Abstract
The objective of the study was to investigate the main factors that contribute the variation of $PM_{10}$ concentration of Seoul and to quantify their effects using generalized additive model (GAM). The analysis was performed with 3 year air pollution data (2004~2006) measured at 27 urban sites and 7 roadside sites in Seoul, a background site in Gangwha and a rural site in Pocheon. The diurnal variation of urban $PM_{10}$ concentrations of Seoul showed a typical bimodal pattern with the same peak times as that of roadside, and the maximum difference of $PM_{10}$ level between urban and roadside was about $14{\mu}g/m^{3}$ at 10 in the morning. The wind direction was found to be a major factor that affects $PM_{10}$ level in all investigated areas. The overall $PM_{10}$ level was reduced when air came from east, but background $PM_{10}$ level in Gangwha was rather higher than the urban $PM_{10}$ level in Seoul, indicating that the $PM_{10}$ level in Gangwha is considerably influenced by that in Seoul metropolitan area. When hourly variations of $PM_{10}$ were analyzed using GAM, wind direction and speed explained about 34% of the variance in the model where the variables were added as a 2-dimensional smoothing function. In addition, other variables, such as diurnal variation, difference of concentrations between roadside and urban area, precipitation, month, and the regression slope of a plot of carbon monooxide versus $PM_{10}$, were found to be major explanatory variables, explaining about 64% of total variance of hourly variations of $PM_{10}$ in Seoul.