Estimation of Dust Emission Amount for a Dust Storm Event Occurred in April 1998 in China

The threshold friction velocities for dust rises in inland China are examined using WMO synoptic station data and the soil types in the source region to estimate dust emission amounts for a dust event occurred from 13 to 24 April 1998 in China. The dust-rise reports in the WMO synoptic data are used for the delineation of dust source regions that are found to be composed of the Gobi, Sand and Loess regions according to soil types in inland China. The estimated threshold friction velocities with the use of wind speeds observed in the Gobi, Sand and Loess regions are found to be about 60, 50, and 40 cm s^-1, respectively. The estimated dust-rise occurrencegrids by both the grid interpolated observed wind and the MM5 model wind well coincide with the areas of strong wind speeds. However, the dust-rise areas estimated by the model are larger than those estimated by the observed wind, whereas the friction velocities estimated by the model in the dust-rise areas are much smaller than those estimated by the observed wind, which result in less amount of dust emission by the model in all source regions. The 10-day accumulated total dust emission estimated by the observed wind during the dust storm event is found to be 4.64 × 10⁸ ton in the whole source region of 3.29 × 10⁶ km². Of which 85, 9 and 6% are, respectively, contributed by the Gobi, Sand and Loess regions,suggesting the dominant emission from the Gobi region for this event.The model estimated total dust emission is found to be about 56% of that estimated by the observed wind, indicating some improvement of the model being required.     

Modelling the Vertical Transport of Pollutants by Fronts

A quantitative study of the amount of air transported between the boundary layer and the free atmosphere is important for understanding air quality and upper tropospheric ozone, which is a greenhouse gas. Frontal systems are known to be an effective mechanism for the vertical transport of pollutants. Numerical experiments have been performed with a simple two-dimensional front model to simulate vertical transport of trace gases within developing cold fronts. Three different trace gases experiments have been done numerically according to the different initial fields of trace gases such as aerosol, ozone and H₂O₂. Trace gas field tilts to the east while the front tilts to the west. Aerosol simulation shows that pollutants can be transported out of the boundary to altitudes of about 10 km. The stratospheric ozone is brought downwards in a tropopause fold behind of the frontal surface. The meridional gradient in trace gas (H₂O₂) can cause a complicate structure in the trace field by the meridional advection.     

Wet Deposition of Pollutants and Precipitation Patterns Classified by Cluster Analysis of 850 hPa Geopotential Height in South Korea

Synoptic meteorological conditions for precipitating systems over South Korea are characterized into several similar types using a clustering technique based on the K-mean principles with the daily mean 850 hPa grid pointed geopotential height in the spatial resolution of 5° × 5° data obtained from NCEP in the domain of 25° ～ 50°N and 110° ～ 140°E for five years from 1994 to 1998. The consecutive three-day gridded NCEP data with the precipitation event on the last day over South Korea are used for the cluster analysis. With the use of the precipitation chemistry monitored data at 8 sites in South Korea, wet depositions of SO₄ ^2?, NO₃ ^? and NH₄ ⁺ belonging to each cluster are examined to identify the deposition levels for each cluster. The result indicates that the present methodology is found to identify the deposition levels clearly and be used more practically in the field of acid rain study without heavy computational requirement.     

Estimation of Ammonia Emission in South Korea

The importance of ammonia (NH₃) in the atmosphere andits role in acidification is increasingly recognized. Adetailed emission inventory of NH₃ for South Korea iscarried out for different sources using emission factors.Results indicate that the emission of ammonia has increasedby 21% over the last 11 yr from 143 000 t yr^-1 in1988 to 181 000 t yr^-1 in 1998. The major contributorsto the NH₃ emission in South Korea are livestock andfertilizer application that account for 70 and 26% oftotal NH₃ emission, respectively. The 11 × 14 km (0.125° long. × 0.125° lat.) grid distribution of emission of ammonia shows an maximum in the Yochon area due to the largest fertilizer factory and relatively wide regions of high NH₃ emission in thenorthwestern part of South Korea due to a great number of livestock. It is found that the nitrogen ratio of wet deposition of NH₄ ⁺ to emission of NH₃ in SouthKorea is averaged to be 0.45.     

Estimation of the Maximum Critical Load for Sulfur in South Korea

The maximum critical load of sulfur and its exceedance by the sulfur deposition of 1994–1997 were mapped for South Korea with a spatial resolution of 11 × 14 km using the steady-state mass balance method. The Korean soil and geological maps were used as basis for the estimations of the critical alkalinity leaching and the weathering rate of base cations. The normalized difference vegetation index data obtained from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) together with the observed primary productivity of plants were used for the estimation of the critical uptake of base cations. Wet deposition of the non-sea-salt base cations was derived from measured base cation concentrations in precipitation, precipitation rate and air concentration of total suspended particulate while dry deposition of base cations was estimated using the inferential technique using scavenging ratios. The predominant ranges of base cation weathering, uptake and deposition were estimated to be of 200 – 600 eq ha^?1 yr^?1, 200 – 400 eq ha^?1 yr^?1 and 400 – 600 eq ha^?1 yr^?1, respectively. Critical alkalinity leaching was mainly in the range of 1000 – 2000 eq ha^?1 yr^?1 due to relatively high value of precipitation runoff. Exceedance of sulfur critical load was found at 40 % of the ecosystems considered mainly in the southeastern part of Korea, and about 60 % of Korea ecosystems were sustainable against sulfur acidity loadings.     

Sulfur Acidity Loading in South Korean Ecosystems

The applicability of critical load (CL) methodology for thedetermination of natural terrestrial ecosystem sensitivity to sulfur acidity loading in South Korea was investigated.The sulfur critical load values, CL_maxS, were calculated for the terrestrial ecosystems of South Korea using the steady-state mass balance approach. The corresponding mapping of CL_maxS was carried out on the scale of 11 × 14 km grid cells. The estimated CL_maxS values depend on the low rate of soil chemical base cation weathering (mainly, 200–400 eq ha^-1 yr^-1), relativelylow base cation depositions (mainly less than 450 eq ha^-1 yr^-1) and base cation uptake (predominantly 300–400 eq ha^-1 yr^-1), and in significant degree on high valuesof acid neutralizing capacity. The latter in turn is connectedwith relatively high values of surface runoff (maximum 9000 m³ ha^-1 yr^-1). It has been shown that about 75%of CL_maxS values are in the range of 1000–2000 eq ha^-1 yr^-1 and about 15% are relatively low values(<1000 eq ha^-1 yr^-1). About 10% of ecosystems haveCL values more than 2000 eq ha^-1 yr^-1. The sensitiveand very sensitive ecosystems occur in the southeastern part of the country whereas the sustainable ecosystems are wide spread in the northeastern part. In accordance with sulfur critical load and sulfur deposition patterns, in 1994–1997 the CL_maxS values were found to be exceeded in about 40% of total number of Korean ecosystems, mainly in the southeastern part of the country. The average yearly valuesof exceedances varied from 176 to 3100 eq ha^-1 yr^-1.     

Mapping of Base Cation Deposition in South Korea

Deposition of non-seasalt base cations (Ca²⁺ + Mg²⁺+ K⁺) in South Korea was mapped for 1994 to 1997 on a 11 × 14 km grid using the so-called inferential modeling technique. It is found that the annual mean wet deposition of non-seasalt base cations is about 290 eq ha^-1 yr^-1 with a maximum of 470 eq ha^-1 yr^-1 and a minimum of 120 eq ha^-1 yr^-1 while the annual mean dry deposition is about 130 eq ha^-1 yr^-1 with a maximum of 240 eq ha^-1 yr^-1 and a minimum 70 eq ha^-1 yr^-1. Theannual mean total deposition of non-seasalt Ca²⁺ + Mg²⁺ + K⁺ is found to be about 420 eq ha^-1 yr^-1 with the predominant range of 400 eq ha^-1 yr^-1 to 550 eq ha^-1 yr^-1 thatoccupies more than 45% of total deposition of non-seasalt base cations and dry deposition constitutes on average30% of the total base cation deposition. About 30% of the annualtotal deposition of sulfur is found counteracted by depositionof non-seasalt base cations over South Korea.