Short and long-term temporal changes in air quality in a Seoul urban area: The weekday/Sunday effect

Abstract

We present evidence on the short-term differences in airborne pollution levels in terms of weekday/weekend (WD/WN) and weekday/Sunday (WD/Sun) intervals. To this end, we analyzed the hourly data of important pollutants (nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3) and carbon monoxide (CO)) using the data acquired in the Yong-San district of Seoul, Korea from 2009 to 2013. For each week, the pollutant ratio (Rw) was estimated through either WD/WN or WD/Sun. Here, a week is defined as Sunday through Saturday, WD as Monday through Friday and WN as Sunday and Saturday. The WD/Sun Rw geometric means (and range) were 2.02 (0.27-15.5) for NO, 1.29 (0.49-5.7) for NO2 and 0.89 (0.17-7.2) for O3 while the fraction of Rw (WD/Sun) > 1 were 81, 71 and 38%, respectively. NO and CO levels were much higher in October through March (during Autumn and Winter) than April through September (during Spring and Summer), reflecting the potential effect of fuel consumption (e.g., in terms of use patterns of nationwide city natural gas). Thus, we provide a broader interpretation on the occurrence patterns of the major pollutants (e.g., NO, NO2, O3 and CO) in relation to temporal changes in man-made activities.