Abstract
In order to examine the effects of micrometeorological and climatological influences on urban scale particulate air pollutants observed in Busan, power spectrum analysis was applied to the observed particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ${\le}10{\mu}m$ ($PM_{10}$) for the period from 1991 to 2006. Power spectrum analysis has been employed to the daily mean $PM_{10}$ concentrations obtained at 13 sites to identify different scales of periodicities of $PM_{10}$ concentrations. The results show that, aside from the typical and well-known periodicities such as diurnal and annual variations caused by anthropogenic emission influences, another two significant peaks of power spectrum density were identified: 21 day and $3{\sim}4$ year of periodicities. Cospectrum analysis indicates that the intraseasonal 21 day periodicity are found to be negatively correlated with wind speed and surface pressure but shows consistently positive with relative humidity and temperature. This result implied that 21 day periodicity is presumably relevant to the secondary aerosol formation processes through the photochemical reaction that can be subsequently resulted from hygroscopic characteristics of aerosol formation. However, the interannual $3{\sim}4$ year of periodicity is found to have positive correlation with pressure, and negative with temperature and relative humidity, which is rather consistent with both characteristics of air mass during the Asian dust event and the occurrence frequency of Asian dust whose periodicities have been recorded inter-annually over the Korean peninsula.
