Black carbon, mass and elemental measurements of airborne particles in the village of Serowe, Botswana

Abstract

Absorption of sunlight by sub-micron particles is an important factor in calculations of the radiation balance of the earth and thus in climate modelling. Carbon-containing particles are generally considered as the most important in this respect. Major sources of these particles are generally considered to be bio-mass burning and vehicle exhaust. In order to characterise size fractionated particulate matter in a rural village in Botswana with respect to light absorption and elemental content experiments were performed, in which simultaneous sampling was made with a dichotomous impactor and a laboratory-made sampler, made compatible with black carbon analysis by reflectometry. The dichotomous impactor was equipped with Teflon filters and the other sampler with glass fibre filters. Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence was used for elemental analysis of both kinds of filters. It appeared that Teflon filters were the most suitable for the combination of mass-, elemental- and black carbon measurements. The black carbon content in coarse (2.5–10 μm) and fine (<2.5 μm) particles was determined separately and related to elemental content and emission source. The results show that the fine particle fraction in the aerosol has a much higher contribution of black particles than the coarse particle fraction. This observation is valid for the village in Botswana as well as for a typical industrialised city in Sweden, used as a reference location.