Intra-seasonal variability of black carbon aerosols over a coal field area at Dhanbad, India

Singh, Siddharth; Tiwari, S.; Gond, D.P.; Dumka, U. C.; Bisht, D. S.; Pandithurai, G.; Sinha, Asha

doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2015.03.015

Cited by 35 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Lower values during noontime throughout the month of December indicate the impact of mixed layer depth and atmospheric ventilation. The diurnal variations of BC in winter days in the present study are similar to those observed by others at different locations in some Indian cities during winter, like Hyderabad [30] and Dhanbad [31]. Fig.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 79%

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Wintertime Variation of Black Carbon in PM2.5 Aerosols Over an Urban Industrial City in East-Central India

Ahirwar¹,

Bajpai²

2017

Pol. J. Environ. Stud.

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Atmospheric aerosol affects local, regional, and global climate by directly absorbing and scattering the incoming and outgoing solar radiation [1], indirectly by altering the cloud microphysical properties [2], and semi-directly by reducing cloud coverage [3]. Aerosols also have an adverse impact on human health -particularly regarding respiratory and cardiovascular diseases [4]. Black carbon (BC) is a strongly light-absorbing component of the atmospheric aerosol, mainly PM 2.5 [5] formed during incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biofuels, and biomass burning [6]. BC contributes to global warming [7][8] by possibly altering precipitation patterns [9] and melting glaciers due to snow albedo reduction [10]. Due to rapid urbanization and industrialization during the last decade, India and China are the largest BC emitters in the world, contributing 25 to 30% of global emissions of BC Pol. J. Environ. Stud. Vol. 26, No. 4 (2017), 1443-1451 , with 1.55 being the monthly average ratio for nighttime and daytime concentrations. Monthly average diurnal variation showed two distinct peaks, at morning with 39.84 µgm -3 (7:00-8:00 IST (Indian Standard Time)), and at night with 35.55 µgm -3 (00:00 -1:00 IST);and two distinct valleys, with lowest BC concentration (7.11 µgm , consistent with the nighttime average. A clear negative correlation between BC mass concentration and wind speed (r = -0.75), relative humidity (r = -0.30) and temperature (r = -0.19) was observed. The back-trajectory at surface level (50 m and 500 m) mostly originated from northeastern India, and for higher altitude (5,000 m), from Middle-Eastern and Arabian countries, except during the last week of December (Indian Ocean). The ratio and difference between BC mass measured at 370 nm and 880 nm showed biomass burning being the dominant cause at night.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 79%

“…Aruna et al [32] found about two times higher nighttime value than daytime at Chennai. As per available literature, some cities also have high BC mass loading during nighttime: Dhanbad [31] and Agra [33].…”

Section: Daytime and Nighttime Averagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wintertime Variation of Black Carbon in PM2.5 Aerosols Over an Urban Industrial City in East-Central India

Ahirwar¹,

Bajpai²

2017

Pol. J. Environ. Stud.

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“…The diurnal mean BC mass concentration found around 23.36 μgm −3 in the month of January and 7.3 μgm −3 in the month of March 2013. The average mass concentration is higher when compared to the previous studies for the almost similar environment (in the vicinity of the coal mine and TPPs) in Dhanbad (~10 μgm −3 ) by Singh et al [ 4 , 36 ].…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 59%

Elevated Black Carbon Concentrations and Atmospheric Pollution around Singrauli Coal-Fired Thermal Power Plants (India) Using Ground and Satellite Data

Singh

Kumar

Singh

2018

IJERPH

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The tropospheric NO2 concentration from OMI AURA always shows high concentrations of NO2 at a few locations in India, one of the high concentrations of NO2 hotspots is associated with the locations of seven coal-fired Thermal Power plants (TPPs) in Singrauli. Emissions from TPPs are among the major sources of black carbon (BC) soot in the atmosphere. Knowledge of BC emissions from TPPs is important in characterizing regional carbonaceous particulate emissions, understanding the fog/haze/smog formation, evaluating regional climate forcing, modeling aerosol optical parameters and concentrations of black carbon, and evaluating human health. Furthermore, elevated BC concentrations, over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) and the Himalayan foothills, have emerged as an important subject to estimate the effects of deposition and atmospheric warming of BC on the accelerated melting of snow and glaciers in the Himalaya. For the first time, this study reports BC concentrations and aerosol optical parameters near dense coal-fired power plants and open cast coal mining adjacent to the east IGP. In-situ measurements were carried out in Singrauli (located in south-east IGP) at a fixed site about 10 km from power plants and in transit measurements in close proximity to the plants, for few days in the month of January and March 2013. At the fixed site, BC concentration up to the 95 μgm−3 is observed with strong diurnal variations. BC concentration shows two maxima peaks during early morning and evening hours. High BC concentrations are observed in close proximity to the coal-fired TPPs (>200 μgm−3), compared to the outside domain of our study region. Co-located ground-based sunphotometer measurements of aerosol optical depth (AOD) show strong spatial variability at the fixed site, with AOD in the range 0.38–0.58, and the highest AOD in the range 0.7–0.95 near the TPPs in transit measurements (similar to the peak of BC concentrations). Additionally, the Angstrom exponent was found to be in the range 0.4–1.0 (maximum in the morning time) and highest in the proximity of TPPs (~1.0), suggesting abundance of fine particulates, whereas there was low Angstrom exponent over the surrounding coal mining areas. Low Angstrom exponent is characterized by dust from the unpaved roads and nearby coal mining areas. MODIS derived daily AOD shows a good match with the MICROTOPS AOD. The CALIPSO derived subtypes of the aerosol plot shows that the aerosols over Singrauli region are mainly dust, polluted dust, and elevated smoke. The preliminary study for few days provides information about the BC concentrations and aerosol optical properties from Singrauli (one of the NO2 hotspot locations in India). This preliminary study suggests that long-term continuous monitoring of BC is needed to understand the BC concentrations and aerosol optical properties for better quantification and the estimation of the emission to evaluate radiative forcing in the region.

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“…As Lulang is a high-altitude site, the sample volume was corrected for standard temperature and pressure (see supporting information for details). The uncertainty in the BC mass concentration measurements is~10% [Ramachandran and Rajesh, 2007;Singh et al, 2015].…”

Section: Measurements Of Bcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Black carbon aerosol and its radiative impact at a high‐altitude remote site on the southeastern Tibet Plateau

Zhao

Wang

et al. 2017

JGR Atmospheres

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Aerosol black carbon (BC) was measured with an Aethalometer™ at Lulang, a high‐altitude station in southeastern Tibetan Plateau (TP), from July 2008 to August 2009. Daily mean BC loadings varied from 57.7 to 5368.9 ng m−3 (grand average ± standard deviation = 496.5 ± 521.2 ng m−3), indicating a significant BC burden even at free tropospheric altitudes. BC loadings were highest during the premonsoon and lowest during the monsoon, and peaks in BC were coincident with high atmospheric boundary layers. Daily peaks in BC occurred from 08:00 to 10:00 local time with minor fluctuations at other times. The BC mass absorption efficiency (MAE) was calculated from elemental carbon concentrations obtained from a thermal/optical reflectance method and absorption coefficients from the Aethalometer™, and values ranged from 6.1 to 31.7 m2 g−1 (average = 16.6 ± 5.7 m2 g−1). Strong variations in the MAEs during the monsoon can be ascribed to large uncertainties due to low BC and babs and possibly coatings on the BC. High MAEs during premonsoon pollution events were likely due to internal mixing during transport. The mean direct surface radiative forcing (DRF) estimated from a radiation model was −19.9 (±7.4) W m−2 for the full aerosol population and −3.9 (±1.8) W m−2 for a BC only scenario. The BC DRF during a case study (−36.0 W m−2) was much stronger than the typical, and the BC contribution to the forcing was higher (~50%) than usual (~20%). These results show that BC can at times account for a relatively large fraction of the aerosol surface heating over the southeast TP, which may affect both climate and hydrological cycles.

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Intra-seasonal variability of black carbon aerosols over a coal field area at Dhanbad, India

Cited by 35 publications

References 78 publications

Wintertime Variation of Black Carbon in PM2.5 Aerosols Over an Urban Industrial City in East-Central India

Wintertime Variation of Black Carbon in PM2.5 Aerosols Over an Urban Industrial City in East-Central India

Elevated Black Carbon Concentrations and Atmospheric Pollution around Singrauli Coal-Fired Thermal Power Plants (India) Using Ground and Satellite Data

Black carbon aerosol and its radiative impact at a high‐altitude remote site on the southeastern Tibet Plateau

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