Chemical composition change in TSP due to dust storm at gosan, Korea: Do the concentrations of anthropogenic species increase due to dust storm?

Abstract

Aerosol composition change between dust storm and non-dust storm periods in spring is studied using the total suspended particle data measured at Gosan, a background area in Korea. The concentrations of eight inorganic ions and 12 elements were analyzed for the TSP samples collected from March 1992 to May 2006. Two-step statistical analyses were carried out for the data: F test and t test. The concentrations of anthropogenic ionic species showed increasing trend since 2003. The absolute concentrations of most anthropogenic species such as sulfate or nitrate increased (from 7.33 to 9.25 μg m-3 and from 2.04 to 4.84 μg m-3, respectively) during the dust storm period. However, the enrichment factors or normalized concentrations based on Al of most anthropogenic species decreased during dust storm period (factor of 0.1-0.5). It suggests that, in general, relative importance of anthropogenic species during dust storm would be not high. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.