• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2016

Particulate matter (PM) in the atmosphere has wide-ranging health, environmental, and climate effects, many of which are attributed to fine-mode secondary organic aerosols. PM concentrations are significantly enhanced by primary particle emissions from traffic sources. Recently, in order to reduce $CO_2$ and increase fuel economy, gasoline direct injected (GDI) engine technology is increasingly used in vehicle manufactures. The popularization of GDI technique has resulted in increasing of concerns on environmental protection. In order to better understand variations in chemical composition of particulate matter from emissions of GDI vehicle versus a port fuel injected (PFI) vehicle, a high time resolution chemical composition of PM emissions from GDI and PFI vehicles was measured at facility of Transport Pollution Research Center (TPRC), National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER), Korea. Continuous measurements of inorganic and organic species in PM were conducted using an Aerodyne high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS). The HR-ToF-AMS provides insight into non-refractory PM composition, including concentrations of nitrate, sulfate, hydrocarbon-like and oxygenated organic aerosol, and organic mass with 20 sec time resolution. Many cases of PM emissions during the study were dominated by organic and nitrate aerosol. An overview of observed PM characteristics will be provided along with an analysis of comparison of GDI vehicle versus PFI vehicle in PM emission rates and oxidation states.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.731-742
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• 2014

In this study, we developed a new algorithm which can construct model buildings used as a surface boundary in numerical models using GIS with latitudinal and longitudinal information of building vertices. The algorithm established the outer boundary of a building first, by finding segments passing neighboring two vertices of the building and connecting the segments. Then, the algorithm determined the region inside the outer boundary as the building. The new algorithm overcame the limit that the algorithm developed in the previous study had in constructing concave buildings. In addition, the new algorithm successfully constructed a building with complicated shape. To investigate effects of the modification in building shape caused by the building-construction algorithm on flows and pollutant dispersion around buildings, a computational fluid dynamics model was used and three kinds of building type were considered. In the downwind region, patterns in flow and pollutant dispersion were little affected by the modification in building shape caused. However, because of reduction in air space resulted from the building-shape modification, vortex structure was not resolved or smaller vortex was resolved near the buildings. The changes in flow pattern affected dispersion patterns of scalar pollutants emitted around the buildings.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.625-637
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• 2003

This study was performed to examine the relationship between air pollution exposure and mortality in Seoul for the years of 1998∼2001. Daily counts of death were analyzed by general additive Poisson model, with adjustment for effects of seasonal trend, air temperature, humidity, and day of the week as confounders in a nonparametric approach. Daily death counts were associated with CO (current day),O$_3$ (current day), PM$_{10}$ (current day), NO$_2$ (1 day before), SO$_2$ (1 day before). Increase of 41.71 $\mu\textrm{g}$/㎥ (interquartile range) in PM$_{10}$ was associated with 1.3% (95% CI = 0.7∼1.9％) increase in the daily number of death. $O_3$ concentrations resulted in an increased risk of 1.3% for 23.86 ppb in all-aged mortality [RR = 1.013 (1.004-1.023)1. This effect was greater in children (less than 15 aged) and elderly (more than 65 aged). After ozone level exceeds 25 ppb, the dose-response relationship between mortality and ozone was almost linear. We concluded that Seoul had 1∼5％ increase in mortality in association with IQR (interquartile range) in air pollutants. Daily variations in air pollution within the range currently occurring in Seoul might have an adverse effect on daily mortality. These findings also support the hypothesis that air pollution, at levels below the current ambient air quality standards of Korea, is harmful to sensitive subjects, such as children or elderly.rly.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.393-405
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• 2018

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are representative air pollutants due to their detrimental effects on human health and their role in formation of secondary organic aerosols. Assessments and monitoring programs of VOCs using periodic grab sampling like Tedlar bags, canisters, and sorbent traps provide limited information, often with delay times of days or weeks. Selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) is an emerging analytical technique for the real-time quantification of VOCs in air. It relies on chemical ionization of the VOCs molecules in air introduced into helium carrier gas using $H_3O^+$, $NO^+$, and $O_2{^+}$ precursor ions. Real-time monitoring method of 60 VOCs in the ambient air was developed using TO-15 standard gas mixture. Calibration curves, method detection limit, and quantitation reproducibility of the target compounds were tested. Dynamic dilution system was used to dilute standard gas from 0.174 ppbv to 100 ppbv, where calibration curves showed good linearity with $r^2$> 0.95 in all target analytes. Limit of detection (LOD) all compounds were sub ppbv, and some halogenated compounds showed pptv levels. Seven consecutive analyses of target compounds showed good repeatability with relative standard deviation of less than 10%. One day monitoring of VOCs in ambient air was conducted in Geoje. Average concentration of target VOCs in Geoje were relatively lower than other regions, among which formaldehyde showed the highest concentration ($15.4{\pm}5.78ppbv$). SIFT-MS provided good temporal resolution data (1 data per 3.2 minute), which can be used for identifying ephemeral short-term event. It is expected that SIFT-MS will be a versatile monitoring platform for VOCs in ambient air.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.191-204
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• 2005

Building and furnishing materials and consumer product are important sources of volatile organic compounds(VOCs) and other aldehydes in the indoor environment. Some available evidence indicates that VOCs can cause adverse health effects to the building occupants and contribute to some of the symptoms of what we call, 'Sick House Syndrome' in Korea. The aims of this study were to evaluate the efficiency of emission system and to investigate comparison of the emission characteristics of different building materials such as wall-papers, paints, and adhesives. The emission of VOCs from building materials were determined in the small chambers defining the temperature, relative humidity, and ventilation rate in this study. VOCs were sampled for 20 minutes using Tenax-TA tubes and analysed by GC-MS with thermal desorption. The stability of conditions for temperature and relative humidity in this small chamber system showed that the fluctuation of temperature was between 25.4$\pm$0.3$^{\circ}C$ and that of relative humidity was 50.2$\pm$0.6$\%$ under the airflow rate of 167 mL/min. The emission tests from building materials resulted in TVOC emission rates of 0.011 $\~$ 3.108 mg/m$^{2}$h after 7 days. The general wall-papers emitted toluene abundantly and the natural wall-papers mainly emitted n-butanol and a minor amount of alkanes compound such as n -tetradecane. The remainder consisted of toluene, m,p -xylene, and styrene. The paints mainly emitted toluene and the adhesives mainly emitted chloroform as well as toluene. As a result, this study is expected to suggest meaningful data for future studies in exposure control through selecting healthy building materials and for the establishment of guidelines for various building materials in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.2_1
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• pp.139-153
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• 2020

Using a computationalfluid dynamics(CFD) model, thisstudy evaluated the representativeness of an air quality monitoring system (AQMS) in an urban area and presented a methodology to determine the suitable AQMS locations for specific purposes. For this, we selected a 1.6 km × 1.6 km area around the Eunpyeong-gu AQMS (AQMS 111181) as a target area. We conducted simulationsfor two emission scenarios (scenario one: air pollutants transported from inflow boundaries, scenario two: air pollutants emitted from roads). Urban airflows were markedly influenced by mountainous terrain located in the northeast and southeast of the target area, and complicated airflow patterns occurred around the buildings. The distributions of air pollutants were dependent on the terrain (mountain) in scenario one, but the road location and building height in scenario 2. We evaluated whether the AQMS could represent the air quality in the target area based on the simulations for two scenarios. The concentrations simulated at the AQMS were similar in magnitude to the layer mean concentrations, which indicated good representativeness for the air quality in the target area. We also suggested which locations were suitable for different measurement purposes (hot spots, clean zones, average zones, shelter zones, equi-background zones).

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.498-506
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• 2007

To reduce the vehicular emissions of air pollutants, various traffic control programs (TCPs) have been used. In 2002, two TCPs have been implemented in Seoul and Busan, respectively. In this study, based on the study results on the effectiveness of the TCP in Seoul (Kim et al., 2005) and Busan (Lee et al., 2006), emission reduction by the TCP in Seoul was estimated and their contribution to the ambient air pollutants' concentrations was discussed. During the TCP period in 2002 at Seoul, emissions of air pollutants were reduced by 35% for CO and $NO_2$, 80% for HC, 23% for $PM_{10}$, and 24% for $SO_2$. Vehicular emission reduction affected the ambient concentrations significantly for $NO_2$. However, for $SO_2$, vehicular emission reduction did not affect the ambient concentration significantly. For $PM_{10}$, vehicular emission reduction did not affect the ambient concentration significantly if considering fugitive emissions.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.277-288
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• 2017

Previous studies of health effects of $PM_{2.5}$ performed spatial monitoring campaigns to assess spatial variability of $PM_{2.5}$ across people's residences. Highly reliable portable and cost-effective samplers will be useful for such campaigns. This study aimed to investigate applicability of the Deployable Particulate Impact Sampler(DPIS), one of the compact impact samplers, to spatial monitoring campaigns of $PM_{2.5}$ in Seoul, Korea. The investigation focused on the consistency of $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations measured by DPISs compared to those by the Low-volume Cyclone sampler (LCS). LCS has operated at a fixed site in the Seoul National University Yeongeon campus, Seoul, Korea since 2003 and provided qualified $PM_{2.5}$ data. $PM_{2.5}$ sampling of DPISs was carried out at the same site from November 17, 2015 through February 3, 2016. $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations were quantified by the gravimetric method. Using a duplicated DPIS, we confirmed the reliability of DPIS by computing relative precision and mean square error-based R squared value ($R^2$). Relative precision was one minus the difference of measurements between two samplers relative to the sum. For accuracy, we compared $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations from four DPISs (DPIS_Tg, DPIS_To, DPIS_Qg, and DPIS_Qo) to those of LCS. Four samplers included two types of collection filters(Teflon, T; quartz, Q) and impaction discs(glass fiber filter, g; pre-oiled porous plastic disc, o). We assessed accuracy using accuracy value which is one minus the difference between DPIS and LCS $PM_{2.5}$ relative to LCS $PM_{2.5}$ in addition to $R^2$. DPIS showed high reliability (average precision=97.28%, $R^2=0.98$). Accuracy was generally high for all DPISs (average accuracy=83.78~88.88%, $R^2=0.89{\sim}0.93$) except for DPIS_Qg (77.35~78.35%, 0.82~0.84). Our results of high accuracy of DPIS compared to LCS suggested that DPIS will help the assessment of people's individual exposure to $PM_{2.5}$ in extensive spatial monitoring campaigns.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.425-437
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• 2001

This study is based on the uses meta-analysis methodology to examine the statistical consistency and importance of random variation among results of epidemiologic studies between air pollutants exposure and childhood asthma. Studies for this meta-analysis were conducted by reviewing previous results and by asking researcher active in this field for recommendations. Overall, 10 cases of air pollutants exposures and childhood asthma were reviewed. A variety of statistical methods for meta-analysis have been used to assess the combined effects, to identify heterogeneity, and to provide a single summary risk estimate based on a set of simiar epidemiologic studies. In this study, classification of exposure metircs on air environmental epidemiologic studies are reported for (1) aggravation of childhood asthma by a 50 ppb increase SO$_2$(6 individual studies); (2) aggravation of childhood asthma by a 50 ppb increase NO$_2$(5 individual studies); (3) aggravation of childhood asthma by a 50 ppb increase $O_3$(7 individual studies); (4) aggravation of childhood asthma by a 10$\mu\textrm{g}$/m$^3$increase PM$_{10}$ (4 individual studies); (5) aggravation of childhood asthma by a 1 ppm increase CO (2 individual studies); and (6) comparison of results between a Korean study results and this meta-analytic study. Results of this study indicated that an inverse-variance weighted pooling of the hospital admission risk at a 1ppm increment of CO levels was 1.12% (95% CI : 1.01 ~ 1.24). The hospital admission risk was estimated to increase 5% (95% CI : 1.02~1.08), 6%(95% CI : 1.04~1.09), and 5% (95% CI : 1.02~1.09) with each 50ppb increase of SO$_2$, NO$_2$, and $O_3$, respectively. In addition, our results lead to a small but significant elevation in risk of 2% (RR = 1.02, 95% CI = 1.01~1.04) with each 10$\mu\textrm{g}$/m$^3$increase of PM$_{10}$ among 4 individual studies. We found a small elevation in risk of childhood asthma, and pooled results of 10 epidemiologic studies of childhood asthma using increase a cut-off-point levels of air pollutants showed a few pieces of evidence. The results of this meta-analysis suggested that air pollution associated with an increased incidence of childhood asthma. According to this study, relationship between exposure to air pollutants and childhood asthma in Korea seem to be high than results of this meta-analysis.sis.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.247-258
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• 2015

Exposure of high concentration of ground-level ozone (GLO) can trigger a variety of health problems including chest pain, coughing, throat irritation, asthma, bronchitis and congestion. There are substantial human and animal toxicological data that support health effects associated with exposure to ozone and associations have been observed with a wide range of outcomes in epidemiological studies. The aim of the present study is to estimate the spatial distributions of GLO using geostatistical method (ordinary kriging) for assessing the exposure level of ozone in the eastern part of Texas, U.S.A. GLO data were obtained from 63 U.S. EPA's monitoring stations distributed in the region of study during the period January, 2012 to December, 2012. The descriptive statistics indicate that the spatial monthly mean of daily maximum 8 hour ozone concentrations ranged from 30.33 ppb (in January) to 48.05 (in June). The monthly mean of daily maximum 8 hour ozone concentrations was relatively low during the winter months (December, January, and February) and the higher values observed during the summer months (April, May, and June). The higher level of spatial variations observed in the months of July (Standard Deviation: 10.33) and August (Standard Deviation: 10.02). This indicates the existence of regional variations in climatic conditions in the study area. The range of the semivariogram models varied from 0.372 (in November) to 15.59 (in April). The value of the range represents the spatial patterns of ozone concentrations. Kriging maps revealed that the spatial patterns of ozone concentration were not uniform in each month. This may be due to uneven fluctuation in the local climatic conditions from one region to another. Thus, the formation and dispersion processes of ozone also change unevenly from one region to another. The ozone maps clearly indicate that the concentration values found maximum in the north-east region of the study area in most of the months. Part of the coastal area also showed maximum concentrations during the months of October, November, December, and January.