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Monitoring of airborne particulate matter at mountainous urban sites

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Abstract

Concentrations of various size fractions (TSP, PM10, PM2.5, and PM1.0) of particulate matter (PM) were measured at two mountainous sites, Buk Han (BH) and Gwan AK (GA), along with one ground reference site at Gwang Jin (GJ), located in Seoul, South Korea for the 4 years from 2010 to 2013. The daily average concentrations of TSP, PM10, PM2.5, and PM1.0 at BH were 47.9 ± 32.5, 37.0 ± 24.6, 20.6 ± 12.9, and 15.3 ± 9.53 μg m−3, respectively. These values were slightly larger than those measured at GA while much lower than those measured at the reference site (GJ). Seasonal variations in PM concentrations were consistent across all locations with a relative increase in concentrations observed in spring and winter. Correlation analysis showed clear differences in PM concentrations between the mountainous sites and the reference site. Analysis of these PM concentrations indicated that the distribution of PM in the mountainous locations was affected by a number of manmade sources from nearby locations, including both traffic and industrial emissions.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a grant from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MEST) (No. 2009-0093848). WMP acknowledges support made by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NFR) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (2016R1C1B2016366).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, 222, Wangsimni-Ro, Seoul, 04763, South Korea

    Jun Dai, Ki-Hyun Kim & Tanushree Dutta

  2. Institute of Environmental and Industrial Medicine, Hanyang University, Seoul, 04763, South Korea

    Wha Me Park

  3. College of Pharmacy, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, 02447, South Korea

    Jong-Ki Hong

  4. Seoul Metropolitan Government Institute of Public Health and Environment, Seoul, 13818, South Korea

    Kweon Jung

  5. Environment Division, National Physical Laboratory, Middlesex, Teddington, TW11 0LW, UK

    Richard J. C. Brown

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  1. Jun Dai
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  2. Ki-Hyun Kim
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  3. Tanushree Dutta
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  4. Wha Me Park
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  5. Jong-Ki Hong
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Correspondence to Ki-Hyun Kim.

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Dai, J., Kim, KH., Dutta, T. et al. Monitoring of airborne particulate matter at mountainous urban sites. Environ Monit Assess 188, 490 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-016-5501-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-016-5501-2

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