Local and remote black carbon sources in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires

Substantial decreases of light absorption, concentrations and relative contributions of fossil fuel to light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosols attributed to the COVID-19 lockdown in east China

“…Fossil fuel and biomass burning are important sources of atmospheric particulate BC in China. Using Aethalometer model, the relative contribution of fossil fuel and BB to airborne BC can be quantified ( Sandradewi et al, 2008 ; Helin et al, 2018 ; Diaz Resquin et al, 2018 ; Dumka et al, 2018 ). The details of Aethalometer model can be found in supplement Text S4 .…”

“…In Aethalometer model, the AAE values of fossil fuel (AAE FF ) and biomass burning (AAE BB ) affect the partitions of the different sources to BC. Previously, the AAE BB of 1.8-2.2 and AAE FF of 0.9-1.1 have been widely used in this model ( Sandradewi et al, 2008 ; Herich et al, 2011 ; Fuller et al, 2014 ; Titos et al, 2017 ; Healy et al, 2017 ; Diaz Resquin et al, 2018 ; Dumka et al, 2018 ; Mousavi et al, 2019 ). Table S2 lists the average estimated contributions of fossil fuel and BB to BC during the entire sampling period using the various AAE FF -AAE BB pairs.…”

Source Apportionment of Ambient Black Carbon during the COVID-19 Lockdown

“…Types of emission sources, emission rates, meteorological conditions, and atmospheric stability are the main factors that significantly impact the hourly variations of ambient BC concentrations [33,47,72,85,86]. Descriptive statistical parameters, such as mean, median, mode, standard deviation (S.D.…”

“…This unexpected increase, especially in eBCff concentrations, after lifting of the LD was most probably derived from (i) exertions for restoring supply-chain losses, such as elevated fossil fuel consumption in transportation and industrial activities, (ii) escalated construction activities in the vicinity of the study area, (iii) more stable atmospheric conditions due to lower wind speed compared to the Post-LD phase, and (iv) long-range transport of BC particles from other regions to the receptor site. Domestic heating, burning of crop residues, and forest fires have been reported as primary sources of BC bb emissions, contributing significantly to the BC budget in other regions, such as Brazil [47], Canada [46], China [87], Finland [88], Greece [89], India [90], Italy [91], Spain [77], Turkey [41], and the USA [92]. However, wood-burning stoves in restaurants and open-air barbecues are the only eBC bb sources within the study area and most parts of the KSA, since domestic heating is provided by air conditioners/electric heaters and farms/forested lands are very scarce.…”

“…Several researchers have studied the monitoring, characterization, source apportionment, and health risk assessment of ambient BC in Africa [22][23][24][25], Antarctica [26][27][28][29][30], Asia [1,6,[31][32][33][34], Australia [35,36], Europe [21,[37][38][39][40][41], North America [42][43][44][45][46], and South America [47][48][49] throughout the past four decades. To date, a few studies have been conducted on the ambient BC particles in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).…”