1D: Analysis of KORUS-AQ field campaign data

The KORUS-AQ experiment in May-June 2016 resulted in detailed airborne and ground-based observations across Korea, providing a comprehensive data set for studying air quality in Seoul and across the country.  Global and regional air quality models are using these observations for evaluation of model chemistry and dynamics as well as emissions across the region. In turn, models are providing context for the observations.  A study led by a PhD student visiting ACOM uses CAM-chem including a number of tagged CO tracers, i.e. artificial model species that track emissions from various regions (Tang et al., 2018). The results of this study provide one of the indicators of the periods and locations that local (Korea) sources are more or less important than contributions from East Asia or other regions.  Due to the active meteorological conditions during the campaign period there is significant variability at the sites in (Olympic Park) and near (Taehwa) Seoul. The vertical profile of contributions over Seoul shows that sources from outside Korea are important at all altitudes, but that local sources are large near the surface.

Reference

Tang, Wenfu, L.K. Emmons, A.F. Arellano, B. Gaubert, et al., Source contribution to carbon monoxide during KORUS-AQ using CAM-chem tagged tracers, submitted to J. Geophys. Res., 2018.