To distinguish between high particulate matter (HPM) and light Asian dust (LAD) events, aerosol optical properties from GOCI were investigated in Seoul from 2014 to 2016. The poor air quality case caused by fine atmospheric particulate matter (i.e., 80<PM10PM10<400μg/m3400μg/m3) is clearly separated from the case of heavy Asian dust that generally shows the PM10PM10 concentration more than 400μg/m3400μg/m3. In this study, we have found eight cases for the poor air quality and divided them into the two events(i.e., HPM and LAD). In case of aerosol optical depth (AOD), there was no big difference between two events. However, Angstrom exponent (AE) for HPM events was greater than 1, while that for LAD events less than 1. As a result of comparing aerosol type, non-absorbing fine mode aerosols were dominant for HPM events, but coarse and absorbing coarse mode aerosols for LAD events. Therefore, AE and aerosol type from GOCI can be used to distinguish between two events effectively.