The purpose of this study is to analyze the change of the concentration of ozone in Seoul in accordance with the automobile traffic by using the daily highest concentration of O₃, CO, and the daily average concentration of NO₂ among the data stemmed from the automatic air pollution measurement network in the streets of Seoul.
The data used in this study were measured in the streets of heavy traffic in Seoul between the period of 1998 and 2000. In particular, the concentration data of O₃, CO and NO₂ were used among the measured data. The used data were divided into the days of the week, lead to compare the concentration of O₃, NO₂ and CO between Friday, the most heavy traffic day, and Sunday, the most light traffic day of the week.
In this study, the concentration of NO₂ and CO on Friday were higher than that of Sunday due to the influence by the automobile traffic in Seoul, while the concentration level of O₃ was higher on Sunday than on Friday. It´s probably because Seoul, which contain the characteristics of the polluted city area, satisfied the VOC-limited condition that the O₃ concentration had not been lowered, despite the lowered concentration of NO₂ and CO due to the reduced automobile traffic on Sunday, comparing to Friday.
It is my understanding that Seoul area where this study has been implemented has more possibility of having the VOC-limited condition and accordingly it is believed to be more effective to control the VOC sources than reducing the exhausting amount of NO_(x).
Based on the result of this study, the concentration of O₃ in Seoul is not stemmed from the automobile traffic. since this study utilized data measured on the streets of Seoul, it is urgently required to implement studies more broadly and variously based on this study, paving the way toward reducing the maximum ozone concentration.
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