director of Space, Nuclear & Big Science Policy at MIST.