Mongolia
Presenter: Lkhagvadorj Nanzad who is a Chief
EngineeratRemoteSensing

Division,

been generating a National Land cover map

every 5 years and the map can be a goodofreference for the Environmental change(IRIMHE). He is now responsible for managing

desertification process also, land management.

InformationandResearchInstituteMeteorology, Hydrology and Environment
the day-to-day operations of receiving realtime satellite data and leading all engineering

activities to the methodology of value-addedproducts.

monitoring even due land degradation andMeanwhile, we detect forest and steppe firesand inform the locations to the National

Emergency Management Agency and theywork on-site to distinguish the wildfires.

Introduction: IRIMHE is a research instituteHighlights:andmonitoring, Mongolia was nominated as theunder the National Agency of Meteorological
EnvironmentalMonitoringandtheMinistry of Environment and Climate Change.

IRIMHE has been serving real-time andpredicted information on weather, climate,water, and environment as operationallybased on scientific research outputs since 1966.
IRIMHE acts as the National Remote Sensing

Center and is responsible for ensuring reliableand prompt operation of ground stations forreceiving data from satellites, and processing
and delivering data to users.

What we do in the field of Remote Sensing: It’s
been over 50 years since remote sensing

applications have been used for natural

resource and environmental management,

monitoring, and support to reduce damage

caused by natural disasters. We operate thesatellite data storage system for MODIS,NOAA, SUOMI NPP, HIMAWARI-8, and FY

series satellites. We also publish (www.icc.mn)

and share value-added information such as

NDVI, NDVI anomaly, Snow Coverage, Land

Surface Temperature, and Dust monitoring

extracted from satellite data. Plus, we have

1. To help address the challenges of droughtpilot country for ESCAP’s Regional Drought
Mechanism in 2013. We developed several

drought indices with the support of theAerospace Information Research Institute(AIR) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Since that IRIMHE has been fully operating thesystem on our own, monitoring drought
and servicing the users. Accordingly, theDrought

watchsystem

successfullytransformed from a pilot project into an
established service and has successfully
extended to other countries.

2. We run a dzud monitoring system which

includes the dzud risk mapping and the dzud

assessment mapping is critical to tailor early
action and response efforts in a timely andeffective manner. IRIMHE releases the Dzud

risk map for the entire country at each earlystage of winter.
worsened,Once the Dzud situation

IRIMHE

produceaDzudassessment map reflecting the current Dzud

status in the country. Dzud risk maps aredeveloped using 11 different parameters basedon remote sensing data collected from

Imaging

need to log in to be able to export a map using

snow cover mapping and drought mapping,export a map of the current view showing theModerate

Resolution

Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors, such as
and on-ground observation data, includingsummer conditions, anomalous precipitation,and temperature, snow depth, air temperature

forecast, and precipitation forecast. The
weight of each parameter is determinedthrough multi-criteria decision analysis andInternet web services. This tool allows users tocurrent information. The map can be printed
or saved as a PDF or GeoTIFF. Otherwise, users

can use Jupyter Hub to access the data directlyfrom the Data Cube, kind of using Python
scripts.

4. Mongolia plans to increase air quality

weighted layers are overlaid in a geographic

management using data from GEMS which

Government Decree No. 286, the dzud

its field of view. Two Pandora instruments wereinformationsystem(GIS).

Followingassessment map is based on snow depth anddensity, air temperature data, and previous
summer conditions. The assessment reveals

that all the soums categorized as the Near
white dzud, White dzud, Black dzud, and Iron

or Ice dzud situation. This shift from a dzudrisk map to a dzud assessment map highlightsthat dzud is no longer a risk but is happening

only covers the southern part of the country ininstalled in Mongolia – Pandora 216 in
Ulaanbaatar

Dalanzadgad

CityandtoPandora

validatethe217inscientificproducts of GEMS. Accordingly, the GEMS
data were conducted by comparison with dataobtainedfrom

ground-based

Pandorameasurements at two sites in the country.

at the time.

Perspective for using space technology and its

October 2020 at the IRIMHE with support fromIn 2022, the government of Mongolia

it possible to access the most up-to-datedeveloping Space technology in Mongolia.

conditions, levels of snow, temperatures, andincluded the following activities:

average conditions, covering the whole ofapplication

stores all products indexed with the Data Cube

Objective 2: Develop a National Remote

3. The Mongolian Data Cube was installed inapplication:

the UK Space Agency. This technology makes

approved the direction of documentation insatellite imagery showing the current pasture

The new strategy of Space technology

drought, and compare these with long-term

Objective 1: Using space technology and its

Mongolia at 10 to 1000-meter resolution. It

Development

and is currently able to store up to 186 TB ofSensing Data Center.

toSocialandEconomic

data. An important feature of the Mongolian

Data Cube is its Visualization Website, whichallows anyone to access satellite-derived
information, regardless of whether they know

anything about satellites. To do that, users

For more information:

lhagvadorj@irimhe.namem.gov.mn