Abstract
This study investigates the uncertainties associated with estimates of the long-range transport SO2 (LRT-SO2) flow rate calculated hourly using Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) synthetic radiances. These radiances were simulated over the Korean Peninsula and the surrounding regions using inputs from the GEOS-Chem model for January, April, July, and October 2016. The LRT-SO2 calculation method, which requires SO2 vertical column densities, wind data, and planetary boundary layer information, was used to quantify the effects of the SO2 slant column density (SCD) retrieval error and uncertainties in wind data on the accuracy of the LRT-SO2 estimates. The effects were estimated for simulations of three anthropogenic and three volcanic SO2 transport events. When there were no errors in the GEMS SO2 SCD and wind data, the average true LRT-SO2 flow rates (standard deviation) and those calculated for these events were 1.17 (± 0.44) and 1.21 (±0.44) Mg/h, respectively. However, the averages of the true LRT-SO2 flow rates and those calculated for the three anthropogenic (volcanic) SO2 events were 0.61 (1.17) and 0.64 (1.20) Mg/h, respectively, in the presence of GEMS SO2 SCD errors. In the presence of both errors in the GEMS SO2 SCD and wind data, the averages of the true LRT-SO2 flow rates and those calculated for the three anthropogenic (volcanic) SO2 events were 0.61 (1.17) and 0.61 (1.04) Mg/h, respectively. This corresponds to differences of 2.1% to 23.1% between the simulated and true mean LRT-SO2 flow rates. The mean correlation coefficient (R), intercept, and slope between the true and simulated LRT-SO2 flow rates were 0.51, 0.43, and 0.45 for the six simulated events, respectively. This study demonstrates that SO2 SCD accuracy is an important factor in improving estimates of LRT-SO2 flow rates.
Highlights
The aim of this study is to quantify the contribution of the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) SO2 slant column density (SCD) retrieval errors and wind data uncertainties to the errors associated with estimates of long-range transport SO2 (LRT-SO2) flow rate
We investigated the uncertainties in the LRT-SO2 flow rate under the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 1440 condition and for various wind data with random errors ranging from −15% to +15%
We evaluated the accuracy of the LRT-SO2 flow rates calculated under the conditions of the true SO2 vertical column density (VCD) and wind data
Summary
Most of the SO2 in the atmosphere is emitted from anthropogenic sources such as fossil fuel combustion, some is emitted from natural sources such as volcanoes [7,8,9]. These SO2 emissions can, either directly or indirectly, adversely affect human health and the environment [9]. The significant effects of atmospheric SO2 on human health include cardiopulmonary disease, pulmonary edema, Remote Sens.
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