• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.330-343
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• 2017

Climate change is an important issue, with many researches examining not only future climatic conditions, but also the interaction of climate and air quality. In this study, a new version of the emissions processing software tool - Python-based PRocessing Operator for Climate and Emission Scenarios (PROCES) - was developed to support climate and atmospheric chemistry modeling studies. PROCES was designed to cover global and regional scale modeling domains, which correspond to GEOS-Chem and CMAQ/CAMx models, respectively. This tool comprises of one main system and two units of external software. One of the external software units for this processing system was developed using the GIS commercial program, which was used to create spatial allocation profiles as an auxiliary database. The SMOKE-Asia emissions modeling system was linked to the main system as an external software, to create model-ready emissions for regional scale air quality modeling. The main system was coded in Python version 2.7, which includes several functions allowing general emissions processing steps, such as emissions interpolation, spatial allocation and chemical speciation, to create model-ready emissions and auxiliary inputs of SMOKE-Asia, as well as user-friendly functions related to emissions analysis, such as verification and visualization. Due to its flexible software architecture, PROCES can be applied to any pregridded emission data, as well as regional inventories. The application results of our new tool for global and regional (East Asia) scale modeling domain under RCP scenario for the years 1995-2006, 2015-2025, and 2040-2055 was quantitatively in good agreement with the reference data of RCPs.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.339-349
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• 2012

In order to clarify the impact of emissions reductions on the air quality over Metropolitan area of Korean Peninsula, several numerical experiment and analysis of integrated process rate(IPR) of ozone were carried out. Numerical models used in this study are WRF for the estimate the meteorological elements and CMAQ for assessment of ozone concentration. As result in the sensitive test of VOC/NOx reduction experiments, although VOC reduction tends to induce the different impact on the advection and photochemical reaction rate of ozone in urban area and rural area, the mechanism of ozone appeared to be more sensitive to the reduction of VOC than that of NOx over the metropolitan and its surround area. So the control of VOC emission inventories is an effective means to decrease the ozone concentrations around this area.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.1431-1445
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• 2010

In order to clarify the impact of regional warming on the meteorological field and air quality over southeastern part of Korean Peninsula, several numerical experiment were carried out. Numerical models used in this study are WRF for the estimate the meteorological elements and CMAQ for assessment of ozone concentration. According to the global warming impact, initial air temperature were changed and its warming rate reach at 2 degree which was based on the global warming scenarios provided by IPCC. The experiments considering the global warming at initial stage were presented as case T_UP. Air temperature over inland area during night time for case T_UP is higher than that for Base case. During time since the higher temperature over inland area is maintained during daytime more intensified sea breeze should be induced and also decrease the air temperature in vicinity of coast area. In case of T_UP, high level concentrations ozone distribution area was narrowed and their disappearance were faster after 1800LST. As a results, wind and temperature fields due to the global warming at initial stage mainly results in the pattern of ozone concentration and its temporal variation at South-Eastern Part of the Korean Peninsula.

• Atmosphere
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.341-351
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• 2022

Recently, interest in the possibility of a washout effect using artificial rain enhancement technology to reduce high-concentration fine dust is growing. Therefore, in this study, the reduction rate of PM₁₀ concentration according to the amount of artificial rain enhancement was calculated during Asian Dust event which occurred over the Korean Peninsula on March 29, 2021 using air quality model [i.e., Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ)] combined with the mesoscale model for artificial rain enhancement (i.e., WRF-MMS). According to WRF-MMS, the washout effect lasted 5 hours, and the maximum precipitation rate was calculated to be 1.5 mm hr^-1. According the CMAQ results, the PM₁₀ reduction rate was up to 22%, and the affected area was calculated to be 6.4 times greater than that of the artificial rain enhancement area. Even if the maximum amount of precipitation per hour is lowered to 0.8 mm hr^-1 (about 50% level), the PM₁₀ reduction rate appears to be up to 16%. In other words, it is believed that this technique can be used as a direct method for reducing high-concentration fine dust even when the artificial rain enhancement effect is weak.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.183-200
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• 2019

In this study, the characteristics of seasonal $PM_{2.5}$ behavior in South Korea and other Northeast Asian regions were analyzed by using the $PM_{2.5}$ ground measurement data, weather data, WRF and CMAQ models. Analysis of seasonal $PM_{2.5}$ behavior in Northeast Asia showed that $PM_{2.5}$ concentration at 6 IMS sites in South Korea was increased by long-distance transport and atmospheric congestion, or decreased by clean air inflow due to seasonal weather characteristics. As a result of analysis by applying BFM to air quality model, the contribution from foreign countries dominantly influenced the $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations of Baengnyeongdo due to the low self-emission and geographical location. In the case of urban areas with high self-emissions such as Seoul and Ulsan, the $PM_{2.5}$ contribution from overseas was relatively low compared to other regions, but the standard deviation of the season was relatively high. This study is expected to improve the understanding of the air pollutant phenomenon by analyzing the characteristics of $PM_{2.5}$ behavior in Northeast Asia according to the seasonal weather condition change. At the same time, this study can be used to establish the air quality policy in the future, knowing that the contribution of $PM_{2.5}$ concentration to the domestic and overseas can be different depending on the regional emission characteristics.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.1167-1180
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• 2017

Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models such as the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model are essential for forecasting one-day-ahead solar irradiance. In order to evaluate the performance of the WRF in forecasting solar irradiance over the Korean Peninsula, we compared WRF prediction data from 2008 to 2010 corresponding to weather observation data (OBS) from the Korean Meteorological Administration (KMA). The WRF model showed poor performance at polluted regions such as Seoul and Suwon where the relative Root Mean Square Error (rRMSE) is over 30%. Predictions by the WRF model alone had a large amount of potential error because of the lack of actual aerosol radiative feedbacks. For the purpose of reducing this error induced by atmospheric particles, i.e., aerosols, the WRF model was coupled with the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. The coupled system makes it possible to estimate the radiative feedbacks of aerosols on the solar irradiance. As a result, the solar irradiance estimated by the coupled system showed a strong dependence on both the aerosol spatial distributions and the associated optical properties. In the NF (No Feedback) case, which refers to the WRF-only stimulated system without aerosol feedbacks, the GHI was overestimated by $50-200W\;m^{-2}$ compared with OBS derived values at each site. In the YF (Yes Feedback) case, in contrast, which refers to the WRF-CMAQ two-way coupled system, the rRMSE was significantly improved by 3.1-3.7% at Suwon and Seoul where the Particulate Matter (PM) concentrations, specifically, those related to the $PM_{10}$ size fraction, were over $100{\mu}g\;m^{-3}$. Thus, the coupled system showed promise for acquiring more accurate solar irradiance forecasts.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.31-46
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• 2015

In this study, the regional climate (WRF) and air quality (CMAQ) models were used to simulate the effects of future urban growth on surface ozone concentrations in the Seoul metropolitan region (SMR). These analyses were performed based on changes in ozone concentrations during ozone seasons (May-June) for the year 2050 (future) relative to 2012 (present) by urban growth. The results were compared with the impacts of RCP scenarios on ozone concentrations in the SMR. The fractions of urban in the SMR (25.8 %) for the 2050 were much higher than those (13.9 %) for the 2012 and the future emissions (e.g., CO, NO, $NO_2$, $SO_2$, VOC) were increased from 121 % (NO) to 161.3 % ($NO_2$) depending on emission material. The mean and daily maximum 1-h ozone in the SMR increased about 3 - 7 ppb by the effect the RCP scenarios. However, the effect of urban growth reduced the mean ozone by 3 ppb in the SMR and increased the daily maximum 1-h ozone by 2 - 5 ppb over the northeastern SMR and around the coastline. In particular, the ozone pollution days exceeding the 1-h regulatory standard (100 ppb) were far more affected by urban growth than mean values. As a result, the average number of days exceeding the 1-h regulatory standard increased up to 10 times.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.150-156
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• 2010

Inter-comparison of chemical transport models (CTMs) was conducted among four modeling research groups. Model performance of the ensemble approach to $O_3$ and $PM_{2.5}$ simulation was evaluated by using observational data with a time resolution of 1 or 6 hours at four sites in the Kanto area, Japan, in summer 2007. All groups applied the Community Multiscale Air Quality model. The ensemble average of the four CTMs reproduced well the temporal variation of $O_3$ (r=0.65-0.85) and the daily maximum $O_3$ concentration within a factor of 1.3. By contrast, it underestimated $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations by a factor of 1.4-2, and did not reproduce the $PM_{2.5}$ temporal variation at two suburban sites (r=~0.2). The ensemble average improved the simulation of ${SO_4}^{2-}$, ${NO_3}^-$, and ${NH_4}^+$, whose production pathways are well known. In particular, the ensemble approach effectively simulated ${NO_3}^-$, despite the large variability among CTMs (up to a factor of 10). However, the ensemble average did not improve the simulation of organic aerosols (OAs), underestimating their concentrations by a factor of 5. The contribution of OAs to $PM_{2.5}$ (36-39%) was large, so improvement of the OA simulation model is essential to improve the $PM_{2.5}$ simulation.