Introduction on South Korean Meteorological Satellite Programs focusing on Geo- KOMPSAT -2A (GK- 2A) applications

Since 2010, KMA has operated and utilized the Communication, Ocean and Meteorological satellite (COMS), which is expected to be available by 2020. KMA is now preparing for a new era of the Geostationary Korea operational multi-purpose satellite (GeoKompsat-2A or GK-2A; launch scheduled in December 2018). GK-2A has a 16-channel Advanced Meteorological Imager (AMI), which is a similar sensor to Himawari-8/9 AHI and GOES-16/17 ABI. We will present the status of KMA’s meteorological satellite programs and recent improvements of the products in this talk. We will also introduce dust-monitoring applications at KMA/NMSC. In addition to the current Aerosol Index (AI) algorithm using two channels (BTD: 10.8㎛-12㎛) of the COMS, D*-parameter based on the spectral variability of dust emissivity at 8.6㎛, 11㎛ and 12㎛ wavelengths has been tested with Himawari-8 AHI toward applications on the upcoming GK-2A AMI. A study to improve false detection over the source region will be presented.