Aerosol Black Carbon Over A Tropical Coastal Station in India
Aerosol Black Carbon Over A Tropical Coastal Station in India
Aerosol Black Carbon Over A Tropical Coastal Station in India
1029/2002GL015662, 2002
13 - 1
13 - 2 BABU AND MOORTHY: AEROSOL BLACK CARBON OVER A TROPICAL COASTAL STATION IN INDIA
during dry months (December to March) and lowest during [14] Acknowledgments. This work was a part of the Geosphere
monsoon months (3 to 4%). The dry-month values are Biosphere Programme of the Indian Space Research Organization. We
thank the reviewers and Prof. R. Sridharan (SPL) for useful comments.
higher than that expected for an urban location. Even the
lowest values are higher than the values for continental References
average model [Hess et al., 1998], and are comparable to a
Ackerman, A. S., O. B. Toon, D. E. Stevens, A. J. Heymsfield, V. Rama-
continental polluted atmosphere. Such large share of BC can nathan, and E. J. Welton, Reduction of tropical cloudiness by soot,
have serious implications on surface and atmospheric radia- Science, 288, 1042 – 1047, 2000.
tive forcing. A mere 6% of soot contributes 11% to the aerosol Allen, G. A., J. Lawrence, and P. Koutrakis, Field validation of a semi-
continuous method for aerosol black carbon (Aethalometer) and temporal
optical depth [Satheesh et al., 1999]; a 35% reduction in total patterns of summertime hourly black carbon measurements in south-
solar radiation over the ocean surface and an increase of western PA, Atmos. Environ., 33, 817 – 823, 1999.
50% in atmospheric heating [Podgorny et al., 2000]. Over Babu, S. S., and K. K. Moorthy, Anthropogenic impact on aerosol black
land the impact would be higher [Haywood and Shine, 1997]. carbon mass concentration at a tropical coastal station: A case study,
Current Science, 81, 1208 – 1214, 2001.
[11] Here a mention of the uncertainty in the derived BC Bhugwant, C., M. Bessafi, E. Riviere, and J. Leveau, Diurnal and seasonal
mass-fraction is warranted. Extensive field studies using the variation of carbonaceous aerosols at a remote MBL site of La Reunion
Aethalometer for BC measurements and their intercompar- island, Atmos. Res., 57, 105 – 121, 2001.
Chen, L. W. A., B. G. Doddridge, R. R. Dickerson, J. C. Chow, P. K.
ison with other analytical techniques have yielded excellent Mueller, J. Quinn, and W. A. Butler, Seasonal variations in elemental
agreement [Allen et al., 1999; Im et al., 2001]. Considering carbon aerosols, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide: Implications for
these along with our operational configuration of the sources, Geophys. Res. Lett., 28, 1711 – 1714, 2001.
Hansen, J., M. Sato, R. Reudy, A. Lacis, and V. Oinas, Global warming in
Aethalometer, we attribute an uncertainty of 10% (with a the 21st century: An alternative scenario, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 97,
minimum of 100 ng m 3) for the BC mass. This is also 9875 – 9880, 2000.
comparable to the uncertainty in the Mt estimates using the Haywood, J. M., and K. P. Shine, Multi-spectral calculations of the radia-
QCM. Combining these two the overall uncertainty in the tive forcing of tropospheric sulphate and soot aerosols using a column
model, Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc., 123, 1907 – 1930, 1997.
BC mass-fraction would be 14%. Hess, M., P. Koepke, and I. Schult, Optical properties of aerosols and
[12] The large annual variation in BC fraction in our study clouds: The software package OPAC, Bull. Ame. Meteor. Soc., 79,
cannot be fully attributed to local anthropogenic activity, (as 831 – 844, 1998.
Horvath, H., Atmospheric light absorption – A review, Atmos. Environ.,
there are no seasonally preferred combustion activities in and 27A, 293 – 317, 1993.
around the study region). It should be a combined effect of Im, J. S., V. K. Saxena, and B. N. Wenny, An assessment of hygroscopic
synoptic meteorology (see 3.1.) and long-range transport. growth factors for aerosols in the surface boundary layer for computing
direct radiative forcing, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 20,213 – 20,224, 2001.
From Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) data, Leon Jacobson, M. Z., Strong radiative heating due to the mixing state of black
et al. [2001] reported a substantial increase in the occurrence carbon in atmospheric aerosols, Nature, 409, 695 – 697, 2001.
of forest fires over India during January – March period. Jha, B., and T. N. Krishnamurti, Real-time meteorological atlas during the
These, though occur very far away from our location, could INDOEX-1999, FSU report #99-09, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4520, USA,
1999.
still be important due to the increased atmospheric life time of Krishnan, R., and V. Ramanathan, Evidence of surface cooling from
BC in dry months, the continental nature of the airmass and absorbing aerosols, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29, 541 – 544, 2002.
the potential role of trajectories [Jha and Krishnamurti, Kunhikrishnan, P. K., K. S. Gupta, R. Ramachandran, W. J. Prakash, and
K. N. Nair, Study on thermal internal boundary layer structure over
1999]. Further, the number of vehicles in India has increased Thumba, India, Ann. Geophys., 11, 52 – 60, 1993.
from 2 million during 1970 to 38 million during 1998 Lelieveld, J., et al., The Indian Ocean Experiment: Widespread air pollution
[Satheesh, 2002]. Consequent increase in emissions would from south and south east Asia, Science, 291, 1031 – 1036, 2001.
Leon, J. F., et al., Large-scale advection of continental aerosols during
be contributors to the regional aerosol loading. INDOEX, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 28,427 – 28,439, 2001.
[13] The large amount of BC raises the following issues. Pillai, P. S., and K. K. Moorthy, Aerosol mass-size distributions at a tropical
The reduction in solar flux at the surface due to scattering coastal environment: Response to mesoscale and synoptic processes,
and absorption might reduce the sensible heat flux, and Atmos. Environ., 35, 4099 – 4112, 2001.
Podgorny, I. A., W. C. Conant, V. Ramanathan, and S. K. Satheesh, Aerosol
reduce the amount of photo synthetically active radiation modulation of atmospheric and surface solar heating rates over the Tro-
reaching the surface, which would in turn affect the crop pical Indian Ocean, Tellus, 2000.
production. The lower atmospheric heating due to BC Ramanathan, V., P. J. Crutzen, J. T. Kiehl, and D. Rosenfeld, Aerosols,
climate and the hydrological cycle, Science, 294, 2119 – 2124, 2001a.
absorption simultaneous with surface reduction in solar flux Ramanathan, V., et al., Indian Ocean Experiment: An integrated analysis of
would intensify low-level inversion, which would slow the climate forcing and effects of the great Indo-Asian haze, J. Geophys.
down convection and in turn cloud formation. These effects Res., 106, 28,371 – 28,398, 2001b.
Reddy, M. S., and C. Venkataraman, Direct radiative forcing from anthro-
are likely to influence regional aerosol radiative forcing. pogenic carbonaceous aerosols over India, Current Science, 76, 1005 –
1011, 1999.
4. Conclusions Satheesh, S. K., Aerosols and Climate, Resonance, 7, 48 – 59, April, 2002.
Satheesh, S. K., V. Ramanathan, X. L. Jones, J. M. Lobert, I. A. Podogorny,
1. Average BC concentration at Trivandrum is compar- J. M. Prospero, B. N. Holben, and N. G. Leob, A Model for the natural
able to the values reported for suburban locations. and anthropogenic aerosols for the tropical Indian ocean derived from
Indian ocean Experiment data, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 27,421 – 27,440,
2. The share of BC to the total mass concentration varies 1999.
from 10% during dry months to 3% during monsoon Schwartz, S. E., The white house effect-Short wave radiative forcing of
months. The high values though are lower than those climate by anthropogenic aerosols-An overview, J. Aerosol Sci., 27,
359 – 382, 1996.
reported during the INDOEX, are higher than the model Stull, , An introduction to boundary layer meteorology, Kluwer Academic
values for ‘continental polluted’ aerosols types. Publishers, Dordrecht, 1998.
3. BC exhibits well-defined diurnal and annual varia-
tions. Diurnal variations are mainly attributed to local
factors and boundary layer dynamics, whereas annual S. S. Babu and K. K. Moorthy, Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram
variations are more associated with airmass types. Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum 695022, India. (k-k-moorthy@eth.net)