N MALAP
Articles written in Journal of Earth System Science
Volume 130 All articles Published: 20 May 2021 Article ID 0095 Research Article
P S SOYAM P D SAFAI S MUKHERJEE K TODEKAR S BANKAR D GURNULE N MALAP T PRABHAKARAN
Continuous measurements of absorbing carbonaceous aerosol termed as black carbon (BC) have been carried out during April 2017 to March 2018 over Solapur, a semi-arid, rain shadow location in Peninsular India using a multi-wavelength Aethalometer (AE-33). Statistically significant higher values of BC were observed during the dry period (December–May, mean BC 4.3$\pm$ 1.2 $\mu$g m$^{-3}$) as compared to the wet period (June–October, mean BC 1.0 $\pm$ 0.15 $\mu$g m$^{-3}$). Hourly variation depicted an almost similar pattern in both wet and dry periods with a dominant morning peak followed by afternoon low and then a heightened plateau during the evening to midnight hours. The absorbing Angstrom exponent (AAE) value was 1.36 $\pm$ 0.16 and 1.10 $\pm$ 0.22, respectively, during dry and wet periods with an annual mean of 1.22 $\pm$ 0.23. The source apportionment of BC using the Aethalometer model depicts the dominance of fossil fuel burning throughout the year especially high during the wet period (89$\pm$ 11% to total BC) whereas biomass burning contributed significantly during the dry period (30$\pm$ 14% to total BC). The observed temporal variation of BC was mainly due to the varying strength of BC emission sources and changes in local meteorological parameters. In addition, long-range transport from other regions might have also contributed during certain periods as seen from the cluster and concentration weighted trajectory (CWT) analysis.
Volume 132, 2023
All articles
Continuous Article Publishing mode
Click here for Editorial Note on CAP Mode
© 2022-2023 Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru.