Factors determining the seasonal variation of ozone air quality in South Korea: Regional background versus domestic emission contributions

Highlights

• We quantify local vs. background contributions to surface ozone in South Korea.

• Ozone air quality in South Korea is determined mainly by background contributions.

• Local NO_x plays a role in ozone as a loss except for summer.

• Biogenic VOCs significantly contribute to ozone formation in summer.

Abstract

South Korea has experienced a rapid increase in ozone concentrations in surface air together with China for decades. Here we use a 3-D global chemical transport model, GEOS-Chem nested over East Asia (110 E - 140 E, 20 N–50 N) at 0.25° × 0.3125° resolution, to examine locally controllable (domestic anthropogenic) versus uncontrollable (background) contributions to ozone air quality at the national scale for 2016. We conducted model simulations for representative months of each season: January, April, July, and October for winter, spring, summer, and fall and performed extensive model evaluation by comparing simulated ozone with observations from satellite and surface networks. The model appears to reproduce observed spatial and temporal ozone variations, showing correlation coefficients (0.40–0.87) against each observation dataset. Seasonal mean ozone concentrations in the model are the highest in spring (39.3 ± 10.3 ppb), followed by summer (38.3 ± 14.4 ppb), fall (31.2 ± 9.8 ppb), and winter (24.5 ± 7.9 ppb), which is consistent with that of surface observations. Background ozone concentrations obtained from a sensitivity model simulation with no domestic anthropogenic emissions show a different seasonal variation in South Korea, showing the highest value in spring (46.9 ± 3.4 ppb) followed by fall (38.2 ± 3.7 ppb), winter (33.0 ± 1.9 ppb), and summer (32.1 ± 6.7 ppb). Except for summer, when the photochemical formation is dominant, the background ozone concentrations are higher than the seasonal ozone concentrations in the model, indicating that the domestic anthropogenic emissions play a role as ozone loss via NO_x titration throughout the year. Ozone air quality in South Korea is determined mainly by year-round regional background contributions (peak in spring) with summertime domestic ozone formation by increased biogenic VOCs emissions with persistent NO_x emissions throughout the year. The domestic NO_x emissions reduce MDA8 ozone around large cities (Seoul and Busan) and hardly increase MDA8 in other regions in spring, but it increases MDA8 across the country in summer. Therefore, NO_x reduction can be effective in control of MDA8 ozone in summer, but it can have rather countereffect in spring.