Abstract
Abstract. Understanding the relationship between black carbon (BC) and carbon monoxide (CO) will help improve BC emission inventories and the evaluation of global/regional climate forcing effects. In the present work, the BC (PM1) mass concentration and CO mixing ratio were continuously measured at a high-altitude background station on the summit of Mt. Huang (30.16° N, 118.26° E, 1840 m a.s.l.). Annual mean BC mass concentration was 1004.5 ± 895.5 ng m−3 with maxima in spring and autumn, and annual mean CO mixing ratio was 424.1 ± 159.2 ppbv. A large increase of CO was observed in the cold season, implying the contribution from the large-scale domestic coal/biofuel combustion for heating. The BC-CO relationship was found to show different seasonal features but strong positive correlation (R>0.8). In Mt. Huang area, the ΔBC/ΔCO ratio showed unimodal diurnal variations and had a maximum during the day (09:00–17:00 LST) and minimum at night (21:00–04:00 LST) in all seasons, indicating the impact of planetary boundary layer and the intrusion of clean air masses from the high troposphere. Back trajectory cluster analysis showed that the ΔBC/ΔCO ratio of plumes from the Eastern China (Jiangsu, Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai) was 8.8 ± 0.9 ng m−3 ppbv−1. Transportation and industry were deemed as controlling factors of the BC-CO relationship in this region. The ΔBC/ΔCO ratios for air masses from Northern China (Anhui, Henan, Shanxi and Shandong provinces) and southern China (Jiangxi, Fujian and Hunan provinces) were quite similar with mean values of 6.5 ± 0.4 and 6.5 ± 0.2 ng m−3 ppbv−1 respectively. The case studies combined with satellite observations demonstrated that the ΔBC/ΔCO ratio for biomass burning (BB) plumes were 10.3 ± 0.3 and 11.6 ± 0.5ng m−3 ppbv−1, significantly higher than those during non-BB impacted periods. The loss of BC during transport was also investigated on the basis of the ΔBC/ΔCO-RH (relative humidity) relationship along air mass pathways. The results showed that BC particles from Eastern China area was much more easily removed from atmosphere than other inland regions due to the higher RH along transport pathway, implying the importance of chemical compositions and mixing states on BC residence time in the atmosphere.
Highlights
Black carbon (BC) is an important component of atmospheric aerosols and a short-lived climate forcing agent, and it is mostly produced by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and bio-fuels used for energy (Bond et al, 2004)
We mainly focus on the BC-Carbon monoxide (CO) relationships from anthropogenic sources in Eastern China (Sect. 4) based on concurrently measured BC and CO mass concentrations at Mt
The seasonal variation in the BC concentration had a bimodal distribution with a minimum in summer and two peaks in May www.atmos-chem-phys.net/11/9735/2011/
Summary
Black carbon (BC) is an important component of atmospheric aerosols and a short-lived climate forcing agent, and it is mostly produced by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and bio-fuels used for energy (Bond et al, 2004). Fine-mode BC particles increase the regional atmospheric opacity (Seinfeld, 2008) and have detrimental health effects (Oberdorster and Yu, 1990). Severe environmental problems such as the acceleration of glacier melting have been found to be associated with BC deposition on snow surfaces (Ming et al, 2008; Ramanathan and Carmichael, 2008; Ming et al, 2009; Thevenon et al, 2009). Photochemical production of CO through oxidation of CH4 and other volatile organic compounds, comparatively smaller than direct anthropogenic emissions in East Asia, would not be addressed in this study
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