Determination of upwind and downwind areas of Seoul,Korea using trajectory analysis

Abstract

To identify the domains that have the greatest impacts on air quality at the surface, both the upwind and downwind areas of Seoul were determined by season using refined wind fields. Four consecutive days were selected as the study period typical of each season. The mesoscale meteorology of the study period was reproduced by using the MM5 prognostic meteorological model (PSU/NCAR Mesoscale Model) with horizontally nested grids. The gridded meteorological field, which was used on the study area of 242 km×226 km with grid spacing of 2 km, was generated by using the CALMET diagnostic meteorological model. Upwind and downwind areas of Seoul were determined by calculating 24-hour backward and forward air parcel trajectories, respectively, with u, v, and w velocity vectors. The results showed that the upwind and downwind areas were extended far to the northwest and the southeast as a result of high wind speeds in the spring and winter, while they were restricted on the fringe of Seoul in the summer and fall.