THE University of San Carlos is one of four institutions in the Philippines to receive a Pandora instrument, provided by the Republic of Korea in collaboration with the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA).

USC accepted the instrument during a turnover ceremony held earlier this month at the Manila Observatory in Ateneo de Manila University.

“The Pandora instrument measures air quality, particularly monitoring concentrations of gaseous pollutants like nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, and will serve as a ground-based station to verify data from an environment monitoring spectrometer aboard the Korean GEO-KOMPSAT-2B satellite,” USC explained.

In addition to USC, Pandora instruments were also distributed to the Manila Observatory in Quezon City, Mariano Marcos State University in Batac, Ilocos Norte, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Puerto Princesa, Palawan.

These locations were strategically chosen to contribute valuable data to the Pan-Asia Partnership for Geospatial Air Pollution Information Project and the Pandora Asia Network Philippines Project.

The turnover ceremony was attended by His Excellency Lee Sang-hwa, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the Philippines, and Kim Eunsub, Korea International Cooperation Agency Country Director. They handed the instruments to PhilSA Director General Joel Joseph S. Marciano Jr. and Deputy Director General Gay Jane P. Perez, who then passed them to representatives of the four institutions.

USC was represented by Dr. Patrick John Lim and Dr. Raymond Lee Antonio C. Sarmiento, who accepted the instrument on behalf of the university.