Abstract
In this study, we estimate the background concentration of black carbon (BC) mass concentration measured at Gosan Climate Observatory from January 2008 to December 2011 by applying six methods: (1) Mean and Median (2) Trimmed mean method deployed in Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network program (hereafter, IMPROVE method), (3) Concentration-frequency distribution analysis method, (4) Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) method (hereafter, AGAGE method), (5) Kaufman et al. (2001) method (hereafter, Kaufman method), and (6) Airmass sector analysis. The background concentration of BC mass concentrations is estimated to be about 400~900 ng $m^{-3}$, but each method shows a large difference. The estimated background concentration, in general, is arranged in the order of: mean > IMPROVE method > median > Kaufman method > concentration-frequency distribution analysis method > AGAGE method. The background concentration estimated by the airmass sector analysis is found to be about 550 ng $m^{-3}$ which is lower than those estimated by other methods. When we apply the same analytical period (i.e., 4-day and 6-day) to both AGAGE and Kaufman methods, the estimated background concentrations are quite similar. However, further researches on the development of statistical method for estimating background concentration for various gas-phase and particulate pollutants under different environment are needed.
