2020년 6월부터 8월까지 일본 도쿄 남쪽 940 km 해상에 위치한 니시노시마 화산이 분화하였다. 2020년 7월 말 발생한 분화로 인한 화산재와 화산가스 일부가 우리나라에 영향을 주었을 가능성이 있는 것으로 보도되었다. 본 연구에 서는 화산재 확산 수치모의 프로그램인 Ash3D를 이용하여 현지시각 2 02 0년 7월 2 8일 0시에 화산폭발지수 3의 분화가 발생한 것으로 설정하고 수치모의를 실시하였다. 수치모의 결과, 화산재가 니시노시마 인근에서 동풍을 타고 7월 30일 새벽 오키나와에 도달한 이후 남풍을 타고 북상하여 8월 1일 제주도에 상륙하고 시계방향으로 회전하듯이 이동하면서 8월 2일에는 남부지방에 영향을 주는 것으로 나타났다. 실제 측정된 PM10 미세먼지농도는 제주도 고산기상관측소에서 8월 1일부터, 부산 구덕산기상관측소에서는 8월 2일부터 상승한 것으로 나타나 니시노시마 화산 분화가 제주도 및 남 부지방의 미세먼지 수치에 영향을 준 것으로 보인다.

The concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and odor-inducing substances were measured using selected ion flow tube mass spectrometers (SIFT-MS) and a drone equipped with an air quality monitoring system. SIFT-MS can continuously measure the concentration of VOCs and odor-inducing substances in realtime without any pre-treating steps for the sample. The vehicle with SIFT-MS was used for real-time measurement of VOC concentration at the site boundaries of pollution sources. It is possible to directly analyze VOCs concentration generated at the outlets by capturing air from the pollution sources with a drone. VOCs concentrations of nine spots from Banwol National Industrial Complex were measured by a vehicle equipped with SIFT-MS and were compared with the background concentration measured inside the Metropolitan Air Quality Management Office. In three out of the nine spots, the concentration of toluene, xylene, hydrogen sulfide, and methyl ethyl ketone was shown to be much higher than the background concentration. The VOCs concentrations obtained using drones for high-concentration suspected areas showed similar tendencies as those measured using the vehicle with SIFTMS at the site boundary. We showed that if both the drone and real-time air quality monitoring equipment are used to measure VOCs concentration, it is possible to identify the pollutant sources at the industrial complex quickly and efficiently check sites with high concentrations of VOCs.

한반도 인근 화산분화에 의한 대기질 Worst-case 시나리오 선정을 위해 HYSPLIT을 이용하여 공기괴 이동을 분석하였다. 백두산, 아소산 및 다루마에산에서의 분화를 가정하여 3시간 간격으로 91일 간 (2010년 4월 1일 - 6월 30일) 공기괴(air parcel) 전진궤적 (forward-trajectory)을 생성하였다. 생성궤적에 대해 군집분석, GIS 분석을 수행하였으며 분석결과를 토대로 각 화산의 분화사례일을 대기질 측면의 중요도로서 평가하여 다섯 단계로 분류하였다. 제시된 사례일 중 대기질 측면에서의 중요도가 가장 높은 분화사례일 (class A)은 백두산 5월 13일, 6월 2일, 6월 22일, 아소산 4월 9일, 6월 13일, 6월 17일, 6월 24일, 다루마에산 5월 29일로 평가되었다. 또한 시나리오 선정에 있어 모사기간 및 도메인 설정에 고려할 수 있는 한국상공 진입 공기괴 궤적의 시공간적 분포 및 이동 패턴 분석결과를 분석대상 화산별로 제시하였다.

The spatial resolution of 3-Dimensional numerical model has a very important influence on the model result. The land-use and orographic effect is also influenced by the spatial resolution of the model. A large errors in model performance are produced depending on the terrain complexity. In this study we performed Air Quality Forecast model (AQF) simulation and analyzed the change in the ozone concentration depending on spatial resolution at small and medium-sized mixed areas with urban and rural area types. As the result, improving the spatial resolution improved the simulation of the downward trend of ozone at night. This was mainly due to improvement of local concentration contaminants at fragmented grid. In the case of wind speed, the model with high-resolution shows better agreement with observation at night.

본 연구의 목적은 휘발성 유기화합물(VOC)과 먼지(PM)의 배출원 프로파일로부터 화학종 분류를 할당하고, 성김 행렬 조작자 핵심 배출량 시스템(SMOKE) 내에 배출원 분류코드에 따른 배출원 프로파일의 화학종 분류와 시간분배계수를 수정하는 것이다. 기솔린, 디젤 증기, 도장, 세탁, LPG 등과 같은 VOC 배출원 프로파일로부터 화학 종 분류는 탄소 결합 IV (CBIV) 화학 메커니즘과 주 규모 대기오염연구센터 99 (SAPRC99) 화학 메커니즘을 위해 각각 12종과 34종을 포함한다. 또한 토양, 도로먼지, 가솔린, 디젤차, 산업기원, 도시 소각장, 탄 연소 발전소, 생체 연소, 해안 등과 같은 PM2.5 배출원 프로파일로부터 화학종 분류는 미세 먼지, 유기탄소, 원소 탄소, 질산염과 황산염의 5종으로 할당하였다. 게다가 점 및 선 배출원의 시간 프로파일은 2007년 수도권 지역에서의 굴뚝 원격감시시스템(TMS)과 시간별 교통 흐름 자료로부터 구하였다. 특별히 점 배출원에 있어 오존 모델링을 위한 시간분배계수는 굴뚝 원격감시시스템 자료의 NOX 배출량 인벤토리에 근거하여 추정하였다.

From January 1, 2020, the International Maritime Organization has implemented a global regulation, known as IMO 2020, to reduce the sulfur content in fuel oil of ships from 3.5% to 0.5%. In this study, we used data from air monitoring stations to evaluate the change in air quality at New Port and North Port in Korea areas after the regulation was implemented. The concentration of SO2 and NO2 was higher in the port areas than in the surrounding areas due to exhaust gas from ships and vehicles. However, the SO2 concentration decreased by more than 50% in the port area, demonstrating the efficiency and positive effect of the IMO 2020 sulfur limit.

It is well known that atmospheric environments, including both meteorology and air quality, significantly affect public health, such as chronic lung disease and cancer, and respiratory infections. In this study, we have analyzed correlations between the number of daily respiratory outpatients and the atmospheric environments data for about ten years for the city of Busan, South Korea. The respiratory problem patients data have been categorized into two health-vulnerable groups by age over 65(DayPA_O65) and under 20(DayPA_U20), each of which shows relatively higher correlations with air quality and meteorology, respectively. However, time series analysis with factor separation results in that DayPA_O65 and DayPA_U20 show a higher relation with variance components and daily irregular factors of atmospheric concentrations, respectively.

To address the increase of weather hazards and the emergence of new types of such hazards, an optimization technique for three-dimensional (3D) representation of meteorological facts and atmospheric information was examined in this study as a novel method for weather analysis. The proposed system is termed as “meteorological and air quality information visualization engine” (MAIVE), and it can support several file formats and can implement high-resolution 3D terrain by employing a 30 m resolution digital elevation model. In this study, latest 3D representation techniques such as wind vector fields, contour maps, stream vector, stream line flow along the wind field and 3D volume rendering were applied. Implementation of the examples demonstrates that the results of numerical modeling are well reflected, and new representation techniques can facilitate the observation of meteorological factors and atmospheric information from different perspectives.

Meteorological factors and air pollutants are associated with respiratory diseases, and appropriate use of weather and air quality information is helpful in the management of patients with such diseases. This study was performed to investigate both the utilization of weather and air quality information by, and the needs of, patients with respiratory diseases. Questionnaires were administered to 112 patients with respiratory diseases, 60.7% of whom were female. The rates of bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among patients were 67.0% and 10.7%, respectively. The majority of subjects (90%) responded that prevention was important for respiratory disease management and indicated that they used weather and air quality information either every day or occasionally. However, respondents underestimated the importance of weather and air quality information for disease management and were unaware of some types of weather information. The subjects agreed that respiratory diseases were sensitive to weather and air quality. The most important weather-related factors were diurnal temperature range, minimum temperature, relative humidity, and wind, while those for air quality were particulate matter and Asian dust. Information was gleaned mainly from television programs in patients aged 60 years and older and from smartphone applications for those below 60 years of age. The subjects desired additional information on the management and prevention of respiratory diseases. This study identified problems regarding the utility of weather and air quality information currently available for patients with respiratory diseases, who indicated that they desired disease-related information, including information in the form of action plans, rather than simple health- and air quality-related information. This study highlights the necessity for notification services that can be used to easily obtain information, specifically regarding disease management.

Temporal and spatial characteristics of the frequency of several weather types and the change in air pollutant concentrations according to these weather types were analyzed over a decade (2007-2016) in seven major cities and a remote area in Korea. This analysis was performed using hourly (or daily) observed data of weather types (e.g., mist, haze, fog, precipitation, dust, and thunder and lighting) and air pollutant criteria (PM10, PM2.5, O3, NO2, CO, and SO2). Overall, the most frequent weather type across all areas during the study period was found to be mist (39%), followed by precipitation (35%), haze (17%), and the other types (≤ 4%). In terms of regional frequency distributions, the highest frequency of haze (26%) was in Seoul (especially during winter and May-June), possibly due to the high population and air pollutant emission sources, while that of precipitation (47%) was in Jeju (summer and winter), due to its geographic location with the sea on four sides and a very high mountain. PM10 concentrations for dust and haze were significantly higher in three cities (up to 250 μg/m3 for dust in Incheon), whereas those for the other four types were relatively lower. The concentrations of PM2.5 and its major precursor gases (NO2 and SO2) were higher (up to 69 μg/m3, 48 ppb, and 16 ppb, respectively, for haze in Incheon) for haze and/or dust than for the other weather types. On the other hand, there were no distinct differences in the concentrations of O3 and CO for the weather types. The overall results of this study confirm that the frequency of weather types and the related air quality depend on the geographic and environmental characteristics of the target areas.

In this study, to investigate an optimal configuration method for the modeling system, we performed an optimization experiment by controlling the types of compilers and libraries, and the number of CPU cores because it was important to provide reliable model data very quickly for the national air quality forecast. We were made up the optimization experiment of twelve according to compilers (PGI and Intel), MPIs (mvapich-2.0, mvapich-2.2, and mpich-3.2) and NetCDF (NetCDF-3.6.3 and NetCDF-4.1.3) and performed wall clock time measurement for the WRF and CMAQ models based on the built computing resources. In the result of the experiment according to the compiler and library type, the performance of the WRF (30 min 30 s) and CMAQ (47 min 22 s) was best when the combination of Intel complier, mavapich-2.0, and NetCDF-3.6.3 was applied. Additionally, in a result of optimization by the number of CPU cores, the WRF model was best performed with 140 cores (five calculation servers), and the CMAQ model with 120 cores ( five calculation servers). While the WRF model demonstrated obvious differences depending on the number of CPU cores rather than the types of compilers and libraries, CMAQ model demonstrated the biggest differences on the combination of compilers and libraries.

On June 5, 2008, the “Act on Special Cases Concerning the Simplification of Authorization and Permission Procedures for Industrial Complexes” (Act No. 9106) was enacted. When it was implemented in August 2008, many industrial complex development projects were established, and the number of industrial complexes growth rates of 3 6% during 2003 2007 rose to around 15% in 2008. With the increase in industrial complexes, the environmental impacts of individual projects were examined, but comprehensive regional reviews of environmental impacts were not undertaken. In this study, we determined changes in air quality by applying the industrial complex development plan that completed the consultation at the end of 2010 to assess the comprehensive regional environmental impacts and presented the adequacy review plan for future industrial development plans based on the study’s results. When considering these industrial complex development plans, emissions in North Jeolla and South Chungcheong Provinces and Daegu City have increased significantly. Air quality analyses showed that the 24 h mean SO2 concentration in Daegu increased by more than 50% in summer compared to air quality concentrations in summer. The 24 h mean PM10 and NO2 concentrations increased by approximately 12 and 30%, respectively, in North Jeolla Province in summer. Areas exceeding the air quality standard for 1 h mean O3 concentration increased by more than 3,500 km2. Based on the above analysis, changes in air quality should be anticipated through a comprehensive evaluation of long-term development plans. Furthermore, control of air quality in accordance with the development of future industrial complexes is possible.

The initial and boundary conditions are important factors in regional chemical transport modeling systems. The method of generating the chemical boundary conditions for regional air quality models tends to be different from the dynamically varying boundary conditions in global chemical transport models. In this study, the impact of real time Copernicus atmosphere monitoring service (CAMS) re-analysis data from the modeling atmospheric composition and climate project interim implementation (MACC) on the regional air quality in the Korean Peninsula was carried out using the community multi-scale air quality modeling system (CMAQ). A comparison between conventional global data and CAMS for numerical assessments was also conducted. Although the horizontal resolution of the CAMS re-analysis data is not higher than the conventionally provided data, the simulated particulate matter (PM) concentrations with boundary conditions for CAMS re-analysis is more reasonable than any other data, and the estimation accuracy over the entire Korean peninsula, including the Seoul and Daegu metropolitan areas, was improved. Although an inland area such as the Daegu metropolitan area often has large uncertainty in PM prediction, the level of improvement in the prediction for the Daegu metropolitan area is higher than in the coastal area of the western part of the Korean peninsula.

In order to improve the prediction of the regional air quality modeling in the Seoul metropolitan area, a sensitivity analysis using two PBL and microphysics (MP) options of the WRF model was performed during four seasons. The results from four sets of the simulation experiments (EXPs) showed that meteorological variables (especially wind field) were highly sensitive to the choice of PBL options (YSU or MYJ) and no significant differences were found depending on MP options (WDM6 or Morrison) regardless of specific time periods, i.e. day and night, during four seasons. Consequently, the EXPs being composed of YSU PBL option were identified to produce better results for meteorological elements (especially wind field) regardless of seasons. On the other hand, the accuracy of all simulations for summer and winter was somewhat lower than those for spring and autumn and the effect according to physics options was highly volatile by geographical characteristics of the observation site.