Abstract
Visibility is a good indicator of comprehensive alto quality. The prevailing visibility in Seoul is no better than the past although the average concentration of SO2 and TSP (total suspended particulate) has decreased quite significantly in the past decade, owing to the government efforts to reduce the emission. Then, a question arises why visibility has not been improved. In order to answer this question we have investigated which components of air pollutants are most responsible for the visibility degradation in Seoul. Analysis on the visibility vs the aerosol sixte distribution measured by an optical particle counter shows that the particles of the size interval between 0.5mm and 2.5mm are most responsible for the visibility degradation. Among the criteria air Pollutants, NOB concentration is found to be moot responsible, rather than PM10. ton analysis of the particulate collected by a high volume sampler shows that the nitrate component increases more significantly than other ions when visibility becomes very poor. Therefore, we conclude that the major causes of visibility degradation in Seoul are the increase of NOB, nitrates and the particles of the size range between 0.5mm and 2.5mm.
