• Atmosphere
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.233-255
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• 2024

This study analyzed the distribution of Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) Version 3 Level 2.0 data, spanning over two decades, across South Korea and its six administrative regions (Seoul metropolitan area, Chungcheong, Jeolla, Gangwon, Gyeongsang, and Jeju). The research assessed long-term trends in aerosol optical depth (AOD) and mass concentration of particulate matter (i.e., PM₁₀ and PM_2.5), using data from the AERONET direct sun product and AirKorea, respectively. Additionally, eight aerosol types were identified using the scattering Ångström exponent and absorption Ångström exponent from the AERONET inversion product. The study further explored their domestic and regional distributions. Findings indicated that AERONET data were predominantly concentrated in the western regions of South Korea, including the Seoul metropolitan area, Chungcheong, and Jeolla, with a higher frequency of data in spring, thus demonstrating spatial and temporal heterogeneity. The annual average AOD exhibited a declining trend of -0.006 yr^-1. Similarly, PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 mass concentrations decreased by -1.324 ㎍ m^-3 yr^-1 and -1.335 ㎍ m^-3 yr^-1, respectively. These trends in AOD and PM₁₀ (PM_2.5) demonstrated positive correlations, with correlation coefficients of 0.674 (0.753) and statistically significant low p-values of 0.00058 (0.03), respectively. The analysis also revealed that aerosols in South Korea predominantly consisted of black carbon (BC) or BC-mixed types (84.09%), with a notable presence of smaller, less absorbent aerosol types (13.11%).

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.128-148
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• 2019

Massive environmental monitoring has been conducted continuously since the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power accident in March of 2011 by different monitoring methods that have different features together with migration studies of radiocesium in diverse environments. These results have clarified the characteristics of radiological environments and their temporal change around the Fukushima site. At three months after the accident, multiple radionuclides including radiostrontium and plutonium were detected in many locations; and it was confirmed that radiocesium was most important from the viewpoint of long-term exposure. Radiation levels around the Fukushima site have decreased greatly over time. The decreasing trend was found to change variously according to local conditions. The air dose rates in environments related to human living have decreased faster than expected from radioactive decay by a factor of 2-3 on average; those in pure forest have decreased more closely to physical decay. The main causes of air dose rate reduction were judged to be radioactive decay, movement of radiocesium in vertical and horizontal directions, and decontamination. Land-use categories and human activities have significantly affected the reduction tendency. Difference in the air dose rate reduction trends can be explained qualitatively according to the knowledge obtained in radiocesium migration studies; whereas, the quantitative explanation for individual sites is an important future challenge. The ecological half-lives of air dose rates have been evaluated by several researchers, and a short-term half-life within 1 year was commonly observed in the studies. An empirical model for predicting air dose rate distribution was developed based on statistical analysis of an extensive car-borne survey dataset, which enabled the prediction with confidence intervals. Different types of contamination maps were integrated to better quantify the spatial data. The obtained data were used for extended studies such as for identifying the main reactor that caused the contamination of arbitrary regions and developing standard procedures for environmental measurement and sampling. Annual external exposure doses for residents who intended to return to their homes were estimated as within a few millisieverts. Different forms of environmental data and knowledge have been provided for wide spectrum of people. Diverse aspects of lessons learned from the Fukushima accident, including practical ones, must be passed on to future generations.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.148-159
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• 2020

This study investigated the seasonal and inter-annual changes in vertical distribution and size spectrum of walleye pollock, Gadus chalcogrammus inhabiting middle eastern coast of Korea (hear after pollock). Pollock was distributed between 50 m and 600 m depth range, and body size (total length) ranged from 16.6 cm to 81.5 cm. The trends of population body size were increased in autumn and winter and decreased in spring and summer. Vertical distribution of pollock showned depth-dependent patterns with distributing smaller individuals mainly in the upper layer (shallower depth), while larger fish in deeper habitats. Those patterns in vertical distribution of pollock population is probably due to be the results of energy-saving strategy, metabolic effects, and changes in prey selections according to pollock growth, derived from spatial and temporal changes in oceanic condition in habitat grounds. When water temperature in upper layer were increased and that of below thermocline depth became decreased in 2017, the ratio of smaller (<35 cm) and larger (≥35 cm) individuals was biased toward larger fishes, extending their distribution into shallow depth, and consequently main fishing ground was formed in far from coastal area. In addition, the ratio of smaller individual distributing between 100~300 m was increased with decreasing temperature gradient between below thermocline and bottom layer. Changes in spatial and temporal distributions of pollock population likely be related with vertical and horizontal changes in oceanic conditions and, consequently food supplies.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.119-128
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• 2007

Grain-size trend analysis is the methodology to obtain the net sediment transport pattern from the spatial trends of grain size parameters. It has the potentials to be an effective tool to address the morphological changes of the deltaic barrier islands in the Nakdoog River once we make sure net transport patterns inferred from grain size trend analysis represent the morphological evolution patterns. This research aims to investigate the applicability of the net transport patterns obtained by 'transport vector', proposed by Gao and Collins(1992), to understanding the morphological changes of the Nakdong River deltaic barrier islands. The results indicate that the net transport directions are overall in concordance with the morphological evolution patterns; however, the level of concordance is low in the island with fast growing rate. The reasons may be match or mismatch of temporal scales involved between processes represented by net transport patterns and morphological change analyzed or the rate of morphological change. Consequently, the application of grain size trend analysis in analyzing the morphological changes of deltaic barrier islands requires the careful consideration of temporal scales involved.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.11 no.E
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• pp.55-62
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• 1995

The distribution of airborne mercury was investigated from several districts of Seoul, five other major cities and two rural areas during the period April, 1994 to March, 1995. The method used in this study involves absorption of gaseous mercury on CHromosorb$^R$ A coated with gold and detection by cold vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy. The atmospheric mercury concentrations in Seoul ranged from N.D. to 120.17 ng m$^3$ (mean 27.01 $\pm 9.42 ng m^{-3}, N=139$), while those in rural areas ranged from 1.72 to 8.24 ng $m^{-3} (mean 4.57 \pm 3.07 ng m^{-3}, N=5$). The spatial distribution characteristics of mercury distribution in urban air were examined by comparing mercury levels as a function of the distance from the urban center. Temporal distribution trends of airborne mercury were also studied using the monthly mean mercury data of various districts in Seoul. The atmospheric mercury concentration around Mokdong wastes incinerator in Seoul were also investigated.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.90-102
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• 2015

To understand the hyrogeochemical variation of bedrock aquifer during underground space construction, various graphical methods including multiple-component plots and chemical trends were used to estimate the mixing rate between seawater and freshwater and to investigate the evolution of water quality. The water chemistry and mixing rate between fresh and sea waters, which are generally localized in the construction area (MW-7, in land), shows typical characteristics of freshwater that doesn’t affect its validity as seawater intrusion. Especially, the water chemistry of a MW-4 (coastline) was classified as Na-Cl type, Na-HCO₃ type, and Ca-Cl type due to the influence of the seawater intrusion. And hydrogeochemical and isotopic data show that local freshwater is subjected to geochemical processes, such as reverse ion-exchange. Throughout the Chadha’s diagrams, four different case histories with the temporal and spatial variation of groundwaters in the study area were proposed, which is recommended to interpret the hydrogeochemical reactions effectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1510-1517
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• 1995

A theoretical method is described to simulate the propagation of turbulent premixed flames in a closed vessel. The objective is to develop and test an efficient technique to predict the propagation speed of flame as well as the geometric structure of the flame surfaces. Flame is advected by the statistically generated turbulent flow field and propagates as a wave by solving twodimensional Hamilton-Jacobi equation. In the simulation of the unburned gas flow field, following turbulence properties were satisfied: mean velocity field, turbulence intensities, spatial and temporal correlations of velocity fluctuations. It is assumed that these properties are not affected by the expansion of the burned gas region. Predictions were compared with existing experimental data for flames propagating in a closed vessel charged with hydrogen/air mixture with various turbulence intensities and Reynolds numbers. Comparisons were made in flame radius growth rate, rms flame radius fluctuations, and average perimeter and fractal dimensions of the flame boundaries. Two dimensional time dependent simulation resulted in correct trends of the measured flame data. The reasonable behavior and high efficiency proves the usefulness of this method in difficult problems of flame propagation such as in internal combustion engines.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.22-31
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• 2016

Active fire products from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite observation during the 16 years from 2000-2015 were analyzed to estimate spatial and temporal variations of wildland fires over East Asia (region of interest: $20^{\circ}N-55^{\circ}N$, $100^{\circ}E-150^{\circ}E$). GLOBCOVER 2009 land cover data were also used to investigate the trend in wildfire occurrence with respect to each land cover type. Statistical analysis showed that the highest number of wildland fires occurred in the evergreen and vegetation covered areas, and strong seasonal variations were found in these areas. Total numbers of fires were 283,683 and 202,543, respectively. In particular, the wildland fires in croplands occurred mainly during summer season and distinguishable increasing trends were found. The correlations between number of wildland fires and air pollutants, such as black carbon, organic matter, and carbon monoxide, were also calculated in order to investigate the intensity of the air pollution caused by the wildland fires. Positive correlation between total column carbon monoxide contents and the occurrence of wildland fire was found. In addition, this correlation was higher than the correlation between fire occurrence and black carbon or organic matter. These results indicate that a significant amount of carbon monoxide originated from the wildland fires and influenced the regional atmospheric environment in East Asia.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.657-662
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• 2013

The comparison between $CO_2$ volume mixing ratios observed by GOSAT and TCCON from September 2009 through November 2012 was performed at Tsukuba and Saga, two downwind sites in East Asia. The temporal trends of $CO_2$ values obtained from GOSAT show good agreement with those observed by TCCON at these two by the TCCON, showing a coefficient of determination ($R^2$) of 0.65. The regression slop we obtained was 0.92, showing a small bias of GOSAT $CO_2$ values compared to those observed by TCCON. However, we found the higher correlation in fall and winter than that in spring and summer. The $CO_2$ volume mixing ratios observ sites. The $CO_2$ volume mixing ratios observed by GOSAT are also in good agreement with those measured ed by GOSAT are in good agreement with those measured by the TCCON at those two sites in fall and winter, showing a coefficient of determination ($R^2$) of 0.66 where as the correlation of determination obtained between GOSAT and TCCON was only 0.27 in spring and summer.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.377-397
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• 2005

A new box model is proposed to describe the dynamic trend of the spatially averaged concentrations of pollutants over a large urban area such as metropolitan Seoul. Being averaged temporally and spatially over a thresh-hold scales, the dynamics of the pollutant concentration becomes simple enough that the governing equation can be expressed in an explicit algebraic form as a function of several meteorological factors and the pollutant emission rate. The single most important meteorological factor is the wind speed dominating the daily variations of the pollutant concentrations. Given the meteorological data from the surface station in the metropolitan Seoul, the model concentration shows excellent agreement with observations from January 1, 1990 to December 31, 2000: the modeling uncertainty, for example, of $NO_2$ concentrations, defined as mean differences between the model concentrations and observations is $16\%$ of the model concentrations. Even for $PM_{10}$ of which secondary sources are considered to be very important and simple box model is irrelevant to, the model performance turns out good, modeling uncertainty being about $32\%$.