Some Features of Black Carbon Aerosols Connected with Regional Climate Over Pristine Environment

Abstract

The authors report the results of aethalometer black carbon (BC) aerosol measurements carried out over a rural (pristine) site, Panchgaon, Haryana State, India during the winter months of 2021–2022 and 2022–2023. They are compared with collocated and concurrent observations from the Air Quality Monitoring Station (AQMS), which provides synchronous air pollution and surface meteorological parameters. Secular variations in BC mass concentration are studied and explained with variations in local meteorological parameters. The biomass burning fire count retrievals from NASA-NOAA VIIRS satellite, and backward airmass trajectories from NOAA-ERL HYSPLIT Model analysis have also been utilized to explain the findings. They reveal that the north-west Indian region contributes maximum to the BC mass concentration over the study site during the study period. Moreover, the observed BC mass concentrations corroborate the synchronous fire count, primary and secondary pollutant concentrations. The results were found to aid the development of mitigation methods to achieve a sustainable climate system.