Professor Siwatt Pongpiachan, PhD, from NIDA’s School of Social Development and Management Strategy participated in the Asia-AQ (Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality) project, which collects air samples over Thai airspace to better understand the sources of PM2.5 pollution and support the development of long-term solutions for Thailand. The project is also a collaboration with the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (Public Organization)(NARIT), and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research, and Innovation (MHESI).
Participating countries include South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Thailand. The data collected will be analyzed and used to create models to identify the causes and mechanisms of air quality changes. In the future, the project will also support the development of modeling systems and data collection from ground-based and satellite observations. This project, in all, represents a joint effort to utilize multi-perspective observations—from satellites, airborne platforms, and ground monitoring—to enhance the integration and interpretation of air pollution data across the region.
