Influence of local waste burning on atmospheric aerosol properties in urban environment

Abstract

Aerosols affect the radiative energy budget on both the regional and global scales. The wavelength-dependent aerosol optical depth (AOD) is a fundamental determinant of the amount by which extra-terrestrial incoming sunlight and outgoing terrestrial radiation are being attenuated in the atmosphere. The present study addresses the influence of local waste burning on aerosol characteristics, black carbon (BC) aerosol mass concentration and spectral solar irradiance using ground-based measurements over the tropical urban environment of Hyderabad, India. AOD has been observed to be maximum during burning days compared to normal days. Aerosol size spectra suggest bimodal distributions during pre-and post-burning periods and trimodal distributions during burning periods. Angstrom wavelength exponent estimated from spectral variation of AOD suggested dominance of accumulation mode particle loading during burning days compared to normal days. Diurnal variation of BC on normal days showed a broad nocturnal peak during ∼20:00 to ∼24:00 h with a maximum value of BC aerosol concentration of ∼14,000 ng m −3 whereas on local waste burning days enormous increases in BC concentrations have been observed with a peak at ∼60,000 ng m −3. Relative attenuation of global solar irradiance during burning days has been found to be of the order of 30% in the visible and 28% in the near-infrared regions. The results are discussed in detail in this paper.