Inter-seasonal Comparisons Between Summertime and Wintertime Vertical CO2, NO2, and O3 Profiles in the Lower Atmosphere

Inter-seasonal Comparisons Between Summertime and Wintertime Vertical CO₂, NO₂, and O₃ Profiles in the Lower Atmosphere

Sooyeon Kim¹, Jimin Kim¹, Dongwon Choi², Wonseok Ko², Young-Jin Son³, Hyo-Sook Oh³, Narim Lee⁴, Jiwon Go⁴, Yongchan Kim⁴, Minseo Choi⁴, Kyung-Hwan Kwak¹,*

¹Department of Environmental Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Republic of Korea

²Department of Integrated Particulate Matter Management, Kangwon National University, Republic of Korea

³Department of Environmental and Biomedical Convergence, Kangwon National University, Republic of Korea

⁴School of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, Kangwon National University, Republic of Korea

Atmospheric levels of gas species such as air pollutants and greenhouse gases depend on multiple factors such as meteorological, physical/chemical, and emission factors. Ecosystem is also one of the important factors to control the atmospheric levels especially in different seasons. Interaction of momentum, heat, and moisture between atmosphere and land surface varies season to season, therefore, plays an important role in determining atmospheric vertical profiles of air pollutants and greenhouse gases. Recently, the remote sensing and in-situ measurement methods have been utilized to assess vertical distributions in the lower atmosphere. Among them, mobile monitoring platforms such as drone offer some advantages that are easy to access and to capture in real-time and on-site with less limitation in space and time. In this study, we carried out an analysis on seasonality of atmospheric levels of gaseous air pollutants and greenhouse species in the lower atmosphere using a mobile monitoring platform. The site of this study is a sports ground stadium at Kangwon National University in Chuncheon, South Korea. We conducted wintertime and summertime measurements from January to February (6 days) and in August (3 days), respectively within two 3-hour periods after the sunrise in the morning and before the sunset in the afternoon. The air temperature and relative humidity sensors (iMet-XQ2), CO₂ sensor (GMP252), and gaseous pollutant sensors (Alphasense) for O₃ and NO₂ were equipped with a hexacopter drone. The vertical profiles of CO₂ and NO₂ showed the sharp decreases with height especially right after the sunrise in the morning, while those of O₃ showed the sharp increases with height at the same time. It was observed that, in addition to the vegetation cover and human activity characteristics depending on seasons, the atmospheric stability is crucial for the atmospheric profiles in the lower atmosphere.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by “Korea Environment Industry & Technology Institute(KEITI) through Project for developing an observation-based GHG emissions geospatial information map, funded by Korea Ministry of Environment(MOE) (RS-2023-00232066).” and “This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) grant funded by the Korea government(MSIT) (RS-2023-00219830).”