Quantifying the effects of the microphysical properties of black carbon on the determination of brown carbon using measurements at multiple wavelengths

Abstract

Abstract. Methods based on the absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) are widely used to estimate the absorption by brown carbon (BrC), and the estimated absorption by BrC can be significantly different from 0, even for pure black carbon (BC). However, few studies have systematically quantified the effects of BC microphysical properties. Moreover, the conditions under which AAE-based methods are applicable are still unclear. In this work, we used BC models partially coated with non-absorbing materials to calculate the total absorption. Since the total absorption is entirely due to BC, the estimated BrC absorption should be 0 if the retrieval methods are accurate. Thus, the ratio of the estimated BrC absorption to BC absorption (ABSBrC) should be the proportion of the BC absorption that is incorrectly attributed to BrC. The results show that a BC AAE of 1 can generally provide reasonable estimates for freshly emitted BC, since ABSBrC is generally in the range of −4.8 % to 2.7 % during that period. However, when BC aerosols are aged, ABSBrC can sometimes reach about 38.7 %. The wavelength dependence of the AAE (WDA) method does not necessarily improve the estimates; sometimes a negative ABSBrC of about −40.8 % is found for partially coated BC. By combining simulations of a global chemical transport model, this work also quantified the effects of BC microphysical properties on BrC global aerosol absorption optical depth (AAOD) estimates. The AAE = 1 method sometimes leads to a misassigned global mean AAOD of about −0.43–0.46×10-3 if the BC aerosols have a complex morphology. The WDA method does not necessarily improve the estimates. In our cases, the WDA methods based on spherical models could lead to a global-mean misassigned AAOD range of about −0.87–0.04×10-3. At the regional scale, the AAE = 1 method sometimes leads to a distributed AAOD of about −7.3 to 5.7×10-3 in some specific regions. Mie-theory-based WDA methods lead to an estimated AAOD error of about -22×10-3 in some regions (e.g., East Asia). This work also showed that the misattributed BrC absorption would lead to substantial uncertainties in the estimation of the global direct radiative forcing (DRF) of absorbing aerosols from different sources.