Chemical Composition and Features of Asian Dust Observed in Korea (2000～2002)

The ambient TSP data measured at Seoul, Incheon. Taean, Daegu, Busan in Korea were used to explain the chemical composition and general features of Asian Dust (AD) observed in Korea. 9 episodes out of 19 were sampled from 2000 through May 2002, and measurements were conducted covering ionic and metal components with mass concentration. The results showed that daily averaged mass concentration (TSP) during the AD episodes was 458 /㎥, and ionic and metal concentrations were 27.93 /㎥ and 71.7 /㎥, respectively, accounting for 6.1 % and 15.5% of the total aerosol mass. TSP concentrations during episodes were varied from 120 to 1742 /㎥ according to the impact of Asian Dusts and had a tendency of showing higher values at sites in the west side of Korea, which can be explained by the effect of diffusion and deposition. In this study, ionic components like Ca (NO), CaSO, NaNO, NaSO were prominent types in secondary aerosol during AD periods and also indicated that V, Co as well as soil elements such as Ca, Fe, Mg, Mn, K correlated well with Al, while Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn didn't agree well with it. In addition, enrichment factors (EFs) for each metal component were obtained to provide simple information about source contribution of Asian Dust, and the results were compared with those from other AD studies. In this study, the results showed that aerosol properties in Korea during the Asian Dust were considerably different from those of general atmospheric condition and specially varied from case to case rather than site to site, which implies that there are certain variations in the soil of source region, pathways of air mass, and meteorological condition. For the enhanced study, those factors should be combined with the features of Asian Dust resolved from this study.