Black carbon aerosol quantification over north-west Himalayas: Seasonal heterogeneity, source apportionment and radiative forcing

Abstract

Continuous measurements of Black Carbon (BC) aerosol mass concentrations were carried at Dehradun (30.33°N, 78.04°E, 700 m amsl), a semi-urban site in the foothills of north-westHimalayas, India during January 2011–December 2017. We reported both the BC seasonal variations as well as mass concentrations from fossil fuel combustion (BCff) and biomass burning (BCbb) sources. Annual mean BC exhibited a strong seasonal variability with maxima during winter (4.86 ± 0.78 μg m−3) followed by autumn (4.18 ± 0.54 μg m−3), spring (3.93 ± 0.75 μg m−3) and minima during summer (2.41 ± 0.66 μg m−3). Annual averaged BC mass concentrations were 3.85 ± 1.16 μg m−3 varying from 3.29 to 4.37 μg m−3 whereas BCff and BCbb ranged from 0.11 to 7.12 μg m−3 and 0.13–3.6 μg m−3. The percentage contributions from BCff and BCbb to total BC are 66% and 34% respectively, indicating relatively higher contribution from biomass burning as compared to other locations in India. This is explained using potential source contribution function (PSCF) and concentration weighted trajectories (CWT) analysis which reveals the potential sources of BC originating from the north-west and eastern parts of IGP and the western part of the Himalayas that are mostly crop residue burning and forest fire regions in India. The annual mean ARF at top-of-atmosphere (TOA), at surface (SUR), and within the atmosphere (ATM) were found to be −14.84 Wm−2, −43.41 Wm−2, and +28.57 Wm−2 respectively. To understand the impact of columnar aerosol burden on ARF, the radiative forcing efficiency (ARFE) was estimated and averaged values were −31.81, −91.63 and 59.82 Wm−2 τ−1 for TOA, SUR and ATM respectively. The high ARFE within the atmosphere indicates the dominance of absorbing aerosol (BC and dust) over Northwest Himalayas.