• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.305-316
• /
• 2002

Various air pollutants were measured at Tokchok Island in the Yellow Sea that is about 50 km distant from Incheon since April 1999. This study was undertaken to help understanding the level of air pollution and its distribution characteristics over the Yellow Sea. The geographical characteristics of the air pollution monitoring station and emission inventories of Tokchok Island are introduced. The mass concentrations and chemical compositions of TSP and P $M_{2.5}$ measured until March 2000 are discussed in this paper. The overall average mass concentrations are about 37.2 $\mu\textrm{g}$/㎥ for TSP and 18.7 $\mu\textrm{g}$/㎥ for P $M_{2.5}$ , respectively, which are similar to or a little lower than the values observed in other background sites at Kangwha and Taean. However, they are much lower than those observed at Qingdao in China. The low mass concentration and major anthropogenic ion concentrations in aerosols collected at Tokchok Island show that local sources are not dominant at Tokchok Island. The estimated average fractions of anthropogenic non-sea-salt sulfate to the total sulfate concentration of TSP and P $M_{2.5}$ are greater than 80% for both sizes. It hence suggests that the sulfate be mainly affected by anthropogenic sources. If we consider the average mass ratio of P $M_{2.5}$ to TSP, the mass fractions of anthropogenic species to P $M_{2.5}$ , and the molar ratio of nss S $O_4$$^{2-}$ to total N $O_{3-}$, it may be possible to infer that a part of anthropogenic species measured at Tokchok Island be transported from China. The characteristics of neutralization of nss S $O_4$$^{2-}$ and the particle size of major ions are also discussed.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.329-335
• /
• 2010

We investigate the sources of the variation of the high-latitude thermospheric neutral mass density depending on the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions. For this purpose, we have carried out the National Center for Atmospheric Research Thermosphere-Ionosphere Electrodynamics General Circulation Model (NCAR-TIEGCM) simulations for various IMF conditions under summer condition in the southern hemisphere. The NCAR-TIEGCM is combined with a new empirical model that provides a forcing to the thermosphere in high latitudes. The difference of the high-latitude thermospheric neutral mass density (subtraction of the values for zero IMF condition from the values for non-zero IMF conditions) shows a dependence on the IMF condition: For negative $B_y$ condition, there are significantly enhanced difference densities in the dusk sector and around midnight. Under the positive-$B_y$ condition, there is a decrease in the early morning hours including the dawn side poleward of $-70^{\circ}$. For negative $B_z$, the difference of the thermospheric densities shows a strong enhancement in the cusp region and around midnight, but decreases in the dawn sector. In the dusk sector, those values are relatively larger than those in the dawn sector. The density difference under positive-$B_z$ condition shows decreases generally. The density difference is more significant under negative-$B_z$ condition than under positive-$B_z$ condition. The dependence of the density difference on the IMF conditions in high latitudes, especially, in the dawn and dusk sectors can be explained by the effect of thermospheric winds that are associated with the ionospheric convection and vary following the direction of the IMF. In auroral and cusp regions, heating of thermosphere by ionospheric currents and/or auroral particle precipitation can be also the source of the dependence of the density difference on the IMF conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
• /
• 2003.11a
• /
• pp.19-26
• /
• 2003

The dispersion of recycled particulates in the complex coastal terrain containing Kangnung city, Korea was investigated using a three-dimensional non-hydrostatic numerical model and lagrangian particle model (or random walk model). The results show that particulates at the surface of the city that float to the top of thermal internal boundary layer (TIBL) are then transported along the eastern slope of the mountains with the passage of sea breeze and nearly reach the top of the mountains. Those particulates then disperse eastward at this upper level over the coastal sea and finally spread out over the open sea. Total suspended particulate (TSP) concentration near the surface of Kangnung city is very low. At night, synoptic scale westerly winds intensify due to the combined effect of the synoptic scale wind and land breeze descending the eastern slope of the mountains toward the coast and further seaward. This increase in speed causes development of internal gravity waves and a hydraulic jump up to a height of about 1km above the surface over the city. Particulate matter near the top of the mountains also descends the eastern slope of the mountains during the day, reaching the central city area and merges near the surface inside the nocturnal surface inversion layer (NSIL) with a maximum ground level concentration of TSP occurring at 0300 LST. Some particulates were dispersed following the propagation area of internal gravity waves and others in the NSIL are transported eastward to the coastal sea surface, aided by the land breeze. The following morning, particulates dispersed over the coastal sea from the previous night, tend to return to the coastal city of Kangnung with the sea breeze, developing a recycling process and combine with emitted surface particulates during the morning. These processes result in much higher TSP concentration. In the late morning, those particulates float to the top of the TIBL by the intrusion of the sea breeze and the ground level TSP concentration in the city subsequently decreases.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.325-338
• /
• 2009

National parks provide recreation, health, and science to human being. The provision of beautiful landscape view of the national park improves an economic and social phase of a nation. However, visibility impairment frequently occurred in the national park area of Gyeongju. The purpose of this study is to investigate the physical and the chemical characteristics of visibility reduction observed at the national park area of Gyeongju. Optical, chemical, meteorological characteristics and scenic monitoring were performed at the visibility monitoring station of Gyeongju University located at the Seoak section of Gyeongju national park from April 28 to May 9, 2008. Light extinction, light scattering, and light absorption coefficients were continuously measured using a transmissometer, a nephelometer, and an aethalometer, respectively. In order to investigate the impact of aerosol chemistry on visibility impairment, size-resolved aerosols were collected at intervals of 2-hour (from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M.) and 14-hour (from 6 P.M. to 8 A.M.) interval each sampling day. The average light extinction coefficient and the average visual range were measured to be $270{\pm}135\;Mm^{-1}$ and $14.5{\pm}6.3\;km$ during the intensive monitoring period, respectively. It was revealed that sulfate particle was the largest contributor to the light extinction under hazy condition. Organic mass accounted for about 26% of the average light extinction. The mass extinction efficiencies for $PM_{1.0}$, $PM_{2.5}$, and $PM_{10}$ were estimated to be 9.0, 4.7, and $2.7\;m^2\;g^{-1}$ under the consideration of water growth function of hygroscopic aerosols, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.613-621
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this study is to understand the impact that temperature and relative humidity have on the volatilization loss of particulate nitrate $(NO_3^-)$ from Teflon filters during measurements of ambient fine particles $(PM_{2.5})$. Fine particles $(d_p<2.5{\mu}m)$ were measured using an annular denuder system (ADS) at four representive areas in Seoul. The measurements were made during 28 different days at 24-hr sampling intervals from February 14 to October 15, 1997. In this study, nitrate losses. calculated by the ratio of nitrate on the nylon filter to their sum in both Teflon and nylon titters, varied seasonally in the following order: summer (45.5%) > spring (23.8%) > fall (20.6%) > winter (19.7%). The results showed strong correlations with temperature, but we did not observe any significant effects of relative humidity. However, we observed that both temperature and relative humidity influenced the ambient gas/particle nitrate ratio in a different case study using a denuder.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.304-313
• /
• 2012

In this study, the ${\AA}$ngstrom exponent for polydispersed aerosol during dynamic processes was investigated. Log-normal aerosol size distribution was assumed, and a sensitivity analysis of the ${\AA}$ngstrom exponent with regards the coagulation and condensation process was performed. The ${\AA}$ngstrom exponent is expected to decrease because of the particle growth due to coagulation and condensation. However, it is difficult to quantify the degree of change. In order to understand quantitatively the change in the ${\AA}$ngstrom exponent during coagulation and condensation, different real and imaginary parts of the refractive index were considered. The results show that the ${\AA}$ngstrom exponent is sensitive to changes in size distribution and refractive index. The total number concentration decreases and the geometric mean diameter of aerosols increase during coagulation. On the while, the geometric standard deviation approaches monodispersed size distribution during the condensation process, and this change in size distribution affects the ${\AA}$ngstrom exponent. The degree of change in the ${\AA}$ngstrom exponent depends on the refractive index and initial size distribution, and the size parameter changes with the ${\AA}$ngstrom exponent for a given refractive index or chemical composition; this indicates that the size distribution plays an important role in determining the ${\AA}$ngstrom exponent as well as the chemical composition. Subsequently, this study shows how the ${\AA}$ngstrom exponent changes quantitatively during the aerosol dynamics processes for a log-normal aerosol size distribution for different refractive indices; the results showed good agreement with the results for simple analytic size distribution solutions.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.343-355
• /
• 2005

Cloud/fog water was collected at Daegwallyeong, a typical clean environmental area, by using an active fog sampler during the foggy period in 2002, The pH ranged from 3,7 to 6,5 with a mean of 5,0, but the pH calculated from average concentrations of $H^+$ was 4.4. $SO_4^{2-},\;NO_3^-\;and\;NH_4^+$ were predominant ions with average concentrations of 473,3, 463,3 and $576,0\;{\mu}eq/L$, respectively, This showed that cloud/fog water was slightly acidified, but the concentrations of major pollutants were as high as those for polluted area, suggesting effect from long range transported pollutants, Samples were categorized into four groups (E, W, S, N) by applying 48-h back trajectory analysis using the Hybrid Single-Particle Largrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model. Concentrations of seasalt $(Na^+\;and\;Cl^-)$ were the highest for group E, indicating large input of seasalts by air masses transported from the East Sea. The concentrations of $SO_4^{2-}$ were slightly higher in group W but the difference was not significant. However, the concentrations of $NO_3^-$ were significantly higher in group W than those in other three groups, The median values of cloud/fog water pH for group N and W were below 4,5, which is significantly lower than median values in group E and group S, This suggests that the acidifying pollutants were transported from the Asia continents and Seoul metropolitan area cause acidification of the cloud/fog water in Daegwallyeong.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.85-96
• /
• 1990

Simultaneous removal efficiencies of hydrophilic and hydrophobic gaseous pollutants are experimentally determined, and the macroscopic removal mechanism of pollutants in a dry scrubber is analyzed using the extended model of three phase equilibrium distribution of pollutant at high temperatures that can describe the different morphological conditions of adsorbent and water at varying relative humidities. For the simplicity, the inside of spray dryer is divided into three regions of ; (1) absorption, (2) three-phase equilibrium, and (3) adsorption, and the removal efficiencies of each pollutants at three regions are observed at different experimental conditions to estimate the effects of important parameters of dry scrubber. The laboratory experiments simulate the three regions of spray dryer with the temperature control and thus evaporation rate of water from the slurry particle. $SO_2$ as a hydrophilic gaseous pollutant and vinyl chloride as a hydrophobic toxic gas are selected for the future field application to soid waste incineration, and the two types of slurry are made of the two sorbents ; 10 wt.% $Ca(OH)_2$, and 10 wt.% NaOH. Result of temperature effect shows the height of absorption plus three-phase region is decreased as the operation temperature is increased, which results in the lower removal efficiency of $SO_2$ but higher removal for vinyl chloride in the adsorption region of dry scrubber. The removal efficiency of $SO_2$ is higher by NaOH slurry than by $Ca(OH)_2$ slurry due to the hygroscopic nature of NaOH, while the removal of vinyl chloride is higher in $Ca(OH)_2$ case. From the analysis of redults using three-phase equilibrium distribution model, the effective two-phase partition coefficients can be obtained, and the possible extention in the application of the three-phase equilibrium model in a dry scrubber design has been demonstrated.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.20 no.6
• /
• pp.715-727
• /
• 2004

This study was carried out to evaluate non-smoker's exposure levels to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in the air of offices in urban areas. A total of 65 offices were selected from two large cities, i.e. Daegu and Daejeon. The field sampling was conducted repeatedly in summer (1999) and winter (1999～2000). The measured ETS markers included respirable suspended particles (RSP as PM$_{40}$ ), vapor and particulate phase ETS markers, including nicotine, 3-ethnyl pyridine (3-EP), ultraviolet absorbing particulate matter (UVPM), fluorescing particulate matter (FPM), and solanseol in ETS particles (SolPM). RSP was measured gravimetrically by a microbalance. The particle samples were then used for the determination of particulate ETS markers by HPLC, while vapor phase markers determined by GC/NPD. The analytical methods were validated for repeatability, linearity, detection limits, and duplication precision. The concentrations of RSP and other ETS markers were significantly higher in smoking offices than non-smoking offices. Despite the similar smoking strength in each office for different seasons, the concentration levels of ETS components appeared to be higher in winter than summer. The contributions of ETS to RSP concentrations based on SolPM, FPM, and UVPM methods were estimated to be in the range of 15.2 ～ 25.3% in smoking offices, whereas 2.4 ～ 15.9% in non-smoking offices. The cooling and heating types did not affect significantly the concentrations of RSP and other ETS markers. Finally, further research issues were suggested to obtain more scientific information on the non-smoker's exposure to ETS with respect to the frame of risk assessment..

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.718-726
• /
• 2007

There are many varieties of asbestos: chrysotile, crocidolite, amosite, tremolite, actinolite, and anthophylite. These are widely used in construction materials, brake lining, textile, and so on. Even though non-asbestos fibers such as glassfiber and rockwool have manufactured because asbestos causes asbestosis, lung cancer, mesothelioma, etc., some bad effects of non-asbestos have been also reported. PCM (phase contrast microscopy) and PLM (polarized light microscopy) have been used to qualitatively analyze asbestoses. These techniques have serious drawbacks when identifying and separating various asbestoses. Recently scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) has been known as an useful tool to analyze airborne particle since it provides physical and chemical information simultaneously. The purpose of the study was to classify both asbestos and non-asbestos fibers and finally to develop their source profiles by using the SEM/EDX. The source profiles characterized by 6 different types of asbestos fibers and 2 types of non-asbestos fibers had been developed by analyzing a total of 380 fibers. Analytical parameters used in this study were length, width, aspect ratio, and shape as physical information, and Na, Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Cr, Mn, Fe, and Cu as chemical information. All the parameters were intensively reviewed.