• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.243-257
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• 2005

The effects of Traffic Control Program (TCP) on the ambient urban air quality of SO$_{2}$, NO$_{2}$, O$_{3}$, and PM$_{10}$ were evaluated in Seoul metropolitan area by using the lower atmospheric vertical stability index and daily mean wind speeds. The vertical stability index; temperature lapse rate between 1000 hPa and 850 hPa geopotential height fields, were used to identify daily vertical stability index during the 2002 World Cup period where traffic amount was reportedly reduced to half the number of vehicles. The indicated air quality levels of TCP days were then compared with those of the cases observed with analogous vertical stability during the recent 3 years from 2000 to 2002. The result indicates that the effect of TCP on the primary air pollutants are found to be approximately 39$\%$, 23$\%$ and 20$\%$ lower for SO$_{2}$, NO$_{2}$ and PM$_{10}$, respectively. The secondary air pollutant; ozone, showed relatively smaller decreasing rate (13$\%$) of daily mean concentrations (even increased during the night time). The comparison of daily maximum or peak concentrations reveals that the pronounced decreasing effects of TCP on the ambient air quality for both primary and secondary air pollutants, suggesting that TCP is one of the effective strategies to control peak or higher concentrations for most urban scale air pollutants in and around the Seoul metropolitan area.