Research Areas

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Remote Sensing of Air Quality from Space
Analyzing the satellite data is useful to obtain information about aerosol when there are no ground-based measurement instruments. In our laboratory, we develop the retrieval algorithms for aerosol optical properties (aerosol optical depth (AOD), aerosol index(AI) and so on) and the column amounts of trace gases (SO2, NO2, and CO2). By doing that, we also distinguish the type of aerosols and validate the results obtained from ground-based measurement data. In particular, COMS project, which we have participated, is very valuable because it is the geostationary satellite. Now we are working for another geostationary satellite GEMS, and this project will be valuable to monitoring the air quality of northeast Asia.
Development of Retrieval Algorithm for Aerosols and Pollutant Gases
Air pollution is increasingly understood to be a global issue, requiring an understanding of pollution sources, transport, and transformation from local to regional to global scales. Remote sensing is a powerful tool to measure properties of atmospheric composition over wider area. These target species include aerosols, particulate matter, air pollutants, ozone, greenhouse gases and so on. These species absorb, scatter, and transmit solar and terrestrial radiation to reveal their own signals in the radiance spectrum measured. Signals in different spectral window provides their concentrations, and many other properties. Inverse methods to retrieve concentrations and properties of aerosols and trace gases require radiative transfer, spectroscopy, and inversion theories. Retrieved results are validated against independent measurements from ground-based, airborne, and other satellite platforms.
Monitoring Ozone Layer and Trend Analysis
The first observation of ozone layer in Korea was started with a Dobson spectrophotometer in 1984 at this Atmospheric Radiation Laboratory (ARL) at Yonsei University. ARL has continued to observe ozone layer with Dobson (1984-present), Brewer spectrometer (1997-present), and PANDORA. This station, called Wolbong Ozone Observatory belong to Global Ozone Observation System(GO3OS) of World Meteorological Organization (WMO), with its Station No. 252. Daily status of total ozone amount, vertical profiles, and their long term trends have been analyzed. Ultraviolet radiation is also measured for erythemal UV, and also with other action spectrum.

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