• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.283-292
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• 2017

In this study, the empirical models were established to estimate the concentrations of surface-level $PM_{2.5}$ over Seoul, Korea from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2013. We used six different multiple linear regression models with aerosol optical thickness (AOT), ${\AA}ngstr{\ddot{o}}m$ exponents (AE) data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard Terra and Aqua satellites, meteorological data, and planetary boundary layer depth (PBLD) data. The results showed that $M_6$ was the best empirical model and AOT, AE, relative humidity (RH), wind speed, wind direction, PBLD, and air temperature data were used as input data. Statistical analysis showed that the result between the observed $PM_{2.5}$ and the estimated $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations using $M_6$ model were correlations (R=0.62) and root square mean error ($RMSE=10.70{\mu}gm^{-3}$). In addition, our study show that the relation strongly depends on the seasons due to seasonal observation characteristics of AOT, with a relatively better correlation in spring (R=0.66) and autumntime (R=0.75) than summer and wintertime (R was about 0.38 and 0.56). These results were due to cloud contamination of summertime and the influence of snow/ice surface of wintertime, compared with those of other seasons. Therefore, the empirical multiple linear regression model used in this study showed that the AOT data retrieved from the satellite was important a dominant variable and we will need to use additional weather variables to improve the results of $PM_{2.5}$. Also, the result calculated for $PM_{2.5}$ using empirical multi linear regression model will be useful as a method to enable monitoring of atmospheric environment from satellite and ground meteorological data.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.283-302
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• 2022

Despite the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in China since January 23, 2020, haze days with high PM₁₀ levels of 88-98 ㎍ m^-3 occurred on February 1 and 2, 2020. During these haze days, the East Asian region was affected by a warm and stagnant air mass with positive air temperature anomalies and negative zonal wind anomalies at 850 hPa. The Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) was used to analyze the variation of regional PM₁₀ aerosol transport in Korea due to decreased anthropogenic emissions in East Asia. The base experiment (BASE), which applies the basic anthropogenic emissions in the WRF-Chem model, and the control experiment (CTL) applied by reducing the anthropogenic emission to 50%, were used to assess uncertainty with ground-based PM₁₀ measurements in Korea. The index of agreement (IOA) for the CTL simulation was 0.71, which was higher than that of BASE (0.67). A statistical analysis of the results suggests that anthropogenic emissions were reduced during the COVID-19 lockdown period in China. Furthermore, BASE and CTL applied to zero-out anthropogenic emissions outside Korea (BASE_ZEOK and CTL_ZEOK) were used to analyze the variations of regional PM₁₀ aerosol transport in Korea. Regional PM₁₀ transport in CTL was reduced by only 10-20% compared to BASE. Synthetic weather variables may be another reason for the non-linear response to changes in the contribution of regional transport to PM₁₀ in Korea with the reduction of anthropogenic emissions in East Asia. Although the regional transport contribution of other inorganic aerosols was high in CTL (80-90%), sulfate-nitrate-ammonium (SNA) aerosols showed lower contributions of 0-20%, 30-60%, and 30-60%, respectively. The SNA secondary aerosols, particularly nitrates, presumably declined as the Chinese lockdown induced traffic.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.320-328
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• 2016

Among biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) in the natural ecosystem, monoterpenes, along with isoprene, play important roles in atmospheric chemistry and make significant impacts on air pollution and climate change, especially due to their contribution to secondary organic aerosol production and photochemical ozone formation. It is essential to measure monoterpene concentrations accurately for understanding their oxidation processes, emission processes and estimation, and interactions between biosphere and atmosphere. Thus, traceable calibration standards are crucial for the accurate measurement of monoterpenes at ambient levels. However, there are limited information about developing calibrations standards for monoterpenes in pressured cylinders. This study describes about developing primary standard gas mixtures (PSMs) for monoterpenes at about 2 nmol/mol, near ambient levels. The micro-gravimetric method was applied to prepare monoterpene (${\alpha}$-pinene, 3-carene, R-(+)-limonene, 1,8-cineole) PSMs at $10{\mu}mol/mol$ and then the PSMs were further diluted to 2 nmol/mol level. To select an optimal cylinder for the development of monoterpene PSMs, three different kinds of cylinders were used for the preparation and were evaluated for uncertainty sources including long-term stability. Results showed that aluminum cylinders with a special internal surface treatment (Experis) had little adsorption loss on the cylinder internal surface and good long-term stability compared to two other cylinder types with no treatment and a special treatment (Aculife). Results from uncertainty estimation suggested that monoterpene PSMs can be prepared in pressured cylinders with a special treatment (Experis) at 2 nmol/mol level with an uncertainty of less than 4%.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.411-423
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• 2017

The spacial potential source contribution function (PSCF) method was utilized by considering topography and height of back trajectories based on the measurement of organic typo matter (OM), $NO_3{^-}$, $SO{_4}^{2-}$, and $NH_4{^+}$ at the Baegryungdo Super Site ($37^{\circ}57^{\prime}N$, $124^{\circ}37^{\prime}E$, 135 m a.s.l. (above sea level)) for three selected periods (i.e., January~April, May~August, and September~December) in 2013. The PSCF were calculated on the contributions of trans-boundary transport to the hourly mean concentrations using a high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS). The cluster analysis using back trajectories was performed to identify the major airflows to the sampling site. The upper atmosphere in the Tianjin area of China and the lower atmosphere in the western coast area of Korea can be the major source of trans-boundary pollution to the sampling site during January~April resulted from PSCF. The area in Lianyungang-city and Liaoning-sheng, China can be responsibile for the nitrogen related secondary compounds during May~August, and Shandong Peninsula in China is the major source area during September~December. In addition, relationships between the cluster analysis of back trajectories and PSCF were investigated for the statistically significance level for the source areas.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.439-458
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• 2005

An automated analysis system for water soluble constituents in $PM_{2.5}$ has been developed. The system consists of a high capacity multi tube diffusion scrubber (MTDS), a low temperature particle impactor (LTPI), and two ion (anion and cation) chromatography (IC) systems. Atmospheric particles have been collected by passing sample air through a thermostated MTDS followed by a LTPI. This system allows simultaneous measurements of soluble ions in $PM_{2.5}$ at 30 minutes interval. At the air sampling flow rate of 1.0L/min, the detection limits of the overall system are in the order of tens of $ng/m^3$. This system has been successfully used for the measurement of particulate components of Seoul air from April 2003 to January 2004. $SO_4^{2-},\;NO_3^-,\;NH_4^+,\;NO_2^-,\;Cl^-,\;Na^+,\;K^+,\;Ca^{2+},\;and\;Mg^{2+}$ are the major ionic species for $PM_{2.5}$ at Seoul. Among them, $SO_4^{2-},\;NO_3^-\;and\;NH_4^+$ are the most abundant ions, contributed up to $86\%$ of the total and the concentrations were higher than those in any other urban sites in the world except for Chinese cities. There are high pollutant episodes which contribute about $15\~20\%$ of annual average values of the major ions. During the episode, the all parcels were transported from the asian continent and $PM_{2.5}$ were significantly neutralized. This suggests that aged and long range transported pollutants caused the high pollutant episodes. They showed a distinct daily and seasonal variations:they showed a peak in the early morning caused by the night-time accumulation of particulate matters. Atmospheric reactions including gas-to-particle reactions and inter-particle reactions and meteorological parameters including relative humidity and ambient temperature were described with related to the $PM_{2.5}$ 5 concentrations. All of the ionic species showed higher concentrations during the spring than those for summer and winter.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.734-743
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• 2009

In order to examine how climatological condition can influence on urban scale particulate air pollutants, single and cross spectrum analysis have been performed to daily mean concentrations of particulate matters ($PM_{10}$) in Busan together with the climatological variables over the Asian dust source regions. Single power spectrum analysis of $PM_{10}$ concentrations in Busan shows that, aside from the typical and well-known periodicities, 3-4 year of peak periodicity of power spectrum density was identified. In cross spectrum analysis, this 3-4 year periodicity is found to have a strong positive correlation with the wind speed and pressure, and negative with the temperature and relative humidity, which is rather consistent with both characteristics of air mass during the Asian dust event whose periodicities have been recorded inter-annually over the Korean urban cities. Over the Asian dust source regions, $PM_{10}$ vs. precipitation shows no significant periodicity from the time series of precipitation data, but the periodicity of EDI (Effective Drought Index) shows some interannual variabilities ranging from 2 to 4 years over the various source regions, suggesting that, rather than precipitation itself, the EDI could be more closely associated with the occurrence frequency of Asian dust and interannual variability of urban particle concentrations in Korean cities.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.129-140
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• 2017

Global solar radiation was calculated in this research using ground-base measurement data, meteorological satellite data, and GWNU (Gangneung-Wonju National University) solar radiation model. We also analyzed the accuracy of the GWNU model by comparing the observed solar radiation according to the total cloud cover. Our research was based on the global solar radiation of the GWNU radiation site in 2012, observation data such as temperature and pressure, humidity, aerosol, total ozone amount data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) sensor, and Skyview data used for evaluation of cloud mask and total cloud cover. On a clear day when the total cloud cover was 0 tenth, the calculated global solar radiations using the GWNU model had a high correlation coefficient of 0.98 compared with the observed solar radiation, but root mean square error (RMSE) was relatively high, i.e., $36.62Wm^{-2}$. The Skyview equipment was unable to determine the meteorological condition such as thin clouds, mist, and haze. On a cloudy day, regression equations were used for the radiation model to correct the effect of clouds. The correlation coefficient was 0.92, but the RMSE was high, i.e., $99.50Wm^{-2}$. For more accurate analysis, additional analysis of various elements including shielding of the direct radiation component and cloud optical thickness is required. The results of this study can be useful in the area where the global solar radiation is not observed by calculating the global solar radiation per minute or time.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.386-404
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• 2022

From April 29 to 30, 2011, under the influence of Asian dust originated from Mongolia, a high concentration of Asian dust was observed nationwide for 4 days in Korea. This study investigated the causes and characteristics of and weather conditions associated with Asian dust at high concentrations at its source in Mongolia. For analysis, Asian dust weather data, Asian dust monitoring tower data, satellite data, backward trajectory data, observation data (PM₁₀ and OPC data), and ECMWF reanalysis data were used. In the synoptic analysis, it was observed that the intervals of isobars were densely distributed in the central region of Mongolia and the pressure gradient force was strong. It could be inferenced that Asian dust occurred due to strong winds. The temperature was relatively high, above 10℃, just before the occurrence of Asian dust, and it decreased sharply at the onset of the dust. The relative humidity had a low value of less than approximately 40%. After the occurrence of Asian dust, it increased sharply to over 50% and then showed a tendency to decrease. In the aerosol index shown by the COMS satellite, a high concentration value of over 25 was detected in Inner Mongolia, and it was consistent with the observations made with naked eyes. In the 72-hour backward trajectory, the northwest airflow streamed into Korea, and on May 2, Heuksando showed the highest PM₁₀ concentration of 1,025 ㎍ m^-3(times the average). Especially, in kinematic vertical analysis, it was observed that low pressure on the ground was strengthened by cyclonic relative vorticity developed in the upper layer. Also, the vertical velocity development is considered to have played a major role in the occurrence of high concentration Asian dust.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.899-914
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• 2023

Various seeding materials for cloud seeding are being used, and sodium chloride powder is one of them, which is commonly used. This study analyzed the experimental results of multi-aircraft cloud seeding in connection with Republic of Korea Air Force (CN235) and KMA/NIMS(Korea Meteorological Administration/National Institute of Meteorological Sciences) Atmospheric Research Aircraft. Powdered sodium chloride was used in CN235 for the first time in South Korea. The analysis of the cloud particle size distributions and radar reflectivity before and after cloud seeding showed that the growth efficiency of powdery seeding material in the cloud is slightly higher than that of hygroscopic flare composition in the distribution of number concentrations by cloud aerosol particle diameter (10 ~ 1000 ㎛). Considering the radar reflectivity, precipitation, and numerical model simulation, the enhanced precipitation due to cloud seeding was calculated to be a maximum of 3.7 mm for 6 hours. The simulated seeding effect area was about 3,695 km², which corresponds to 13,634,550 tons of water. In the precipitation component analysis, as a direct verification method, the ion equivalent concentrations (Na⁺, Cl^-, Ca²⁺) of the seeding material at the Bukgangneung site were found to be about 1000 times higher than those of other non-affected areas between about 1 and 2 hours after seeding. This study suggests the possibility of continuous multi-aircraft cloud seeding experiments to accumulate and increase the amount of precipitation enhancement.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.276-293
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• 2011

In this study a modeling system consisting of Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF), Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE), the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, and the CMAQ-Model of Aerosol Dynamics, Reaction, Ionization, and Dissolution (MADRID) model has been applied to estimate enhancements of $PM_{10}$ during Asian dust events in Korea. In particular, 5 experimental formulas were applied to the WRF-SMOKE-CMAQ (MADRID) model to estimate Asian dust emissions from source locations for major Asian dust events in China and Mongolia: the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) model, the Goddard Global Ozone Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport (GOCART) model, and the Dust Entrainment and Deposition (DEAD) model, as well as formulas by Park and In (2003), and Wang et al. (2000). According to the weather map, backward trajectory and satellite image analyses, Asian dust is generated by a strong downwind associated with the upper trough from a stagnation wave due to development of the upper jet stream, and transport of Asian dust to Korea shows up behind a surface front related to the cut-off low (known as comma type cloud) in satellite images. In the WRF-SMOKE-CMAQ modeling to estimate the PM10 concentration, Wang et al.'s experimental formula was depicted well in the temporal and spatial distribution of Asian dusts, and the GOCART model was low in mean bias errors and root mean square errors. Also, in the vertical profile analysis of Asian dusts using Wang et al's experimental formula, strong Asian dust with a concentration of more than $800\;{\mu}g/m^3$ for the period of March 31 to April 1, 2007 was transported under the boundary layer (about 1 km high), and weak Asian dust with a concentration of less than $400\;{\mu}g/m^3$ for the period of 16-17 March 2009 was transported above the boundary layer (about 1-3 km high). Furthermore, the difference between the CMAQ model and the CMAQ-MADRID model for the period of March 31 to April 1, 2007, in terms of PM10 concentration, was seen to be large in the East Asia area: the CMAQ-MADRID model showed the concentration to be about $25\;{\mu}g/m^3$ higher than the CMAQ model. In addition, the $PM_{10}$ concentration removed by the cloud liquid phase mechanism within the CMAQ-MADRID model was shown in the maximum $15\;{\mu}g/m^3$ in the Eastern Asia area.