On the Recent Air Pollution Levels Observed in the Regional Air Monitoring Network -High Air Pollution Concentration Episodes and Their Meteorological Characteristics in 2002

We report the high concentration episodes for PM, SO, NO, and in many urban areas Korea during 2002. The high concentration episodes are identified based on the National Ambient Air Quality Standards and the observations obtained from the Regional Air Monitoring Network composed of approximately 160 air pollution monitoring stations located in a number of major or big cities in South Korea including Seoul, Pusan, Daegu, and Incheon cities. The results show that the twenty cases of high concentration episodes in 2002 consists of both ozone warning episodes (6 cases) and high PM concentration cases (14 cases), and one half of the latter are found to occur in association with the Yellow Sand (Asian Dust) phenomena. The most outstanding characteristics of the reported episodes are the excessively high levels of maximum PM concentrations during the Yellow Sand period (i.e., exceeding 3,000/㎥ in April, 2002) and their variable occurrence frequencies across seasons. The high ozone concentration episode days are mainly resulting from both the high photochemical reactions and poor ventilations. The high PM concentration days during non Yellow Sand periods, however, mostly occurred under the influence of synoptic meteorological conditions such as stagnant or slowly passing high pressure centers, and consequently prevailing weak wind speeds over the Korean peninsula. The overall results of our study thus suggest the importance of both synoptic and local meteorological factors for high concentration levels in the major and/or big cities in Korea.n Korea.