Impact of the smoke aerosol from Russian forest fires on the atmospheric environment over Korea during May 2003

Extensive forest fire activities occurred in May 2003 across Siberia, Russia, particularly in the area between the Amur and Lena rivers east of Lake Baikal. These forest fires released large amounts of particulates and gases into the atmosphere, resulting in adverse effects on regional air quality and radiation budget. On certain occasions, a smoke pollution plume from these forest fires was transported through Mongolia and eastern China, down to the Korean peninsula. In this study, satellite data and ground-based radiation measurement data were analyzed to estimate the smoke aerosol's impact on the local atmospheric environment over Korea. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) values retrieved using the Bremen Aerosol Retrieval method from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data were compared with those derived from ground-based radiation measurements. Large AOD values in the range 2.0-4.0 were observed on 20 May 2003 over Korea due to the influence of the long-range transported smoke aerosol plume from the Russian fires, resulting in a surface-observed short-wavelength direct aerosol radiative forcing efficiency of −90 to −200 W m−2. This smoke aerosol plume also resulted in a decrease in the solar visible irradiance of up to 57%, and increased the surface PM10 concentration by up to 258 μg m−3.