• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.855-863
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• 2012

This study analyzed mass concentrations of TSP, PM10 and PM2.5 and elemental constituents according to the isentropic backward trajectories of air parcel from Cheongwonin East Asia during the period January - October, 2011. Mass concentrations of the continental polluted airflow (CP) showed levels of TSP and PM10 mass concentrations higher than the continental background airflow (CB). Also, PM2.5 mass concentrations of anthropogenic fine particles ran higher in CP than in CB. The elemental constituents and elemental constituent ratio ended up varying depending on the origin of atmospheric aerosols generated. The average absolute content of elemental constituents reached its height in CB, the ratio of anthropogenically originating elements (PE) among the all elements (AE) analyzed marked a high in CP, and Mg+Na/AE reached its height in the oceanic airflow (OA). At the same time, TSP, PM10 and PM2.5 mass concentrations, the ratio of PM2.5/TSP and PE/AE element ratio ran higher in CP than CB. Episodes of large-scale transport of atmospheric pollutants as observed at Cheongwon were 8 cases and 22 days. The ratios of PM10, PM2.5 among TSP mass concentrations showed different results and the ratios of PM2.5 showed an increasing trend in the episodes of anthropogenic air pollution transport. Overall, dustfall episodes show a level of elemental constituents higher than those of anthropogenic air pollution.Dustfall episodes were observed to contain more of Fe, Al and Ca originating from continental soils and those of air pollution were observed to contain more of Zn, Mn, Cu and Pb. By difference in contents of absolute elemental constituents, episodes of anthropogenic air pollution showed a high PE/AE rate, and dustfall episodes a high SE/AE rate.

• 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.32 no.3
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• pp.289-304
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• 2016

The $PM_{10}$ and $PM_{2.5}$ aerosols were collected at the Gosan site of Jeju Island in 2013 and analyzed, in order to examine the variation characteristics of the chemical compositions in relation to the haze, Asian dust, and mixed haze-Asian dust episodes. Volume concentrations obtained from the Aerodynamic Particle Sizer (APS) were high in the range of $0.6{\sim}1.0{\mu}m$ particles for haze event, and in the range of $2.0{\sim}10.0{\mu}m$ particles for Asian dust event. For the haze event, nitrate concentrations increased highly as 8.8 and 25.1 times for $PM_{10}$ and $PM_{2.5}$, respectively, possibly caused by the inflow of air mass stagnated in eastern parts of China into Jeju area. For the Asian dust event, the concentrations of nss-$Ca^{2+}$, $NO_3{^-}$ and nss-$SO_4{^{2-}}$ increased 6.0, 1.5, 1.8 times for $PM_{10}$, and 2.3, 1.3, 1.6 times for $PM_{2.5}$, respectively. Meanwhile, for the mixed haze-Asian dust event, the concentrations of nss-$Ca^{2+}$ and $NO_3{^-}$ increased 13.4 and 3.2 times for $PM_{10}$, and 1.8 and 3.4 times for $PM_{2.5}$, respectively. The $NH_4NO_3$ content was higher than that of $(NH_4)_2SO_4$ during the haze event, however it was relatively low during the mixed haze-Asian dust event. The aerosols were acidified mostly by inorganic acids, and especially the nitric acid contributed highly to the acidification during both the haze and the mixed haze-Asian dust events. Meanwhile, the neutralization by ammonia was noticeably high during haze event when the stagnated air mass moved from China.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.439-451
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• 2004

Total solar irradiance (750), total UV irradiunce (TUV) and erythemal UV irradiance (EUV) measured at King Sejong station $(62.22^{\circ}S,\;58.78^{\circ}W)$ in west Antarctica have been used together with total ozone, cloud amount and snow cover to examine the effects of ozone, cloud and snow surface on these surface solar inadiunce over the period of 1998-2003. The data of three solar components for each scan were grouped by cloud amount, n in oktas $(0{\leq}n<3,\;3{\leq}n<4,\;4{\leq}n<5,\;5{\leq}n<6,\;6{\leq}n<7\;and\;7{\leq}n<8)$ and plotted against solar zenith angle (SZA) over the range of $45^{\circ}\;to\;75^{\circ}$. The radiation amplification factor (RAE) is used to quantify ozone effect on EUV. RAF of EUV decreases from 1.51 to 0.94 under clear skies but increases from 0.94 to 1.85 under cloudy skies as SZA increases, and decreases from 1.51 to 1.01 as cloud amount increases. The effects of cloud amount and snow surface on EUV are estimated as a function of SZA and cloud amount after normalization of the data to the reference total ozone of 300 DU. In order to analyse the transmission of solar radiation by cloud, regression analyses have been performed for the maximum values of solar irradiance on clear sky conditions $(0{\leq}n<3)$ and the mean values on cloudy conditions, respectively. The maximum regression values for the clear sky cases were taken to represent minimum aerosol conditions fur the site and thus appropriate for use as a normalization (reference) factor for the other regressions. The overall features for the transmission of the three solar components show a relatively high values around SZAs of $55^{\circ}\;and\;60^{\circ}$ under all sky conditions and cloud amounts $4{\leq}n<5$ and $5{\leq}n<6$. The transmission is, in general, the largest in TUV and the smallest in EUV among the three components of the solar irradiance. If the ground is covered with snow on partly cloudy days $(6{\leq}n<7)$, EUV increases by 20 to 26% compared to snow-free surface around SZA $60^{\circ}-65^{\circ}$, due to multiple reflections and scattering between the surface and the clouds. The relative difference between snow surface and snow-free surface slowly increases from 9% to 20% as total ozone increases from 100 DU to 400 DU under partly cloud conditions $(3{\leq}n<6)$ at SZA $60^{\circ}$. The snow effects on TUV and TSO are relatively high with 32% and 34%, respectively, under clear sky conditions, while the effects changes to 36% and 20% for TUV and TSO, respectively, as cloud amount increases.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.639-657
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• 2015

There is an increasing need to improve the air quality over South Korea to protect public health from local and remote anthropogenic pollutant emissions that are in an increasing trend. Here, we evaluate the performance of the WRF-Chem (Weather Research and Forecasting-Chemistry) model in simulating near-surface air quality of major Korean cities, and investigate the impacts of time-varying chemical initial and lateral boundary conditions (IC/BCs) on the air quality simulation using a chemical downscaling technique. The model domain was configured over the East Asian region and anthropogenic MICS-Asia 2010 emissions and biogenic MEGAN-2 emissions were applied with RACM gaseous chemistry and MADE/SORGAM aerosol mechanism. Two simulations were conducted for a 30-days period on April 2010 with chemical IC/BCs from the WRF-Chem default chemical species profiles ('WRF experiment') and the MOZART-4 (Model for OZone And Related chemical Tracers version 4) ('WRF_MOZART experiment'), respectively. The WRF_MOZART experiment has showed a better performance to predict near-surface CO, $NO_2$, $SO_2$, and $O_3$ mixing ratios at 7 major Korean cities than the WRF experiment, showing lower mean bias error (MBE) and higher index of agreement (IOA). The quantitative impacts of the chemical IC/BCs have depended on atmospheric residence time of the pollutants as well as the relative difference of chemical mixing ratios between the WRF and WRF_MOZART experiments at the lateral boundaries. Specifically, the WRF_MOZART experiment has reduced MBE in CO and O3 mixing ratios by 60~80 ppb and 5~10 ppb over South Korea than those in the WRF-Chem default simulation, while it has a marginal impact on $NO_2$ and $SO_2$ mixing ratios. Without using MOZART-4 chemical IC, the WRF simulation has required approximately 6-days chemical spin-up time for the East Asian model domain. Overall, the results indicate that realistic chemical IC/BCs are prerequisite in the WRF-Chem simulation to improve a forecast skill of local air quality over South Korea, even in case the model domain is sufficiently large to represent anthropogenic emissions from China, Japan, and South Korea.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.24-37
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• 2011

The ionic compositions of atmospheric aerosols were investigated and characterized in coastal and mountainous sites of Jeju Island, which were Gosan and Mt. Halla-1100 sites respectively. It was found that the concentrations of nss-$SO_4^{2-}$ (non-sea salt sulfate) and $NH_4^+$ at two measurement sites were almost similar and they showed high concentrations in June at the same time. The concentration of soil-originated nss-$Ca^{2+}$ (non-sea salt calcium) was generally associated with that of anthropogenic $NO_3^-$ and its concentration was increased during spring season. From the comparison of time-series variation and regression analysis of ionic species between two measurement sites, TSP (total suspended particulate) in Gosan site was directly influenced by sea salt particles and the concentration levels of nss-$SO_4^{2-}$, $NH_4^+$, nss-$Ca^{2+}$, $K^+$, and $NO_3^-$ were mainly related with long-range transported air pollutants rather than local pollution sources.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.38-43
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• 2011

The recent global warming may be estimated to give lots of impacts to the human society and biosphere of influencing climate change included by the natural climate variations through the human activity which can directly and/or indirectly play a major role of total atmospheric composition overall. Therefore it currently appears evidences such as hot wave, typhoon, and biosphere disturbance, etc. over the several regions to be influenced by global warming due to increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere through inducing forest destruction, fossil fuel combustion, greenhouse gases emission, etc. since industrial revolution era. Through the working group report of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) for climate change was analyzed by the individual country's current status and figure out the important issues and problems related to the future trend of climate change science with advanced countries preparedness and research, In this study, the first working group report of IPCC focuses on those aspects of the current understanding of the physical science of climate change that are judged to be most relevant to policymakers. As this report was assessed and analyzed by including the progress of climate change science, the role of climate models and evolution in the treatment of uncertainties. This consists of the changes in atmospheric constituents(both aerosols and gases) that affect the radiative energy balance in the atmosphere and determine the Earth's climate, considering the interaction between biogeochemical cycles that affect atmospheric constituents and climate change, including aerosol/cloud interactions, the extensive range of observations snow available for the atmosphere and surface, for snow, ice, and frozen ground and for the oceans, respectively and changes in sea level, the paleoclimate perspective and assessment of evidence for past climate change and the extension, the ways in which physical processes are simulated in climate models and the evaluation of models against observed climate, the development plans and methods of improving expert and building manpower urgently and R&D fund expansion in detail for climate change science in Korea will be proposed.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.567-587
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• 2018

A severe haze event occurred in October 2015 in Gwangju, Korea. In this study, the driving chemical species and the formation mechanisms of $PM_{2.5}$ pollution were investigated to better understand the haze event. Hourly concentrations of $PM_{2.5}$, organic and elemental carbon, water-soluble ions, and elemental constituents were measured at the air quality intensive monitoring station in Gwangju. The haze event occurred was attributed to a significant contribution (72.3%) of secondary inorganic species concentration to the $PM_{2.5}$, along with the contribution of organic aerosols that were strongly attributed to traffic emissions over the study site. MODIS images, weather charts, and air mass backward trajectories supported the significant impact of long-range transportation (LTP) of aerosol particles from northeastern China on haze formation over Gwangju in October 2015. The driving factor for the haze formation was stagnant atmospheric flows around the Korean peninsula, and high relative humidity (RH) promoted the haze formation at the site. Under the high RH conditions, $SO{_4}^{2-}$ and $NO_3{^-}$ were mainly produced through the heterogenous aqueous-phase reactions of $SO_2$ and $NO_2$, respectively. Moreover, hourly $O_3$ concentration during the study period was highly elevated, with hourly peaks ranging from 79 to 95ppb, suggesting that photochemical reaction was a possible formation process of secondary aerosols. Over the $PM_{2.5}$ pollution, behavior and formation of secondary ionic species varied with the difference in the impact of LTP. Prior to October 19 when the influence of LTP was low, increasing rate in $NO_3{^-}$ was greater than that in $NO_2$, but both $SO_2$ and $SO{_4}^{2-}$ had similar increasing rates. While, after October 20 when the impact of haze by LTP was significant, $SO{_4}^{2-}$ and $NO_3{^-}$ concentrations increased significantly more than their gaseous precursors, but with greater increasing rate of $NO_3{^-}$. These results suggest the enhanced secondary transformation of $SO_2$ and $NO_2$ during the haze event. Overall, the result from the study suggests that control of anthropogenic combustion sources including vehicle emissions is needed to reduce the high levels of nitrogen oxide and $NO_3{^-}$ and the high $PM_{2.5}$ pollution occurred over fall season in Gwangju.

• 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 Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.431-446
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• 2018

In this study, chemical characteristics of $PM_{2.5}$ samples collected in an agricultural area in Nonsan of Korea were investigated focusing on of black carbon, 3 inorganic ions and 22 trace elements. It was found that the relative error and relative standard deviation of many trace elements fell below 10%, which indicates good analytical accuracy and precision. The mean values of $PM_{2.5}$ in an agricultural area were exceeded by new Korean air quality standard of March 2018. The concentration of $PM_{2.5}$ was well correlated with those of black carbon and ions. The concentrations of trace elements were in a wide range of seven orders of a magnitude. Based on these $PM_{2.5}$ data sets, a total of 6 sources were identified using PMF (Positive Matrix Factorization; secondary aerosol (34.4%), soil/road dust (20.1%), biomass burning (16.9%), incineration/fuel combustion (13.2%), vehicle exhaust(12.2%), sea-salt (3.17%). Results of our study indicate that it is very important to control illegal burning activities in agricultural area.