• Advances in environmental research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.69-82
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• 2012

Based on the measurement data of the particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of less than or equal to a nominal 10 ${\mu}m$ (PM10) by the ${\beta}$-ray absorption method (BAM) equipped with an inlet heater and the gravimetric method (GMM) at two coastal sites in Korea, the optimal inlet heater temperature was estimated. By using a gas/particle equilibrium model, Simulating Composition of Atmospheric Particles at Equilibrium 2 (SCAPE2), water content in aerosols was estimated with varying temperature to find the optimal temperature increase to make the PM10 concentration by BAM comparable to that by GMM. It was estimated that the heated air temperature inside the BAM should be increased up to $35{\sim}45^{\circ}C$ at both sites. At this temperature range, evaporation of volatile aerosol components was minor. Similar ($30{\sim}50^{\circ}C$) temperature range was also obtained from the calculation based on the absolute humidity which changed with ambient absolute humidity and chemical composition of hygroscopic species.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.701-717
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• 2003

The objective of this study was to extensively estimate the air quality trends of the study area by surveying con-centration trends in months or seasons, after analyzing the mass concentration of PM-10 samples and the inorganic lements, ion, and total carbon in PM-10. Also, the study introduced to apply the PMF (Positive Matrix Factoriza-tion) model that is useful when absence of the source profile. Thus the model was thought to be suitable in Korea that often has few information about pollution sources. After obtaining results from the PMF modeling, the existing sources at the study area were qualitatively identified The PM-10 particles collected on quartz fiber filters by a PM-10 high-vol air sampler for 3 years (Mar. 1999∼Dec.2001) in Kyung Hee University. The 25 chemical species (Al, Mn, Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Cd, Ba, Ce, Pb, Si, N $a^{#}$, N $H_4$$^{+}$, $K^{+}$, $Mg^{2+}$, $Ca^{2+}$, C $l^{[-10]}$ , N $O_3$$^{[-10]}$ , S $O_4$$^{2-}$, TC) were analyzed by ICP-AES, IC, and EA after executing proper pre - treatments of each sample filter. The PMF model was intensively applied to estimate the quantitative contribution of air pollution sources based on the chemical information (128 samples and 25 chemical species). Through a case study of the PMF modeling for the PM-10 aerosols. the total of 11 factors were determined. The multiple linear regression analysis between the observed PM-10 mass concentration and the estimated G matrix had been performed following the FPEAK test. Finally the regression analysis provided source profiles (scaled F matrix). So, 11 sources were qualitatively identified, such as secondary aerosol related source, soil related source, waste incineration source, field burning source, fossil fuel combustion source, industry related source, motor vehicle source, oil/coal combustion source, non-ferrous metal source, and aged sea- salt source, respectively.ively.y.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.418-429
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• 2018

Measurements of 24-hr size-segregated ambient particles were made at an urban site of Gwangju under high pressure conditions occurred in the Korean Peninsula late in March 2018. The aim of this study was to understand the effect of air stagnation on mass size distributions and formation pathways of water-soluble organic and inorganic components. During the study period, the $NO_3{^-}$, $SO_4{^{2-}}$, $NH_4{^+}$, water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), and humic-like substances(HULIS) exhibited mostly bi-modal size distributions peaking at 1.0 and $6.2{\mu}m$, with predominant droplet modes. In particular, outstanding droplet mode size distributions were observed on March 25 when a severe haze occurred due to stable air conditions and long range transport of aerosol particles from northeastern regions of China. Air stagnation conditions and high relative humidity during the study period resulted in accumulation of primary aerosol particles from local emission sources and enhanced formation of secondary ionic and organic aerosols through aqueous-phase oxidations of $SO_2$, $NO_2$, $NH_3$, and volatile organic compounds, leading to their dominant droplet mode size distributions at particle size of $1.0{\mu}m$. From the size distribution of $K^+$ in accumulation mode, it can be inferred that in addition to the secondary organic aerosol formations, accumulation mode WSOC and HULIS could be partly attributed to biomass burning emissions.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.289-296
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• 1996

Effects of crustal species on the characteristics of ambient particles were studied by applying a gas-particle equilibrium model, SCAPE, to the measurements at Kosan, Cheju Island during the spring and summer, 1994. Two cases were simulated; the measured composition was used without any modification (case 1), and the metal ion concentrations originated from crust were subtracted from the measured particle composition (case 2). Total suspended particles (TSPs) were collected by an automatic high volume tape sampler during spring period and by high volume samplers during summer period. The fine particles, PM 2.5, and gaseous volatile species were collected using a filter pack smapler during summer period. The water soluble ion concentrations were analyzed from all the particle samples. According to the simulation results, the effect of crustal elements on the chemical composition of particles is negligible for both TSP particles and PM 2.5 particles. Acidity of particles measured at Kosan, however, is affected by the change of the concentrations of crustal species, stronger effects for TSP particles than for PM 2.5 particles during summer, and stronger effects during summer than spring for TSP particle. The average pH decrease due to the absence of crustal species was about 0.10 for PM 2.5 particle during summer and 1.51 and 0.85 for TSP particles during summer spring, respectively. Water contents of PM 2.5 particles for both cases are comparable to each other. Estimated water content of TSP particles for case 2 is higher than that for case 1 by about 4 $\sim 6 \mum/m^3$ because salts of metal ions are not hygroscopic.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 1999

Deposition is one of the important removal mechanisms for the ambient aerosol, and it also leads to adverse environmental and economic impacts. The purpose of this study was to investigate chemical compositions and spatial distributions of fall-out aerosols. A total number of 340 samples were collected at 35 sampling sites in Suwon area from January to November, 1996. Twelve inorganic elements (Al, Ba, Cd, Cr, K, Pb, Sb, Zn, Cu, Fe, Ni, and V) and eight ionic components ($F^-$, Cl, $NO_3^-$, $SO_4^{2-}$, $Na^+$, $NH_4^+$, $Mg^{2+}$, and $Ca^{2+}$) were analyzed by AAS and IC, respectively. The monthly variation showed that the flux of fall-out particles was increased in the spring season(March, April, and May) and decreased from August to October. Arithmetic mean flux of fall-out particles was 176.8 kg/$ extrm{km}^2$/day during the study period. The fluxes of each chemical species were $SO_4^{2-}$ 12.414, $Ca^{2+}$ 7.369, $NO_3^-$ 5.812, $Cl^-$ 3.566, $NH_4^+$ 3.176, Fe 3.107 kg/$\textrm{km}^2$/day, and so on. By using a kriging analysis, spatial distribution pattern of those fluxes was intensively studied. Total fluxes estimated in Suwon city were 8424.72t/y of fall-out particles, 519.27t/y of $SO_4^{2-}$, 336.79t/y of $Ca^{2+}$,267.34 t/y of $NO_3^+$, 155.36t/y of $Cl^-$, 147.79t/y of Fe.

• Particle and aerosol research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.153-169
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• 2018

To identify a variety of organic compounds in the ambient aerosols, the two-dimensional gas chromatography-time of flight mass spectrometry (GCxGC) system (2DGC) has been applied. While 2DGC provides more peaks, the amount of the generated data becomes huge. A two-step approach has been proposed to efficiently interpret the organic aerosol analysis data. The two-dimensional 2DGC data were divided into 6 chemical groups depending on their volatility and polarity. Using these classification standards, all the peaks were subject to both qualitative and quantitative analyses and then classified into 8 classes. The aerosol samples collected in Seoul in summer 2013 and winter 2014 were used as the test case. It was found that some chemical classes such as furanone showed seasonal variation in the high polarity-volatile organic compounds (HP-VOC) group. Also, for some chemical classes, qualitative and quantitative analyses showed different trends. Limitations of the proposed method are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.239-254
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• 2015

Little information on HUmic-Like Substances (HULIS) in ambient particulate matter has been reported yet in Korea. HULIS makes up a significant fraction of the water-soluble organic mass in the atmospheric aerosols and influence their water uptake properties. In this study 24-hr $PM_{2.5}$ samples were collected between December 2013 and October 2014 at an urban site in Gwangju and analyzed for organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), water-soluble OC (WSOC), HULIS, and ionic species, to investigate possible sources and formation processes of HULIS. HULIS was separated using solid phase extraction method and quantified by total organic carbon analyzer. During the study period, HULIS concentration ranged from 0.19 to $5.65{\mu}gC/m^3$ with an average of $1.83{\pm}1.22{\mu}gC/m^3$, accounting for on average 45% of the WSOC (12~ 73%), with higher in cold season than in warm season. Strong correlation of WSOC with HULIS ($R^2=0.91$) indicates their similar chemical characteristics. On the basis of the relationships between HULIS and a variety of chemical species (EC, $K^+$, $NO_3{^-}$, $SO_4{^{2-}}$, and oxalate), it was postulated that HULIS observed during summer and winter were likely attributed to secondary formation and primary emissions from biomass burning (BB) and traffics. Stronger correlation of HULIS with $K^+$, which is a BB tracer, in winter ($R^2=0.81$) than in summer ($R^2=0.66$), suggests more significant contribution of BB emissions in winter to the observed HULIS. It is interesting to note that BB emissions may also have an influence on the HULIS in summer, but further study using levoglucosan that is a unique organic marker of BB emissions is required during summer. Higher correlation between HULIS and oxalate, which is mainly formed through cloud processing and/or photochemical oxidation processes, was found in the summer ($R^2=0.76$) than in the winter ($R^2=0.63$), reflecting a high fraction of secondary organic aerosol in the summer.

• Particle and aerosol research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.131-138
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• 2011

The concentration levels of n-alkanes and water soluble organic carbon (WSOC) at Anmyon, a Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) station operated by Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), has been characterized for the PM10 samples collected in 2010. It was found that the concentrations of WSOC at Anmyon were comparable to those in Seoul and lower than those in Gosan, another background area in Korea. However, the maximum concentration of the WSOC at Anmyon was observed in fall while that at Seoul was in winter. It suggests that the emission and/or transformation characteristics at two areas are different. The concentrations of n-alkanes at Anmyon were slightly lower than at Gosan and about one thirds at Seoul. However, it was found that at Gosan the n-alkanes from natural sources were dominant at Gosan. On the other hand, n-alkanes from anthropogenic sources were dominant at Anmyon. Study directions to further understand the characteristics of aerosols at Anmyon are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.711-722
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• 2011

This study is aimed to estimate the $PM_{2.5}$ source apportionment at Seoul intensive monitoring site located in Seoul metropolitan area. Time-resolved chemical compositions of $PM_{2.5}$ are measured in real time using ambient ion monitor, semi-continuous carbon monitor, and on-line XRF at Seoul intensive monitoring site in 2010. The mass concentration of $PM_{2.5}$ was simultaneously monitored with eight ionic species (${SO_4}^{2-}$, $NO_3{^-}$, $Cl^-$, $NH_4{^+}$, $Na^+$, $K^+$, $Mg^{2+}$, $Ca^{2+}$), two carbonaceous species (OC and EC), and fourteen elements (Si, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, As, Se, Pb) in 1-hr interval. The data sets were then analyzed using EPA PMF version 3 to identify sources and contributions to $PM_{2.5}$ mass. EPA PMF modeling identified eight PM2.5 sources, including soil dust, secondary sulfate, secondary nitrate, motor vehicle, coal combustion, oil combustion, biomass burning, and municipal incineration. This study found that the average $PM_{2.5}$ mass was apportioned to anthropogenic sources such as motor vehicle, fuel combustion, and biomass burning (61%) and secondary aerosols, including sulfate and nitrate (38%).

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.185-191
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• 2015

Ambient measurements of aerosol light absorption (${\sigma}_a$) and scattering coefficients (${\sigma}_s$) were done at Gosan climate observatory during summer 2008 using a 3-wavelength photoacoustic soot spectrometer (PASS). PASS was deployed photoacoustic method for light absorption and integrated nephelometry for light scattering measurements. The ${\sigma}_a$ and ${\sigma}_s$ from PASS were compared with those from co-located aethalometer and nephelometer measurements. The aethalometer measurements of ${\sigma}_a$ correlated reasonably well with photoacoustic measurements, but the slope of the linear fitting line indicated the PASS measurement values of ${\sigma}_a$ were larger by a factor of 1.53. The nephelometer measurement values of ${\sigma}_s$ correlated very well with PASS measurements of ${\sigma}_s$, with a slope of 1.12 and a small offset. Comparing to the aethalometer measurements, the photoacoustic measurements of ${\sigma}_a$ didn't exhibit a significant (i.e., the ratio between aethalometer and PASS increased) change with increasing relative humidity (RH). The ratio of ${\sigma}_s$ between nephelometer and PASS increased with increasing RH, especially when the RH increased beyond 80%. This apparent increase in ${\sigma}_s$ with RH may be due to the contribution of hygroscopic growth of aerosols.