1 00:00:00,539 --> 00:00:04,350 I had a chance to chat with Barry Lefer a few days before he left for the start of KORUS-AQ, 2 00:00:04,350 --> 00:00:09,190 and I picked his brain about why we should be studying air quality over Asia in particular. 3 00:00:09,190 --> 00:00:14,770 Hey, so Barry, tell us why we need NASA to study air pollution. 4 00:00:14,770 --> 00:00:18,180 Well, it turns out air pollution's a global problem, and the best way to see the global 5 00:00:18,180 --> 00:00:20,340 view is from space, from satellites. 6 00:00:20,340 --> 00:00:25,820 And it's amazing when the first global satellite of air--measuring air pollution from the Space 7 00:00:25,820 --> 00:00:29,320 Shuttle, all the surprises we saw that we didn't expect. 8 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:30,320 Hmm. 9 00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:31,320 So, that's really exciting. 10 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:34,450 But, measuring air pollution from space must be tough. 11 00:00:34,450 --> 00:00:37,600 I mean, you're talking about small particles and gases and things. 12 00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:38,600 How does that work? 13 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:39,600 Yeah. 14 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:42,380 So, it turns out very small amounts of air pollution can cause human health effects. 15 00:00:42,380 --> 00:00:47,170 And so, it is indeed a challenge, and part of it is is that clouds get in the way. 16 00:00:47,170 --> 00:00:52,220 And also, we're measuring the whole column of pollutants, and what we care about is what's 17 00:00:52,220 --> 00:00:53,650 really down at the surface. 18 00:00:53,650 --> 00:00:57,880 It's amazing over the last 10 years, the improvements we've made in understanding how to take that 19 00:00:57,880 --> 00:00:59,890 column and what is at the surface. 20 00:00:59,890 --> 00:01:01,750 And now KORUS-AQ is going to help us with that. 21 00:01:01,750 --> 00:01:05,250 But, you're going to use, I think, something like three different airplanes and some stuff 22 00:01:05,250 --> 00:01:06,310 on the ground. 23 00:01:06,310 --> 00:01:07,740 Tell us about how all that comes together. 24 00:01:07,740 --> 00:01:13,080 Yeah, it is indeed a lot of coordination involved, and we're working with our Korean colleagues 25 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:14,080 closely. 26 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:18,280 It turns out that we need multiple views of the problem. 27 00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:19,280 Hmm. 28 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:23,640 And so, we have the NASA DC-8 making these walls, and then we have the NASA King Air 29 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:26,400 flying high, looking down with an airborne simulator. 30 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:28,870 So, it's an exact duplicate of the satellite. 31 00:01:28,870 --> 00:01:32,119 But, since the satellite's not launched yet, we can actually see what the satellite's going 32 00:01:32,119 --> 00:01:33,119 to see--. 33 00:01:33,119 --> 00:01:34,119 --Hmm--. 34 00:01:34,119 --> 00:01:35,119 --From this higher airplane. 35 00:01:35,119 --> 00:01:36,119 Now, why Korea, right? 36 00:01:36,119 --> 00:01:37,119 The KO in KORUS is Korea. 37 00:01:37,119 --> 00:01:38,119 Why did you guys pick Korea to go with? 38 00:01:38,119 --> 00:01:40,390 Well, we could have gone anywhere in the world for this study, any megacity. 39 00:01:40,390 --> 00:01:43,710 But, the Koreans, we have a special relationship with the Koreans. 40 00:01:43,710 --> 00:01:46,960 They're building a sister satellite to the NASA TEMPO satellite--. 41 00:01:46,960 --> 00:01:47,960 --Hmm--. 42 00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:49,170 --Which is going to launch in a few years. 43 00:01:49,170 --> 00:01:53,510 And so, we want to work on how to calibrate and validate that satellite before it's even 44 00:01:53,510 --> 00:01:54,510 in space. 45 00:01:54,510 --> 00:01:55,510 Okay. 46 00:01:55,510 --> 00:01:57,340 Now, tell us, how does all this data come together in the end? 47 00:01:57,340 --> 00:01:59,780 Explain a little more about how our world works. 48 00:01:59,780 --> 00:02:05,790 We're going to spend the next two to four years after we get the data analyzing it, 49 00:02:05,790 --> 00:02:09,469 modeling it, and writing scientific papers and presenting them at conferences.