Passages of anomalies in black carbon surface air concentration at Tiksi station, Yakutiya

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 9573-9629 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Corbin ◽  
U. Lohmann ◽  
B. Sierau ◽  
A. Keller ◽  
H. Burtscher ◽  
...  

Abstract. Soot particles are the most strongly light-absorbing particles commonly found in the atmosphere. They are major contributors to the radiative budget of the Earth and to the toxicity of atmospheric pollution. Atmospheric aging of soot may change its health- and climate-relevant properties by oxidizing the primary black carbon (BC) or organic particulate matter (OM) which, together with ash, comprise soot. This atmospheric aging, which entails the condensation of secondary particulate matter as well as the oxidation of the primary OM and BC emissions, is currently poorly understood. In this study, atmospheric aging of wood-stove soot aerosols was simulated in a continuous-flow reactor. The composition of fresh and aged soot particles was measured in real time by a dual-vaporizer aerosol-particle mass spectrometer (SP-AMS). The SP-AMS provided information on the OM, BC, and surface composition of the soot. The OM appeared to be generated largely by cellulose and/or hemicellulose pyrolysis, and was only present in large amounts when new wood was added to the stove. BC signals otherwise dominated the mass spectrum. These signals consisted of ions related to refractory BC (rBC, C+1−5), oxygenated surface groups (CO+1−2), potassium (K+) and water (H+2O and related fragments). The C+4 : C+3 ratio, but not the C+1 : C+3 ratio, was consistent with the BC-structure trends of Corbin et al. (2015c). The CO+1−2 signals likely originated from BC surface groups: upon aging, both CO+ and CO+2 increased relative to C+1−3 while CO+2 simultaneously increased relative to CO+. Factor analysis (PMF) of SP-AMS and AMS data, using a new error model to account for peak-integration uncertainties, indicated that the surface composition of the BC was approximately constant across all stages of combustion for both fresh and aged samples. These results represent the first time-resolved measurements of in-situ BC-surface aging and suggest that the surface of beech-wood BC may be modelled as a single chemical species.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Newton de Magalhães ◽  
Heitor Evangelista ◽  
Thomas Condom ◽  
Antoine Rabatel ◽  
Patrick Ginot

AbstractThe melting of tropical glaciers provides water resources to millions of people, involving social, ecological and economic demands. At present, these water reservoirs are threatened by the accelerating rates of mass loss associated with modern climate changes related to greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately land use/cover change. Until now, the effects of land use/cover change on the tropical Andean glaciers of South America through biomass burning activities have not been investigated. In this study, we quantitatively examine the hypothesis that regional land use/cover change is a contributor to the observed glacier mass loss, taking into account the role of Amazonian biomass burning. We demonstrated here, for the first time, that for tropical Andean glaciers, a massive contribution of black carbon emitted from biomass burning in the Amazon Basin does exist. This is favorable due to its positioning with respect to Amazon Basin fire hot spots and the predominant wind direction during the transition from the dry to wet seasons (Aug-Sep-Oct), when most fire events occur. We investigated changes in Bolivian Zongo Glacier albedo due to impurities on snow, including black carbon surface deposition and its potential for increasing annual glacier melting. We showed that the magnitude of the impact of Amazonian biomass burning depends on the dust content in snow. When high concentration of dust is present (e.g. 100 ppm of dust), the dust absorbs most of the radiation that otherwise would be absorbed by the BC. Our estimations point to a melting factor of 3.3 ± 0.8% for black carbon, and 5.0 ± 1.0% for black carbon in the presence of low dust content (e.g. 10 ppm of dust). For the 2010 hydrological year, we reported an increase in runoff corresponding to 4.5% of the annual discharge during the seasonal peak fire season, which is consistent with our predictions.


2008 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 733-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shi Yin ◽  
WeiGang Wang ◽  
MaoFa Ge

Author(s):  
Biqing Liang ◽  
Chung-Ho Wang ◽  
Dawit Solomon ◽  
James Kinyangi ◽  
Flavio J. Luizăo

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 2512-2526 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Sand ◽  
T. Iversen ◽  
P. Bohlinger ◽  
A. Kirkevåg ◽  
I. Seierstad ◽  
...  

Abstract The climate response to an abrupt increase of black carbon (BC) aerosols is compared to the standard CMIP5 experiment of quadrupling CO2 concentrations in air. The global climate model NorESM with interactive aerosols is used. One experiment employs prescribed BC emissions with calculated concentrations coupled to atmospheric processes (emission-driven) while a second prescribes BC concentrations in air (concentration-driven) from a precalculation with the same model and emissions, but where the calculated BC does not force the climate dynamics. The difference quantifies effects of feedbacks between airborne BC and other climate processes. BC emissions are multiplied with 25, yielding an instantaneous top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiative forcing (RF) comparable to the quadrupling of atmospheric CO2. A radiative kernel method is applied to estimate the different feedbacks. In both BC runs, BC leads to a much smaller surface warming than CO2. Rapid atmospheric feedbacks reduce the BC-induced TOA forcing by approximately 75% over the first year (10% for CO2). For BC, equilibrium is quickly re-established, whereas for CO2 equilibration requires a much longer time than 150 years. Emission-driven BC responses in the atmosphere are much larger than the concentration-driven. The northward displacement of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) in the BC emission-driven experiment enhances both the vertical transport and deposition of BC from Southeast Asia. The study shows that prescribing BC concentrations may lead to seriously inaccurate conclusions, but other models with less efficient transport may produce results with smaller differences.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 3163
Author(s):  
Alessandro Damiani ◽  
Hitoshi Irie ◽  
Kodai Yamaguchi ◽  
Hossain Mohammed Syedul Hoque ◽  
Tomoki Nakayama ◽  
...  

Because of the increased temporal and spatial resolutions of the sensors onboard recently launched satellites, satellite-based surface aerosol concentration, which is usually estimated from the aerosol optical depth (AOD), is expected to become a strategic tool for air quality studies in the future. By further exploring the relationships of aerosol concentrations and their optical properties using ground observations, the accuracies of these products can be improved. Here, we analyzed collocated observations of surface mass concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and black carbon (BC), as well as columnar aerosol optical properties from a sky radiometer and aerosol extinction profiles obtained by multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS), during the 2019–2020 period. We focused the analyses on a daily scale, emphasizing the role of the ultraviolet (UV) spectral region. Generally, the correlation between the AOD of the fine fraction (i.e., fAOD) and the PM2.5 surface concentration was moderately strong, regardless of considerations of boundary layer humidity and altitude. In contrast, the fAOD of the partial column below 1 km, which was obtained by combining sky radiometer and MAX-DOAS retrievals, better reproduced the variability of the PM2.5 and resulted in a linear relationship. In the same manner, we demonstrated that the absorption AOD of the fine fraction (fAAOD) of the partial column was related to the variability of the BC concentration. Analogous analyses based on aerosol products from the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) confirmed these findings and highlighted the importance of the shape of the aerosol profile. Overall, our results indicated a remarkable consistency among the retrieved datasets, and between the datasets and MERRA-2 products. These results confirmed the well-known sensitivity to aerosol absorption in the UV spectral region; they also highlighted the efficacy of combined MAX-DOAS and sky radiometer observations.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Carslaw ◽  
Cat Scott ◽  
Masaru Yoshioka ◽  
Douglas Hamilton ◽  
Fiona O’Connor ◽  
...  

<p>Assessment of anthropogenic radiative forcing requires a robust understanding of the composition of the pre-industrial baseline atmosphere from which calculations are made</p><p>It is often assumed that fire activity and the associated aerosol emissions were lower in the pre-industrial period than in the present day. However, some lines of evidence suggest that fire activity may have halved since the pre-industrial period. </p><p>Here we compare the simulated ratio of pre-industrial (c.1750CE and c.1850CE) to present-day black carbon surface concentrations in five ESMs (CNRM-ESM2-1, EC-Earth3, IPSL-CM6, NorESM1.2, UKESM1), using historical fire emissions from the Sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), to the ratio in Northern Hemisphere ice-core records. </p><p>We find that when forced with CMIP6 fire emissions all ESMs overestimate the present-day to pre-industrial black carbon ratio. This is consistent with previous studies and suggests that the contribution of fire to the composition of the pre-industrial atmosphere may be too low. If the contrast between the pre-industrial and present-day atmospheres in these models is too great, they are likely to overestimate the strength of the anthropogenic aerosol radiative forcing.  </p><p>We extend our analysis to include additional ESMs providing historical simulations for CMIP6, as included in the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report.</p><p> </p>


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (20) ◽  
pp. 11885-11907 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Corbin ◽  
U. Lohmann ◽  
B. Sierau ◽  
A. Keller ◽  
H. Burtscher ◽  
...  

Abstract. Soot particles are the most strongly light-absorbing particles commonly found in the atmosphere. They are major contributors to the radiative budget of the Earth and to the toxicity of atmospheric pollution. Atmospheric aging of soot may change its health- and climate-relevant properties by oxidizing the primary black carbon (BC) or organic particulate matter (OM) which, together with ash, comprise soot. This atmospheric aging, which entails the condensation of secondary particulate matter as well as the oxidation of the primary OM and BC emissions, is currently poorly understood. In this study, atmospheric aging of wood-stove soot aerosols was simulated in a continuous-flow reactor. The composition of fresh and aged soot particles was measured in real time by a dual-vaporizer aerosol-particle mass spectrometer (SP-AMS). The dual-vaporizer SP-AMS provided information on the OM and BC components of the soot as well as on refractory components internally mixed with BC. By switching the SP-AMS laser vaporizer off and using only the AMS thermal vaporizer (at 600 °C), information on the OM component only was obtained. In both modes, OM appeared to be generated largely by cellulose and/or hemicellulose pyrolysis and was only present in large amounts when new wood was added to the stove. In SP-AMS mode, BC signals otherwise dominated the mass spectrum. These signals consisted of ions related to refractory BC (rBC, C1-5+), oxygenated carbonaceous ions (CO1-2+), potassium (K+), and water (H2O+ and related fragments). The C4+ : C3+ ratio, but not the C1+ : C3+ ratio, was consistent with the BC-structure trends of Corbin et al. (2015c). The CO1-2+ signals likely originated from BC surface groups: upon aging, both CO+ and CO2+ increased relative to C1-3+ while CO2+ simultaneously increased relative to CO+. Factor analysis (positive matrix factorization) of SP-AMS and AMS data, using a modified error model to address peak-integration uncertainties, indicated that the surface composition of the BC was approximately constant across all stages of combustion for both fresh and aged samples. These results represent the first time-resolved measurements of in situ BC surface aging and suggest that the surface of beech-wood BC may be modelled as a single chemical species.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gihoon Kim ◽  
◽  
Seongmin Jo ◽  
Hohyun Kim ◽  
Seungdo Yu ◽  
...  

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