Abstract
During December 2016, airborne aerosol measurements were taken at multiple heights across the Korean Peninsula to examine the vertical properties of aerosols. This study showed that aerosols above the planetary boundary layer (PBL) show similar concentrations and particle size distributions (PSDs), regardless of the relative locations in Korea. On the other hand, aerosols within the PBL differ depending on the geographical location, origin and path of the air mass. The concentrations are the highest in Seoul, followed by Gangneung, East Sea and the Yellow Sea. The known east–west aerosol gradient did not appear and the reasons are discussed in this paper. The study further shows that the aerosols of upwind regions affect the aerosols above the PBL, whereas aerosols in the PBL are affected by local sources and atmospheric conditions in addition to aerosols of upwind areas.
Highlights
Aerosols considerably affect human health, air quality and climate systems through the radiative budget by directly scattering and absorbing aerosols and indirectly interacting with clouds [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
This study provides the first vertical structure of aerosols over the inland of the Korean Peninsula using in situ aircraft measurement
This study provides in situ aerosol measurements over the Korean Peninsula, obtained in and above the planetary boundary layer (PBL), and the results can be used to validate the aerosol retrievals from remote sensors
Summary
Aerosols considerably affect human health, air quality and climate systems through the radiative budget by directly scattering and absorbing aerosols and indirectly interacting with clouds [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. This study provides the first vertical structure of aerosols (concentration and size distribution of aerosols) over the inland of the Korean Peninsula using in situ aircraft measurement. This study provides in situ aerosol measurements over the Korean Peninsula, obtained in and above the PBL, and the results can be used to validate the aerosol retrievals from remote sensors. East Asia is a region where a diverse and extensive source of aerosols exists, limited data on aerosol properties are available, especially as a function of height above the surface As this is the first vertical measurements made over the inland of Korean Peninsula, this study focuses on analyzing the vertical structure of aerosols measured over the Yellow Sea, Seoul, Gangneung and East Sea by the aircraft transects from east to west in the Korean Peninsula. Previous studies [19,21] have shown the east–west aerosol gradients across the Korean Peninsula; this study further verifies the east–west gradients of the total aerosol number concentrations (Ncn)
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