Abstract
AbstractBiomass Burning (BB) aerosol has attracted considerable attention due to its detrimental effects on climate through its radiative properties. In Africa, fire patterns are anticorrelated with the southward-northward movement of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). Each year between June and September, BB occurs in the southern hemisphere of Africa, and aerosols are carried westward by the African Easterly Jet (AEJ) and advected at an altitude of between 2 and 4 km. Observations made during a field campaign of Dynamics-Aerosol-Chemistry-Cloud Interactions in West Africa (DACCIWA) (Knippertz et al., Bull Am Meteorol Soc 96:1451–1460, 2015) during the West African Monsoon (WAM) of June–July 2016 have revealed large quantities of BB aerosols in the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) over southern West Africa (SWA).This chapter examines the effects of the long-range transport of BB aerosols on the climate over SWA by means of a modeling study, and proposes several adaptation and mitigation strategies for policy makers regarding this phenomenon. A high-resolution regional climate model, known as the Consortium for Small-scale Modelling – Aerosols and Reactive Traces (COSMO-ART) gases, was used to conduct two set of experiments, with and without BB emissions, to quantify their impacts on the SWA atmosphere. Results revealed a reduction in surface shortwave (SW) radiation of up to about 6.5 W m−2 and an 11% increase of Cloud Droplets Number Concentration (CDNC) over the SWA domain. Also, an increase of 12.45% in Particulate Matter (PM25) surface concentration was observed in Abidjan (9.75 μg m−3), Accra (10.7 μg m−3), Cotonou (10.7 μg m−3), and Lagos (8 μg m−3), while the carbon monoxide (CO) mixing ratio increased by 90 ppb in Abidjan and Accra due to BB. Moreover, BB aerosols were found to contribute to a 70% increase of organic carbon (OC) below 1 km in the PBL, followed by black carbon (BC) with 24.5%. This work highlights the contribution of the long-range transport of BB pollutants to pollution levels in SWA and their effects on the climate. It focuses on a case study of 3 days (5–7 July 2016). However, more research on a longer time period is necessary to inform decision making properly.This study emphasizes the need to implement a long-term air quality monitoring system in SWA as a method of climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Highlights
Biomass Burning (BB) is one of the major sources of aerosols in Africa after Saharan dust
The results revealed a decrease in SW radiation at the surface and top of atmosphere (TOA) by 6.5 W mÀ2 and 5 W mÀ2, respectively, a slight decrease in precipitation, and an increase in the Cloud Droplets Number Concentration (CDNC) over southern West Africa (SWA)
It is recommended that increasing observational networks over SWA and improving modeling tools and human capacity would be effective and efficient ways of tackling issues related to climate change. It has been found in our study that remote pollution from the long-range transport of BB appears to affect the atmospheric aerosol pollution over SWA during summer monsoon
Summary
Biomass Burning (BB) is one of the major sources of aerosols in Africa after Saharan dust. In the form of submicron accumulation mode BB pollutants are mainly composed of organic carbon (OC) and black carbon (BC) aerosols and carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon, and nitrogen oxide (NOx), as gaseous pollutants. An increasing number of studies have investigated the impacts of BB aerosols on radiation, weather, and climate. BB is an important source of aerosols and trace gases in the atmosphere, with an estimated burned biomass of 3260–10,450 Tg aÀ1 for tropical areas (Barbosa et al 1999). Hao and Liu (1994) estimated that there was an amount of 2500 Tg aÀ1 (46% of the tropics in total) over the tropical regions of Africa, to which the savanna contributes up to 1600 Tg aÀ1 (30% of the total amount over the tropics)
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