Variations of Trace Gases Concentrations and Their Relationship with the Air Mass Characteristic at Gosan, Korea

The surface $O_3,\;CO,\;NO_x,\;and\;SO_2$ were measured at Gosan in Jeju Island from May 2004 to April 2005. Over this period, the mean concentrations $({\pm}s.d.)$ of each gas was 40.06 $({\pm}16.01)$ ppbv for $O_3,\;264.92({\pm}115.73)ppbv\;for\;CO,\;1.98({\pm}2.73)ppbv\;for\;SO)_2,\;and\;4.64 ({\pm}3.24) ppbv\;for\;NO_x$ . The monthly variations and the diurnal variations of these gases show that the Gosan site is situated in a relatively clean region. However, there were episodic simultaneous peaks in CO and $SO_2$ , especially in winter and early spring. Using cluster analysis with air mass back- ward trajectory analysis, we suggest that these episodes are due to the influence of transportation of polluted air mass from polluted regions. In the cluster, which was under the dominant influence of clean maritime air mass, low levels of $O_3,\;CO,\;and\;SO_2$ were observed. The levels of these species were elevated in the other two clusters which had the air mass influenced by polluted continental regions. In addition, ratios of the chemical species such as $CO/NO_x,\;SO_2/NO_x,\;and\;CO/SO_2$ revealed the somewhat different characteristics of emission sources influencing each cluster. The differences in concentration of trace gases among clusters with different origin and transport pathways imply that Gosan is under the effect of pollution transported from other regions.