Temporal variability of primary and secondary aerosols over northern India: Impact of biomass burning emissions

Rastogi, Neeraj; Singh, Atinderpal; Sarin, M.M.; Singh, Darshan

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2015.06.010

Cited by 126 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…11, the curve obtained for the prime cooking time is closer to the published curve on biomass burning whereas that obtained during the noncooking time is closer to the published fossil fuel curve. Similar results were also observed over the Project Surya village in the IGP region (Praveen et al, 2012;Rehman et al, 2011). This clearly indicates there is contribution from both sources,…”

Section: Does Fossil Fuel or Biomass Influencesupporting

confidence: 75%

“…In a separate analysis (not shown here), we considered only the WS > 1 m s −1 and calculated the correlation coefficients to investigate the influence of regional emissions. Past studies near this site have been focused on cities like Kathmandu (Sharma et al, 2012;Panday and Prinn, 2009;Putero et al, 2015) and Kanpur (Ram et al, 2010) and regions of IGP dominated by agro-residue burning (Rastogi et al, 2016;Sinha et al, 2014;Sarkar et al, 2013), all of which reported very high levels of pollution. Our study adds to the growing list of scientific observations in the IGP by providing data from the foothills of the central Himalayas.…”

Section: Meteorologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pre-monsoon air quality over Lumbini, a world heritage site along the Himalayan foothills

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Lumbini, in southern Nepal, is a UNESCO world heritage site of universal value as the birthplace of Buddha. Poor air quality in Lumbini and surrounding regions is a great concern for public health as well as for preservation, protection and promotion of Buddhist heritage and culture. We present here results from measurements of ambient concentrations of key air pollutants (PM, BC, CO, O 3 ) in Lumbini, first of its kind for Lumbini, conducted during an intensive measurement period of 3 months (April-June 2013) in the pre-monsoon season. The measurements were carried out as a part of the international air pollution measurement campaign; SusKat-ABC (Sustainable Atmosphere for the Kathmandu Valley -Atmospheric Brown Clouds). The main objective of this work is to understand and document the level of air pollution, diurnal characteristics and influence of open burning on air quality in Lumbini. The hourly average concentrations during the entire measurement campaign ranged as follows: BC was 0.3-30.0 µg m −3 , PM 1 was 3.6-197.6 µg m −3 , PM 2.5 was 6.1-272.2 µg m −3 , PM 10 was 10.5-604.0 µg m −3 , O 3 was 1.0-118.1 ppbv and CO was 125.0-1430.0 ppbv. These levels are comparable to other very heavily polluted sites in South Asia. Higher fraction of coarsemode PM was found as compared to other nearby sites in the Indo-Gangetic Plain region. The BC / CO ratio obtained in Lumbini indicated considerable contributions of emissions from both residential and transportation sectors. The 24 h average PM 2.5 and PM 10 concentrations exceeded the WHO guideline very frequently (94 and 85 % of the sampled period, respectively), which implies significant health risks for the residents and visitors in the region. These air pollutants exhibited clear diurnal cycles with high values in the morning and evening. During the study period, the worst air pollution episodes were mainly due to agro-residue burning and regional forest fires combined with meteorological conditions conducive of pollution transport to Lumbini. Fossil fuel combustion also contributed significantly, accounting for more than half of the ambient BC concentration according to aerosol spectral light absorption coefficients obtained in Lumbini. WRF-STEM, a regional chemical transport model, was used to simulate the meteorology and the concentrations of pollutants to understand the pollutant transport pathways. The model estimated values were ∼ 1.5 to 5 times lower than the observed concentrations for CO and PM 10 , respectively. Model-simulated regionally tagged CO tracers showed that the majority of CO came from the upwind region of Ganges Valley. Model performance needs significant improvement Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.

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Section: Does Fossil Fuel or Biomass Influencesupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Meteorologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-monsoon air quality over Lumbini, a world heritage site along the Himalayan foothills

et al. 2017

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“…Further, these emissions get transported to the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea through the IGP and thus, affect regional air quality and marine atmospheric chemistry (Rastogi and Sarin, 2008;Sarin et al, 2010;Kaskaoutis et al, 2014). There are a few studies in literatures which have reported the chemical characteristics of PM 2.5 from the northwest part of India (Rajput et al, 2011;Rastogi et al, 2014;Rajput et al, 2014;Rastogi et al, 2016;Srinivas et al, 2016); however, the study on size-segregated chemical composition of carbonaceous aerosols over northwestern part of the IGP is still lacking in literature. Size distribution of aerosols is a strong indicator in understanding their primary and secondary sources and atmospheric formation process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Size-Segregated Characteristics of Carbonaceous Aerosols over the Northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plain: Year Round Temporal Behavior

Singh

Rastogi

Patel

et al. 2016

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

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Size-segregated aerosol samples (PM <0.95 , PM 0.95-1.5 , PM 1.5-3.0 , PM 3.0-7.2 and PM >7.2 ) were collected over Patiala (30.33°N, 76.40°E; 250 m amsl), a semi-urban city located in northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) during October, 2012 to September, 2013. These samples were analyzed for carbonaceous aerosols (organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC) and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC)) to study their temporal variation, prevailing emission source (s) and secondary formation processes. Annual average of total suspended particulates (TSP) concentration, estimated by adding the aerosol concentrations in different size ranges, was found to be 199 ± 82 µg m -3 , varying from 88-387 µg m -3 with majority of particulate mass found in submicron size (PM <0.95 ). ), respectively over an annual cycle. Highest mass fraction of OC (> 75%) and WSOC (> 80%) was observed in submicron size, suggesting that OC mainly comes from combustion and/or secondary source (s). It has been observed that almost half of OC is secondary. On the other hand, climate forcing agent EC in PM <0.95 varied from 1.1 to 9.8 µg m -3 (4.8 ± 2.2 µg m -3 ). High mass ratios of OC/EC (~1.5-7.2) and WSOC/OC (~0.33-0.68) indicate the relative dominance of biomass burning emission over the study region. Total carbonaceous aerosols account for ~10-59% of submicron particulates mass (PM <0.95 ), indicating that fine particulates are enriched with carbonaceous species. These results have implications to regional climate model development and validation.

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“…Therefore, nss-K + / EC ratios were widely used to better identify major sources of carbonaceous aerosols Rastogi et al, 2016;Ram and Sarin, 2011). The higher nss-K + / EC ratios (> 0.20) indicate the dominance of biomass burning emissions, whereas lower ratios (< 0.10) suggest the prevalence of fossil fuel combustion emissions.…”

Section: Monthly/seasonal Variationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The precursors of secondary OC may also come from biogenic sources in addition to fossil fuel combustion and biomass burning emissions. The OC / EC ratios often used to distinguish the relative contribution of primary vs. secondary sources as well as biomass vs. fossil fuel burning sources (Turpin and Huntzicker, 1995;Castro et al, 1999;Rastogi et al, 2016). Atmospheric aerosols emitted from fossil fuel combustion are characterized by lower OC / EC ratios (< 2.0), whereas higher OC / EC ratios (> 2.0) have been used to point out the presence of secondary OA (SOA) (Cao et al, 2003;Chow et al, 1996;Kunwar and Kawamura, 2014;Pani et al, 2017) in the atmosphere with a limited impact of biomass burning.…”

Section: Monthly/seasonal Variationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term (2001–2012) trends of carbonaceous aerosols from a remote island in the western North Pacific: an outflow region of Asian pollutants

2018

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Abstract. The present study reports on long-term trends of carbonaceous aerosols in total suspended particulate (TSP) samples collected at Chichijima in the western North Pacific during [2001][2002][2003][2004][2005][2006][2007][2008][2009][2010][2011][2012]. Seasonal variations of elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) concentrations showed maxima in winter to spring and minima in summer. These seasonal differences in the concentrations of carbonaceous aerosols were associated with the outflows of polluted air masses from East Asia, which are clearly distinguishable from pristine air masses from the central Pacific. The higher concentrations of carbonaceous aerosols during winter to spring are associated with long-range atmospheric transport of East Asian continental polluted air masses, whereas lower concentrations may be due to pristine air masses from the central Pacific in summer. The annual trends of OC / EC (+0.46 % yr −1 ), WSOC (+0.18 % yr −1 ) and WSOC / OC (+0.08 % yr −1 ) showed significant (p < 0.05) increases during the period of 2001-2012, suggesting that photochemical formation of WSOC and its contributions to secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) have increased over the western North Pacific via long-range atmospheric transport. We found a significant increase (+0.33 % yr −1 ) in nss-K + / EC ratios, demonstrating that concentrations of biomass-burning-derived carbonaceous aerosols have increased, while those of primary fossilfuel-derived aerosols have decreased over the western North Pacific. Further, secondary biogenic emissions are also important over the western North Pacific as inferred from a significant increase (+0.14 % yr −1 ) in the concentrations of methanesulfonate (MSA − , a tracer for biogenic sources). This point was further supported by a moderate correlation (r = 0.40) between WSOC and MSA − . We also found a significant increase in OC / TC (total carbon) and WSOC / TC ratios, further suggesting that photochemical formation of WSOC and its contributions to SOAs have increased over the western North Pacific during 2001-2012 via long-range atmospheric transport from East Asia.

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Temporal variability of primary and secondary aerosols over northern India: Impact of biomass burning emissions

Cited by 126 publications

References 27 publications

Pre-monsoon air quality over Lumbini, a world heritage site along the Himalayan foothills

Pre-monsoon air quality over Lumbini, a world heritage site along the Himalayan foothills

Size-Segregated Characteristics of Carbonaceous Aerosols over the Northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plain: Year Round Temporal Behavior

Long-term (2001–2012) trends of carbonaceous aerosols from a remote island in the western North Pacific: an outflow region of Asian pollutants

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