The Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) instrument, jointly developed by Ball Aerospace and Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) under the leadership of Ball Aerospace, launched successfully on Feb. 18, 2020. GEMS was integrated onto KARI's GEO-KOMPSAT-2B satellite.

Once operational in space, GEMS will be the first air quality sensor in geostationary orbit where it will help monitor pollution events in the Korean peninsula and Asia-Pacific region.

"GEMS is a result of more than 30 years of innovation in advanced spectrometers at Ball Aerospace," said Dr. Makenzie Lystrup, president and general manager, Civil Space, Ball Aerospace. "Data from GEMS will enable KARI's mission to assess and forecast air pollution by identifying sources and distribution of pollutants in the atmosphere."

Ball Aerospace led GEMS development under a contract with KARI for the National Institute of Environmental Research in the Ministry of Environment of South Korea. GEMS will make hourly measurements of key constituents that make up air pollution, including ozone and nitrogen dioxide, which will improve early warnings for potentially dangerous pollution events.

GEMS is one part of a global air quality monitoring constellation of geostationary satellites that will include NASA's Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) spectrometer. Ball completed TEMPO in September 2018 for NASA Langley Research Center and Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. TEMPO is scheduled to launch in 2022.

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