Impact of Fine Particulate Matter on Visibility at Incheon International Airport, South Korea

Abstract

Low visibility at an airport causes significant flight delays, thereby reducing the airport's capacity. To better understand its contributing factors, the present study examined the visibility at Incheon International Airport, South Korea, and its relationship with meteorological conditions as well as particulate matter (PM; viz., PM2.5 and PM10) concentrations for the period of 2015-2017. A censored regression model was developed to quantitatively describe the changes in visibility, and the results demonstrated that the visibility was more strongly correlated with the concentration of PM2.5 than PM10. Specifically, the decrease in visibility was primarily determined by the interaction between PM2.5 and meteorological factors, such as fog, haze, high temperatures, low relative humidity, and weak wind speed. A severe fog event during March 2018 was applied as a test case to validate this regression model, which estimated that the PM10 and PM2.5 impaired the visibility by approximately 8.0 km (3.2 km and 4.8 km due to PM10 and PM2.5, respectively) at Incheon International Airport during hazy conditions. Our findings reveal that the concentration of PM2.5 and its interaction with meteorological factors must be considered when diagnosing and predicting reduced visibility.