Development of PUFF-Gaussian dispersion model for the prediction of atmospheric distribution of particle concentration.

Mt. Baekdu's eruption precursors are continuously observed and have become a global social issue. Volcanic activities in neighboring Japan are also active. There are no direct risks of proximity-related disasters in South Korea from the volcanic eruptions at Japan or Mt. Baekdu; however, severe impacts are expected from the spread of volcanic ash. Numerical analysis models are generally used to predict and analyze the diffusion of volcanic ash, and each numerical analysis model has its own limitations caused by the computational algorithm it employs. In this study, we analyzed the PUFF-UAF model, an ash dispersion model based on the Lagrangian approach, and observed that the number of particles used in tracking substantially affected the results. Even with the presence of millions of particles, the concentration of ash predicted by the PUFF-UAF model does not accurately represent the dispersion. To overcome this deficit and utilize the computational efficiency of the Lagrangian model, we developed a PUFF-Gaussian model to consider the dispersive nature of ash by applying the Gaussian dispersion theory to the results of the PUFF-UAF model. The results of the proposed method were compared with the field measurements from actual volcanic eruptions, and the comparison showed that the proposed method can produce reasonably accurate predictions for ash dispersion.

Study of Singlet Oxygen Dynamics on Silicon Polymer Matrix.

We report a detailed analysis of singlet oxygen generated from the photofunctional polymer film (PFPF) matrix which is the silicone polymer film (PDMS) embedded with a photosensitizer. Activation and deactivation dynamics of singlet oxygen generated from PFPFs were investigated with time-resolved phosphorescence spectroscopy. The singlet oxygen generated from PFPFs was dissipated into three different regions of the polymer matrix; the inside (component A), the surface (component B), and the outside (component C). According to the deactivation dynamics of singlet oxygen in the polymer matrix, the components B and C are expected to be more important for various applications.