Visibility impairment in an urban area is mainly caused by airborne fine particulate matters. Visibility in a clean air environment is more sensitive to the change of PM$_{2.5}$ particle concentrations. However, a proportionally larger reduction in fine particle concentration is needed to achieve a small increment of visibility improvement in polluted areas. Continuous optical monitoring of atmospheric visibility and extensive aerosol measurements have been made in the urban atmosphere of Kwangju, Korea. The mean for fine particulate mass from 1999 to 2002 at Kwangju was measured to be 23.6$\pm$20.3 $\mu\textrm{g}$/㎥. The daily average seasonal visual range was measured to be 13.1, 9.2, 11.0, and 13.9 km in spring, summer, fall, and winter, respectively. The mean light extinction budgets by sulfate, nitrate, organic carbon, and elemental carbon aerosol were observed to be 27, 14, 22, and 12%, respectively. It is highly recommended that a new visibility standard and/or a fine particle standard be established in order to protect the health and welfare of general public. Much more work needs to be done in visibility studies, including long-term monitoring of visibility, improvement of visibility models, and formulating integrated strategies for managing fine particles to mitigate the visibility impairment and climate change.e.

The characteristics of heterogeneous photocatalytic decomposition were investigated at low concentration level of $O_3$on TiO$_2$for various operating parameters such as: loaded catalyst weight (0∼4 mg/$\textrm{cm}^2$), initial concentration of $O_3$(0.06∼10.0 ppm), gas flow rate (1.0 ∼ 2.5ι/min), and relative humidity (0∼80%). This study was conducted using a flow-type reactor at room temperature. Three kinds of pure TiO$_2$(P25, ST -01, and E- 23) were employed as photocatalyts. It was found that $O_3$removal ratio was identical, regardless of the loaded TiO$_2$weight in the range from 0.5 to 4.0 mg/$\textrm{cm}^2$. It was also found that higher initial ozone concentration results in greater oxidation rate of ozone and experimental data show kinetically a good agreement with Langmur-Hinshelwood kinetic model. We also observed that the removal ratio of $O_3$increases linearly with the increasing flow rate and also with the increasing relative humidity for each catalyst.

Effects of inorganic aerosols on the kinetics of the hydroxyl radical reactions with selected aliphatic alkanes have been investigated using the relative rate technique. The relative rates in the absence and presence of aerosols were determined for n-butane, n-pentane, n-hexane, n-octane, and n-decane. P-xylene was used as a reference compound. Inorganic aerosols including (NH$_4$)$_2$SO$_4$, NH$_4$NO$_3$, and NaCl aerosols at two different aerosol concentrations that are typical of polluted urban conditions were tested. Total surface areas of aerosols were 1400 (Condition I) and 3400 $\mu$$m^2$ cm$^{-3}$ (Condition II). Significant changes in the relative rates in the presence of the inorganic aerosols were not observed for the n-butanel/$.$OH, n-pentanel/$.$OH, n-hexanel/$.$OH, n-octanel/$.$OH, and n-decanel/$.$OH reactions versus p-xylenel/$.$OH reaction. These results suggest that the promoting effects depend on the semiconducting property of the aerosols and the nature of the organic compounds.

In this study, we examined the influence of long-range transport of dust particles and air pollutants on the photochemistry of NO$_3$on Jeju Island, Korea (33.17 N, 126.10$^{\circ}$E) during the Asian Dust-Storm (ADS) period of April 2001. Three ADS events were observed during the periods of 10∼12, 13∼14, and 25∼26 April. Average concentration level of nighttime NO$_3$on Jeju Island during the ADS period was estimated to be about 2 x 10$^{8}$ molecules cm$^{-3}$ ( - 9 pptv). Decreases in NO$_3$levels during the ADS period was likely to be determined mainly by the enhancement of the $N_2$O$_{5}$ heterogeneous reaction on dust aerosol surfaces. The reaction of N20s on aerosol surfaces was a more important sink for nighttime N03 during the ADS due to the significant loading of dust particles. The reaction of $N_2$O$_{5}$ with NMHCs and the gas-phase reaction of N20s with water vapor were both significant loss mechanisms during the study period, especially during the NADS. However, dry deposition of these oxidized nitrogen species and a heterogeneous reaction of NO$_3$were of no importance. Short-term observations of $O_3$, NO$_2$, DMS, and SO$_2$in the MBL indicated that concentrations of most of these chemical species were different between the ADS and non - Asian - Dust-Storm (NADS) periods, implying that their levels were affected sensitively by the differences in air mass trajectories.