Comparison of trend between aerosol optical depth and PM in East Asia

Abstract:

East Asia is one of major source region of aerosol emission. For decades, vast amount of aerosol, which is emitted and transported from emission region such as desert and industrialized area, has significant effect in the air quality and public health. Moreover, by scattering solar radiation and moderating cloud microphysical system, aerosol plays an important role in climate system. As the Korean peninsula is located in the downwind side of East Asia, the distribution of aerosol in this region is affected by continental outflow and local emission, This study shows the long-term trend and regional distribution of PM10 concentration over 28 Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) sites and aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieved from Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) at 550nm channel during the period from March 2011 to March 2014. Though AOD is a good indicator of PM10 concentration, there are some uncertainties in AOD caused largely by aerosol type, surface reflectance, and those in PM by relative humidity (RH), boundary layer height (BLH) and so on. In this study, retrieved AODs were compared with the observed PM10, and trends and correlations between AOD and PM10 have been calculated for different region and season over the Korean peninsula.