ALBERT

Description: We herein report a simple chemical route to prepare Au–Ag and Ag–Au core–shell bimetallic nanostructures by reduction of two kinds of noble metal ions in the presence of a water-soluble polymer such as poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). PVA was intentionally chosen as it can play a dual role of a supporting matrix as well as stabilizer. The simultaneous reduction of metal ions leads to an alloy type of structure. Ag(c)–Au(s) core–shell structures display tendency to form prismatic nanostructures in conjunction with nanocubes while Au(c)–Ag(s) core–shell structures show formation of merely nanocubes. Although UV–visible spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses of the samples typically suggest the formation of both Ag(c)–Au(s) and Au(c)–Ag(s) bimetallic nanostructures, the definitive evidence comes from high-resolution transmission electron microscopy–high-angle annular dark field elemental mapping in the case of Au(c)–Ag(s) nanomorphs only. The resultant nanocomposite materials are used to fabricate resistors on ceramic rods having two electrodes by drop casting technique. These resistors are examined for their relative humidity (RH) response in the range (2–93% RH) and both the bimetallic nanocomposite materials offer optimized sensitivity of about 20 Kohm/% RH and 300 ohm/% RH at low and higher humidity conditions, respectively, which is better than that of individual nanoparticles.

Description: A new approach to more accurately monitor and evaluate transboundary particulate matter (PM) pollution is introduced based on aerosol optical products from Korea's geostationary ocean color imager (GOCI). The area studied is northeast Asia including eastern parts of China, the Korean peninsula and Japan, where GOCI has been monitoring since June 2010. The hourly multi-spectral aerosol optical data that were retrieved from GOCI sensor onboard geostationary satellite COMS (Communication, Ocean, and Meteorology Satellite) through Yonsei aerosol retrieval algorithm were first presented and used in this study. The GOCI-retrieved aerosol optical data are integrated with estimated aerosol distributions from US EPA Models-3/CMAQ v4.5.1 model simulations via data assimilation technique, thereby making the aerosol data spatially continuous and available even for cloud contamination cells. The assimilated aerosol optical data are utilized to provide quantitative estimates of transboundary PM pollution from China to the Korean peninsula and Japan. For the period of 1 April to 31 May 2011 this analysis yields estimates that AOD as a proxy for surface-level PM2.5 or PM10 during long-range transport events increased by 117–265% compared to background average AOD at the four AERONET sites in Korea, and average AOD increases of 121% were found when averaged over the entire Korean peninsula. The paper demonstrates that the use of multi-spectral AOD retrievals from geostationary satellites can improve estimates of transboundary PM pollution. Such data will become more widely available later this decade when new sensors such as GEMS (Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer) and GOCI-2 are scheduled to be launched.

Description: The spatiotemporal variations of surface air pollutants (O3, NO2, SO2, CO, and PM10) with four land-use types: residence (R), commerce (C), industry (I) and greenbelt (G) have been investigated at 283 stations in South Korea during 2002–2013, using routinely observed data. The VOCs data at 9 photochemical pollutant monitoring stations available since 2007 were utilized in order to examine their effect on the ozone chemistry. The land-use types, set by the Korean government, were generally consistent with the satellite-derived land covers and with the previous result showing anti-correlation between O3 and NO2 in diverse urban areas. The relationship between the two pollutants in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA) residence land-use areas was substantially different from that outside of the SMA, probably due to the local differences in vehicle emissions. The highest concentrations of air pollutants in the diurnal, weekly, and annual cycles were found in industry for SO2 and PM10, in commerce for NO2 and CO, and in greenbelt for O3, respectively. The concentrations of air pollutants, except for O3, were generally higher in big cities during weekdays while O3 showed its peak in suburban areas or small cities during weekends. The weekly cycle and trends of O3 were significantly out of phase with those of NO2, particularly in the residential and commercial areas, suggesting that vehicle emission was a major source in those areas. The ratios of VOCs to NO2 for each of the land-use types were in the order of I (10.2) 〉 C (8.7) 〉 G (3.9) 〉 R (3.6), suggesting that most areas in South Korea were likely to be VOCs-limited for ozone chemistry. The pollutants (NO2, SO2, CO, and PM10) except for O3 have decreased most likely due to the effective government control. The total oxidant values (OX = O3 + NO2) with the land-use types were analyzed for the local and regional (or background) contributions of O3, respectively, and the order of OX (ppb) was C (57.4) 〉 R (53.6) 〉 I (50.7) 〉 G (45.4), indicating the greenbelt observation was close to the background.

Description: We report on the first Raman lidar measurements of stratospheric aerosol layers in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere over Korea. The data were taken with the multiwavelength aerosol Raman lidar at Gwangju (35.10° N, 126.53° E), Korea. The volcanic ash particles and gases were released around 12 June 2011 during the eruption of the Nabro volcano (13.37° N, 41.7° E) in Eritrea, east Africa. Forward trajectory computations show that the volcanic aerosols were advected from North Africa to East Asia. The first observation of the stratospheric aerosol layers over Korea was on 19 June 2011. The stratospheric aerosol layers appeared between 15 and 17 km height a.s.l. The aerosol layers' maximum value of the backscatter coefficient and the linear particle depolarization ratio at 532 nm were 1.5 ± 0.3 Mm−1 sr−1 and 2.2%, respectively. We found these values at 16.4 km height a.s.l. 44 days after this first observation, we observed the stratospheric aerosol layer again. We continuously probed the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere for this aerosol layer during the following 5 months, until December 2011. The aerosol layers typically occurred between 10 and 20 km height a.s.l. The stratospheric aerosol optical depth and the maximum backscatter coefficient at 532 nm decreased during these 5 months.

Description: An aerosol model optimized for East Asia is improved by applying inversion data from both long-term monitoring of the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sun photometer and the Distributed Regional Aerosol Gridded Observation Networks (DRAGON)-Asia campaign from 2012. This model plays an important role in retrieving accurate aerosol optical depth (AOD) from satellite-based measurements. In particular, the performance of a single visible channel algorithm, limited to a specific aerosol type, from real-time measurements is strongly affected by the assumed aerosol optical properties (AOPs) for the measured scene. In sensitivity tests, a 4% difference in single scattering albedo (SSA) between modeled and measured values can cause a retrieval error in AOD of over 20%, and the overestimation of SSA leads to an underestimation of AOD. Based on the AERONET inversion datasets obtained over East Asia before 2011, seasonally analyzed AOPs can be summarized by SSAs (measured at 675 nm) of 0.92, 0.94, 0.92, and 0.91 for spring (March, April, and May), summer (June, July, and August), autumn (September, October, and November), and winter (December, January, and February), respectively. After DRAGON-Asia 2012, the SSA during spring shows a slight increase to 0.93. The large volume of data and spatially concentrated measurements from this campaign can be used to improve the representative aerosol model for East Asia. Accordingly, the AOD datasets retrieved from a single channel algorithm, which uses a pre-calculated look-up table (LUT) with the new aerosol model, show an improved correlation with the measured AOD during the DRAGON-Asia campaign (March to May 2012). Compared with the correlation of the AOD retrieved using the original aerosol model, the regression slope between the new AOD and the AERONET values is reduced from 1.08 to 1.00, while the change of the y-offset of −0.08 is significant. The correlation coefficients for the comparisons are 0.87 and 0.85, respectively. The tendency of the original aerosol model to overestimate the retrieved AOD is significantly improved by using the SSA values obtained using the new model.

Description: The spatiotemporal variations of surface air pollutants (O3, NO2, SO2, CO, and PM10) with four land-use types, residence (R), commerce (C), industry (I) and greenbelt (G), have been investigated at 283 stations in South Korea during 2002–2013, using routinely observed data. The volatile organic compound (VOC) data at nine photochemical pollutant monitoring stations available since 2007 were utilized in order to examine their effect on the ozone chemistry. The land-use types, set by the Korean government, were generally consistent with the satellite-derived land covers and with the previous result showing anti-correlation between O3 and NO2 in diverse urban areas. The relationship between the two pollutants in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA) residence land-use areas was substantially different from that outside of the SMA, probably due to the local differences in vehicle emissions. The highest concentrations of air pollutants in the diurnal, weekly, and annual cycles were found in industry for SO2 and PMPM10, in commerce for NO2 and CO, and in greenbelt for O3. The concentrations of air pollutants, except for O3, were generally higher in big cities during weekdays, while O3 showed its peak in suburban areas or small cities during weekends. The weekly cycle and trends of O3 were significantly out of phase with those of NO2, particularly in the residential and commercial areas, suggesting that vehicle emission was a major source in those areas. The ratios of VOCs to NO2 for each of the land-use types were in the order of I (10.2) 〉 C (8.7) 〉 G (3.9) 〉 R (3.6), suggesting that most areas in South Korea were likely to be VOC-limited for ozone chemistry. The pollutants (NO2, SO2, CO, and PMPM10 except for O3 have decreased, most likely due to the effective government control. The total oxidant values (OX = O3 + NO2) with the land-use types were analyzed for the local and regional (or background) contributions of O3, respectively, and the order of OX (ppb) was C (57.4) 〉 R (53.6) 〉 I (50.7) 〉 G (45.4), indicating the greenbelt observation was close to the background.

Description: The Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) onboard the Communication, Ocean, and Meteorology Satellites (COMS) is the first multi-channel ocean color imager in geostationary orbit. Hourly GOCI top-of-atmosphere radiance has been available for the retrieval of aerosol optical properties over East Asia since March 2011. This study presents improvements to the GOCI Yonsei Aerosol Retrieval (YAER) algorithm over ocean and land together with validation results during the DRAGON-NE Asia 2012 campaign. Optical properties of aerosol are retrieved from the GOCI YAER algorithm including aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 550 nm, fine-mode fraction (FMF) at 550 nm, single scattering albedo (SSA) at 440 nm, Angstrom exponent (AE) between 440 and 860 nm, and aerosol type from selected aerosol models in calculating AOD. Assumed aerosol models are compiled from global Aerosol Robotic Networks (AERONET) inversion data, and categorized according to AOD, FMF, and SSA. Nonsphericity is considered, and unified aerosol models are used over land and ocean. Different assumptions for surface reflectance are applied over ocean and land. Surface reflectance over the ocean varies with geometry and wind speed, while surface reflectance over land is obtained from the 1–3 % darkest pixels in a 6 km × 6 km area during 30 days. In the East China Sea and Yellow Sea, significant area is covered persistently by turbid waters, for which the land algorithm is used for aerosol retrieval. To detect turbid water pixels, TOA reflectance difference at 660 nm is used. GOCI YAER products are validated using other aerosol products from AERONET and the MODIS Collection 6 aerosol data from "Dark Target (DT)" and "Deep Blue (DB)" algorithms during the DRAGON-NE Asia 2012 campaign from March to May 2012. Comparison of AOD from GOCI and AERONET gives a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.885 and a linear regression equation with GOCI AOD =1.086 × AERONET AOD – 0.041. GOCI and MODIS AODs are more highly correlated over ocean than land. Over land, especially, GOCI AOD shows better agreement with MODIS DB than MODIS DT because of the choice of surface reflectance assumptions. Other GOCI YAER products show lower correlation with AERONET than AOD, but are still qualitatively useful.

Description: An aerosol model optimized for northeast Asia is updated with the inversion data from the Distributed Regional Aerosol Gridded Observation Networks (DRAGON)-northeast (NE) Asia campaign which was conducted during spring from March to May 2012. This updated aerosol model was then applied to a single visible channel algorithm to retrieve aerosol optical depth (AOD) from a Meteorological Imager (MI) on-board the geostationary meteorological satellite, Communication, Ocean, and Meteorological Satellite (COMS). This model plays an important role in retrieving accurate AOD from a single visible channel measurement. For the single-channel retrieval, sensitivity tests showed that perturbations by 4 % (0.926 ± 0.04) in the assumed single scattering albedo (SSA) can result in the retrieval error in AOD by over 20 %. Since the measured reflectance at the top of the atmosphere depends on both AOD and SSA, the overestimation of assumed SSA in the aerosol model leads to an underestimation of AOD. Based on the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) inversion data sets obtained over East Asia before 2011, seasonally analyzed aerosol optical properties (AOPs) were categorized by SSAs at 675 nm of 0.92 ± 0.035 for spring (March, April, and May). After the DRAGON-NE Asia campaign in 2012, the SSA during spring showed a slight increase to 0.93 ± 0.035. In terms of the volume size distribution, the mode radius of coarse particles was increased from 2.08 ± 0.40 to 2.14 ± 0.40. While the original aerosol model consists of volume size distribution and refractive indices obtained before 2011, the new model is constructed by using a total data set after the DRAGON-NE Asia campaign. The large volume of data in high spatial resolution from this intensive campaign can be used to improve the representative aerosol model for East Asia. Accordingly, the new AOD data sets retrieved from a single-channel algorithm, which uses a precalculated look-up table (LUT) with the new aerosol model, show an improved correlation with the measured AOD during the DRAGON-NE Asia campaign. The correlation between the new AOD and AERONET value shows a regression slope of 1.00, while the comparison of the original AOD data retrieved using the original aerosol model shows a slope of 1.08. The change of y-offset is not significant, and the correlation coefficients for the comparisons of the original and new AOD are 0.87 and 0.85, respectively. The tendency of the original aerosol model to overestimate the retrieved AOD is significantly improved by using the SSA values in addition to size distribution and refractive index obtained using the new model.

Description: A new approach to more accurately monitor and evaluate transboundary particulate matter (PM) pollution is introduced based on aerosol optical products from Korea's Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI). The area studied is Northeast Asia (including eastern parts of China, the Korean peninsula and Japan), where GOCI has been monitoring since June 2010. The hourly multi-spectral aerosol optical data that were retrieved from GOCI sensor onboard geostationary satellite COMS (Communication, Ocean, and Meteorology Satellite) through the Yonsei aerosol retrieval algorithm were first presented and used in this study. The GOCI-retrieved aerosol optical data are integrated with estimated aerosol distributions from US EPA Models-3/CMAQ (Community Multi-scale Air Quality) v4.5.1 model simulations via data assimilation technique, thereby making the aerosol data spatially continuous and available even for cloud contamination cells. The assimilated aerosol optical data are utilized to provide quantitative estimates of transboundary PM pollution from China to the Korean peninsula and Japan. For the period of 1 April to 31 May, 2011 this analysis yields estimates that AOD as a proxy for PM2.5 or PM10 during long-range transport events increased by 117–265% compared to background average AOD (aerosol optical depth) at the four AERONET sites in Korea, and average AOD increases of 121% were found when averaged over the entire Korean peninsula. This paper demonstrates that the use of multi-spectral AOD retrievals from geostationary satellites can improve estimates of transboundary PM pollution. Such data will become more widely available later this decade when new sensors such as the GEMS (Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer) and GOCI-2 are scheduled to be launched.