Temporal and Spatial Variations in Fine and Coarse Particles in Seoul, Korea

ABSTRACT

Concentrations of fine (PM_2.5) and coarse (PM_10–2.5) particles, whose aerodynamic diameters are less than or equal to 2.5 µm, and greater than 2.5 and less than or equal to 10 µm, respectively, at ambient air monitoring stations in Seoul between 2002 and 2008 were analyzed. Effects of Asian dust are mainly manifested as concentration spikes of PM_10–2.5, but were considerable on PM_2.5 levels in 2002 when Asian dust storms were the strongest. Excluding the effects of Asian dust, annual average PM_2.5 showed a downward trend. Despite a similarity in year-to-year variations, PM_10–2.5, mostly affected by fugitive dust emissions, and CO and NO₂, primarily affected by motor vehicle emissions, did not show a decrease. PM_2.5 along with CO and NO₂ had peak concentration during the morning rush hour; the PM_10–2.5 peak lagged one hour behind the PM_2.5 peak. On high PM_2.5 days, PM_2.5 peaks occurred two hours later than usual as the effects of secondary formation through photochemical reactions became more important. A test for the spatial variability shows that PM_10–2.5, which is known to be greatly influenced by local effects, is lower in its correlation coefficient and higher in its coefficient of divergence (COD, which serves as an indicator for spatial variability) than PM_2.5, albeit by only a small difference. The average COD of PM_2.5 among monitoring stations was about 0.2 but was lowered to 0.13 when considering high PM_2.5 days only, signifying that spatial uniformity increases due to the pervasive influence of photochemical reactions.