Mass fraction of black carbon in submicron aerosol as an indicator of influence of smoke from remote forest fires in Siberia

2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (11) ◽  
pp. 2611-2620 ◽  
Author(s):  
V KOZLOV ◽  
M PANCHENKO ◽  
E YAUSHEVA
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Mass Fraction ◽  
Submicron Aerosol

Model estimation of the lidar ratio of submicron aerosol containing black carbon

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana A. Terpugova ◽  
Mikhail V. Panchenko ◽  
Valerii S. Kozlov
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Model Estimation ◽  
Submicron Aerosol ◽  
Lidar Ratio

scholarly journals Climate change and forest management affect forest fire risk in Fennoscandia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Black Carbon ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Large Fires ◽  
Forest Fire Risk ◽  
Fire Ignition

Forest and wildland fires are a natural part of ecosystems worldwide, but large fires in particular can cause societal, economic and ecological disruption. Fires are an important source of greenhouse gases and black carbon that can further amplify and accelerate climate change. In recent years, large forest fires in Sweden demonstrate that the issue should also be considered in other parts of Fennoscandia. This final report of the project “Forest fires in Fennoscandia under changing climate and forest cover (IBA ForestFires)” funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, synthesises current knowledge of the occurrence, monitoring, modelling and suppression of forest fires in Fennoscandia. The report also focuses on elaborating the role of forest fires as a source of black carbon (BC) emissions over the Arctic and discussing the importance of international collaboration in tackling forest fires. The report explains the factors regulating fire ignition, spread and intensity in Fennoscandian conditions. It highlights that the climate in Fennoscandia is characterised by large inter-annual variability, which is reflected in forest fire risk. Here, the majority of forest fires are caused by human activities such as careless handling of fire and ignitions related to forest harvesting. In addition to weather and climate, fuel characteristics in forests influence fire ignition, intensity and spread. In the report, long-term fire statistics are presented for Finland, Sweden and the Republic of Karelia. The statistics indicate that the amount of annually burnt forest has decreased in Fennoscandia. However, with the exception of recent large fires in Sweden, during the past 25 years the annually burnt area and number of fires have been fairly stable, which is mainly due to effective fire mitigation. Land surface models were used to investigate how climate change and forest management can influence forest fires in the future. The simulations were conducted using different regional climate models and greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Simulations, extending to 2100, indicate that forest fire risk is likely to increase over the coming decades. The report also highlights that globally, forest fires are a significant source of BC in the Arctic, having adverse health effects and further amplifying climate warming. However, simulations made using an atmospheric dispersion model indicate that the impact of forest fires in Fennoscandia on the environment and air quality is relatively minor and highly seasonal. Efficient forest fire mitigation requires the development of forest fire detection tools including satellites and drones, high spatial resolution modelling of fire risk and fire spreading that account for detailed terrain and weather information. Moreover, increasing the general preparedness and operational efficiency of firefighting is highly important. Forest fires are a large challenge requiring multidisciplinary research and close cooperation between the various administrative operators, e.g. rescue services, weather services, forest organisations and forest owners is required at both the national and international level.

scholarly journals Chemical mass balance of refractory particles (<i>T</i>=300 °C) at the tropospheric research site Melpitz, Germany

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 26981-27018
Author(s):  
L. Poulain ◽  
W. Birmili ◽  
F. Canonaco ◽  
M. Crippa ◽  
Z. J. Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Mass Fraction ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Basic Result ◽  
Particle Mass ◽  
Heating Process ◽  
Research Station ◽  
Particle Volume ◽  
Carbonaceous Particles ◽  
Refractory Particle

Abstract. In the fine particle mode (aerodynamic diameter <1 μm) refractory material has been associated with black carbon (BC) and low-volatile organics and, to a lesser extent, with sea salt and mineral dust. This work analyses refractory particles at the tropospheric research station Melpitz (Germany), combining experimental methods such as a mobility particle size spectrometer (3–800 nm), a thermodenuder operating at 300 °C, a multi-angle absorption photometer (MAAP), and an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS). The data were collected during two atmospheric field experiments in May/June 2008 as well as February/March 2009. As a basic result, we detected average refractory particle volume fractions of 11±3% (2008) and 17±8% (2009). In both periods, BC was in close linear correlation with the refractory fraction, but not sufficient to quantitatively explain the refractory particle mass concentration. Based on the assumption that BC is not altered by the heating process, the refractory particle mass fraction could be explained by the sum of black carbon BC (47% in summer, 59% in winter) and a refractory organic contribution estimated as part of the Low-Volatility Oxygenated Organic Aerosol (LV-OOA) (53% in summer, 41% in winter); the latter was identified from AMS data by factor analysis. Our results suggest that organics were more volatile in summer (May–June 2008) than in winter (February/March 2009). Although carbonaceous compounds dominated the sub-μm refractory particle mass fraction most of the time, a cross-sensitivity to partially volatile aerosol particles of maritime origin could be seen. These marine particles could be distinguished, however, from the carbonaceous particles by a characteristic particle volume size distribution. The paper discusses the uncertainty of the volatility measurements and outlines the possible merits of volatility analysis as part of continuous atmospheric aerosol measurements.

scholarly journals Spatial Distribution of Atmospheric Aerosol Physicochemical Characteristics in the Russian Sector of the Arctic Ocean

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1170
Author(s):  
Sergey Sakerin ◽  
Dmitry Kabanov ◽  
Valery Makarov ◽  
Viktor Pol’kin ◽  
Svetlana Popova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Chemical Composition ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Black Carbon ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The North ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

The results from studies of aerosol in the Arctic atmosphere are presented: the aerosol optical depth (AOD), the concentrations of aerosol and black carbon, as well as the chemical composition of the aerosol. The average aerosol characteristics, measured during nine expeditions (2007–2018) in the Eurasian sector of the Arctic Ocean, had been 0.068 for AOD (0.5 µm); 2.95 cm−3 for particle number concentrations; 32.1 ng/m3 for black carbon mass concentrations. Approximately two–fold decrease of the average characteristics in the eastern direction (from the Barents Sea to Chukchi Sea) is revealed in aerosol spatial distribution. The average aerosol characteristics over the Barents Sea decrease in the northern direction: black carbon concentrations by a factor of 1.5; particle concentrations by a factor of 3.7. These features of the spatial distribution are caused mainly by changes in the content of fine aerosol, namely: by outflows of smokes from forest fires and anthropogenic aerosol. We considered separately the measurements of aerosol characteristics during two expeditions in 2019: in the north of the Barents Sea (April) and along the Northern Sea Route (July–September). In the second expedition the average aerosol characteristics turned out to be larger than multiyear values: AOD reached 0.36, particle concentration up to 8.6 cm−3, and black carbon concentration up to 179 ng/m3. The increased aerosol content was affected by frequent outflows of smoke from forest fires. The main (99%) contribution to the elemental composition of aerosol in the study regions was due to Ca, K, Fe, Zn, Br, Ni, Cu, Mn, and Sr. The spatial distribution of the chemical composition of aerosols was analogous to that of microphysical characteristics. The lowest concentrations of organic and elemental carbon (OC, EC) and of most elements are observed in April in the north of the Barents Sea, and the maximal concentrations in Far East seas and in the south of the Barents Sea. The average contents of carbon in aerosol over seas of the Asian sector of the Arctic Ocean are OC = 629 ng/m3, EC = 47 ng/m3.

Impact of forest fires generated black carbon deposition fluxes in Great Hinggan Mountains (China)

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 2073-2081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuanyu Gao ◽  
Jiabao He ◽  
Jinxin Cong ◽  
Shaoqing Zhang ◽  
Guoping Wang
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Carbon Deposition ◽  
Deposition Fluxes

scholarly journals Airborne in situ measurements of aerosol size distributions and black carbon across the Indo-Gangetic Plain during SWAAMI–RAWEX

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (14) ◽  
pp. 8593-8610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mukunda Madhab Gogoi ◽  
Venugopalan Nair Jayachandran ◽  
Aditya Vaishya ◽  
Surendran Nair Suresh Babu ◽  
Sreedharan Krishnakumari Satheesh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Mass Fraction ◽  
Aerosol Size Distribution ◽  
Size Distributions ◽  
Gangetic Plain ◽  
Airborne Measurements ◽  
Coarse Mode ◽  
Indo Gangetic Plain ◽  
Very High ◽  
Mass Concentrations

Abstract. During the combined South-West Asian Aerosol–Monsoon Interactions and Regional Aerosol Warming Experiment (SWAAMI–RAWEX), collocated airborne measurements of aerosol number–size distributions in the size (diameter) regime 0.5 to 20 µm and black carbon (BC) mass concentrations were made across the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), for the first time, from three distinct locations, just prior to the onset of the Indian summer monsoon. These measurements provided an east–west transect of region-specific properties of aerosols as the environment transformed from mostly arid conditions of the western IGP (represented by Jodhpur, JDR) having dominance of natural aerosols to the central IGP (represented by Varanasi, VNS) having very high anthropogenic emissions, to the eastern IGP (represented by the coastal station Bhubaneswar, BBR) characterized by a mixture of the IGP outflow and marine aerosols. Despite these, the aerosol size distribution revealed an increase in coarse mode concentration and coarse mode mass fraction (fractional contribution to the total aerosol mass) with the increase in altitude across the entire IGP, especially above the well-mixed region. Consequently, both the mode radii and geometric mean radii of the size distributions showed an increase with altitude. However, near the surface and within the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), the features were specific to the different subregions, with the highest coarse mode mass fraction (FMC∼72 %) in the western IGP and highest accumulation fraction in the central IGP with the eastern IGP in between. The elevated coarse mode fraction is attributed to mineral dust load arising from local production as well as due to advection from the west. This was further corroborated by data from the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) on board the International Space Station (ISS), which also revealed that the vertical extent of dust aerosols reached as high as 5 km during this period. Mass concentrations of BC were moderate (∼1 µg m−3) with very little altitude variation up to 3.5 km, except over VNS where very high concentrations were seen near the surface and within the ABL. The BC-induced atmospheric heating rate was highest near the surface at VNS (∼0.81 K d−1), while showing an increasing pattern with altitude at BBR (∼0.35 K d−1 at the ceiling altitude).

scholarly journals Daily black carbon emissions from fires in northern Eurasia for 2002–2015

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 4461-4474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Min Hao ◽  
Alexander Petkov ◽  
Bryce L. Nordgren ◽  
Rachel E. Corley ◽  
Robin P. Silverstein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Northern Eurasia ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
International Panel ◽  
Western Asia ◽  
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ◽  
Inventory Survey

Abstract. Black carbon (BC) emitted from fires in northern Eurasia is transported and deposited on ice and snow in the Arctic and can accelerate its melting during certain times of the year. Thus, we developed a high spatial resolution (500 m  ×  500 m) dataset to examine daily BC emissions from fires in this region for 2002–2015. Black carbon emissions were estimated based on MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) land cover maps and detected burned areas, the Forest Inventory Survey of the Russian Federation, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Tier-1 Global Biomass Carbon Map for the year 2000, and vegetation specific BC emission factors. Annual BC emissions from northern Eurasian fires varied greatly, ranging from 0.39 Tg in 2010 to 1.82 Tg in 2015, with an average of 0.71 ± 0.37 Tg from 2002 to 2015. During the 14-year period, BC emissions from forest fires accounted for about two-thirds of the emissions, followed by grassland fires (18 %). Russia dominated the BC emissions from forest fires (92 %) and central and western Asia was the major region for BC emissions from grassland fires (54 %). Overall, Russia contributed 80 % of the total BC emissions from fires in northern Eurasia. Black carbon emissions were the highest in the years 2003, 2008, and 2012. Approximately 58 % of the BC emissions from fires occurred in spring, 31 % in summer, and 10 % in fall. The high emissions in spring also coincide with the most intense period of ice and snow melting in the Arctic.

scholarly journals The effect of black carbon on reflectance of snow in the accumulation area of glaciers in the Baspa basin, Himachal Pradesh, India

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1359-1382 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. V. Kulkarni ◽  
G. Vinay Kumar ◽  
H. S. Negi ◽  
J. Srinivasan ◽  
S. K. Satheesh
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Black Carbon ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Freezing Point ◽  
Visible Region ◽  
Himachal Pradesh ◽  
Equilibrium Line Altitude ◽  
Upward Migration ◽  
Active Fire ◽  
Small Influence

Abstract. Himalayan glaciers are being extensively debated in scientific and public forums, as changes in their distribution can significantly affect the availability of water in many rivers originating in the region. The distribution of glaciers can be influenced by mass balance, and most of the glaciers located in the Pir Panjal and Greater Himalayan mountain ranges are losing mass at the rate of almost a meter per year. The Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA) has also shifted upward by 400 m in the last two decades. This upward migration of ELA and the loss in mass could have been influenced by changes in temperature, precipitation and by the deposition of black carbon in the accumulation area of glaciers. The deposition of black carbon can reduce the albedo of snow in the accumulation area leading to faster melting of snow and causing more negative mass balance. In this investigation, a change in reflectance in the accumulation area of the Baspa basin is analysed for the year 2009, as the region has experienced extensive forest fires along with northern Indian biomass burning. The investigation has shown that: (1) The number of forest fires in the summer of 2009 was substantially higher than in any other year between 2001 and 2010; (2) the drop in reflectance in the visible region from April to May in the accumulation area was significantly higher in the year 2009 than in any other year from 2000 to 2012; (3) the temperature of the region was substantially lower than the freezing point during the active fire period of 2009, indicating the small influence of liquid water and grain size; (4) the drop in reflectance was observed only in the visible region, indicating role of contamination; (5) in the visible region, a mean drop in reflectance of 21± 5% was observed during the active fire period in the accumulation area. At some places, the drop was as high as 50 ± 5%. This can only be explained by the deposition of black carbon. The study suggests that a change in snow albedo in the accumulation area due to the deposition of black carbon from anthropogenic and natural causes can influence the mass balance of the glaciers in the Baspa basin, Himachal Pradesh, India.

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