Abstract
Abstract. The impact of regional emissions (e.g., domestic and international) on surface particulate matter (PM) concentrations in the Seoul metropolitan area (SMA), South Korea, and its sensitivities to meteorology and emissions inventories are quantitatively estimated for 2014 using regional air quality modeling systems. Located on the downwind side of strong sources of anthropogenic emissions, South Korea bears the full impact of the regional transport of pollutants and their precursors. However, the impact of foreign emissions sources has not yet been fully documented. We utilized two regional air quality simulation systems: (1) a Weather Research and Forecasting and Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) system and (2) a United Kingdom Met Office Unified Model and CMAQ system. The following combinations of emissions inventories are used: the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment-Phase B, the Inter-comparison Study for Asia 2010, and the National Institute of Environment Research Clean Air Policy Support System. Partial contributions of domestic and foreign emissions are estimated using a brute force approach, adjusting South Korean emissions to 50 %. Results show that foreign emissions contributed ∼ 60 % of SMA surface PM concentration in 2014. Estimated contributions display clear seasonal variation, with foreign emissions having a higher impact during the cold season (fall to spring), reaching ∼ 70 % in March, and making lower contributions in the summer, ∼ 45 % in September. We also found that simulated surface PM concentration is sensitive to meteorology, but estimated contributions are mostly consistent. Regional contributions are also found to be sensitive to the choice of emissions inventories.
Highlights
Regional air quality in East Asia has been a serious concern accompanying this region’s rapid economic growth
Better understanding of how each emissions source contributes to overall air quality helps to maximize the efficiency of emissions regulation, both domestically and internationally, with as little damage to the current economy as possible accompanied by maximum environmental improvement
In the context of the source–receptor relationship, positive matrix factorization (PMF) using the potential source contribution function (PSCF) or chemical mass balance (CMB) has been a popular approach associated with Lagrangian trajectory models
Summary
Regional air quality in East Asia has been a serious concern accompanying this region’s rapid economic growth. The rapid increase in industrialization and energy consumption in China, especially, has sharply increased the release of anthropogenic pollutants and their precursors (Ohara et al, 2007; Richter et al, 2005; Streets, 2003; Zhang et al, 2009). South Korea and Japan, located on the downwind side of China, have experienced the impact of transported pollutants and precursors from this neighboring country, one of the most dominant sources of anthropogenic emissions. Longrange transport in East Asia has been studied to understand the pathways and impacts of dust storms, known as Asian dust or yellow sand
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