Weather satellite monitoring fine dust scheduled for launch in 2019
  • 5 years ago
South Korea is set to launch another geostationary weather satellite to track pollutants like the fine dust that's been suffocating Korea to find out where the dust is coming from.
Our Choi Si-young tells us more.

This satellite, called the Chollian-2B, will be the twin of the Chollian-2A, launched a month ago.
Both of them are geostationary satellites, orbiting directly above the equator, aligned with the Earth's rotation.

The 2A is used to predict sudden weather changes, like tracking the eye of a typhoon. But the Chollian-2B monitors pollutants in the atmosphere.
It will be able to determine the trajectory of fine dust, which has been affecting the country severely in recent weeks.

The new satellite will also monitor, in real time, chemical substances in the air above the Korean Peninsula... and keep track of temperature changes on the surface of the adjacent seas.

Its cameras can produce images with 4 times the resolution of Korea's first weather satellite launched almost a decade ago.
The Chollian 2B will be fully assembled by the end of March and launched within this year, and Korea hopes it will help discover new solutions to the worsening fine dust.

Choi Si-young, Arirang News.
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