scholarly journals Elevated Black Carbon Concentrations and Atmospheric Pollution around Singrauli Coal-Fired Thermal Power Plants (India) Using Ground and Satellite Data

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 2472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh Singh ◽  
Sarvan Kumar ◽  
Abhay Singh
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Coal Mining ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Optical Parameters ◽  
Mining Areas ◽  
Angstrom Exponent ◽  
Ångström Exponent ◽  
High Concentrations ◽  
Ångstrom Exponent

The tropospheric NO2 concentration from OMI AURA always shows high concentrations of NO2 at a few locations in India, one of the high concentrations of NO2 hotspots is associated with the locations of seven coal-fired Thermal Power plants (TPPs) in Singrauli. Emissions from TPPs are among the major sources of black carbon (BC) soot in the atmosphere. Knowledge of BC emissions from TPPs is important in characterizing regional carbonaceous particulate emissions, understanding the fog/haze/smog formation, evaluating regional climate forcing, modeling aerosol optical parameters and concentrations of black carbon, and evaluating human health. Furthermore, elevated BC concentrations, over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) and the Himalayan foothills, have emerged as an important subject to estimate the effects of deposition and atmospheric warming of BC on the accelerated melting of snow and glaciers in the Himalaya. For the first time, this study reports BC concentrations and aerosol optical parameters near dense coal-fired power plants and open cast coal mining adjacent to the east IGP. In-situ measurements were carried out in Singrauli (located in south-east IGP) at a fixed site about 10 km from power plants and in transit measurements in close proximity to the plants, for few days in the month of January and March 2013. At the fixed site, BC concentration up to the 95 μgm−3 is observed with strong diurnal variations. BC concentration shows two maxima peaks during early morning and evening hours. High BC concentrations are observed in close proximity to the coal-fired TPPs (>200 μgm−3), compared to the outside domain of our study region. Co-located ground-based sunphotometer measurements of aerosol optical depth (AOD) show strong spatial variability at the fixed site, with AOD in the range 0.38–0.58, and the highest AOD in the range 0.7–0.95 near the TPPs in transit measurements (similar to the peak of BC concentrations). Additionally, the Angstrom exponent was found to be in the range 0.4–1.0 (maximum in the morning time) and highest in the proximity of TPPs (~1.0), suggesting abundance of fine particulates, whereas there was low Angstrom exponent over the surrounding coal mining areas. Low Angstrom exponent is characterized by dust from the unpaved roads and nearby coal mining areas. MODIS derived daily AOD shows a good match with the MICROTOPS AOD. The CALIPSO derived subtypes of the aerosol plot shows that the aerosols over Singrauli region are mainly dust, polluted dust, and elevated smoke. The preliminary study for few days provides information about the BC concentrations and aerosol optical properties from Singrauli (one of the NO2 hotspot locations in India). This preliminary study suggests that long-term continuous monitoring of BC is needed to understand the BC concentrations and aerosol optical properties for better quantification and the estimation of the emission to evaluate radiative forcing in the region.

scholarly journals The Ångström Exponent and Single-Scattering Albedo of Black Carbon: Effects of Different Coating Materials

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1103
Author(s):  
Jie Luo ◽  
Yongming Zhang ◽  
Qixing Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Single Scattering ◽  
Single Scattering Albedo ◽  
Optical Measurements ◽  
Coating Materials ◽  
Total Size ◽  
Angstrom Exponent ◽  
Ångström Exponent ◽  
Mixing States ◽  
Ångstrom Exponent

In this work, the absorption Ångström exponent (AAE), extinction Ångström exponent (EAE), and single-scattering albedo (SSA) of black carbon (BC) with different coating materials are numerically investigated. BC with different coating materials can provide explanations for the small AAE, small EAE, and large AAE observed in the atmosphere, which is difficult to be explained by bare BC aggregate models. The addition of organic carbon (OC) does not necessarily increase AAE due to the transformation of BC morphologies and the existence of non-absorbing OC. The addition of coating materials does also not necessarily decrease EAE. While the addition of coating materials can increase the total size of BC-containing particles, the effective refractive index can be modified by introducing the coating materials, so increases the EAE. We found that it is not possible to differentiate between thinly- and heavily-coated BC based on EAE or AAE alone. On the other hand, SSA is much less sensitive to the size and can provide much more information for distinguishing heavily-coated BC from thinly-coated BC. For BC with different coating materials and mixing states, AAE, EAE, and SSA show rather different sensitivities to particle size and composition ratios, and their spectral-dependences also exhibit distinct differences. Different AAE and EAE trends with BC/OC ratio were also found for BC with different coating materials and mixing states. Furthermore, we also found empirical fittings for AAE, EAE, SSA, and optical cross-sections, which may be useful for retrieving the size information based on the optical measurements.

scholarly journals Absorption Angstrom Exponent in AERONET and related data as an indicator of aerosol composition

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 21785-21817 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. B. Russell ◽  
R. W. Bergstrom ◽  
Y. Shinozuka ◽  
A. D. Clarke ◽  
P. F. DeCarlo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Aerosol Layer ◽  
Ozone Monitoring Instrument ◽  
Aerosol Composition ◽  
Cluster Analyses ◽  
Angstrom Exponent ◽  
Near Ultraviolet ◽  
Ångström Exponent ◽  
Ångstrom Exponent

Abstract. Recent results from diverse air, ground, and laboratory studies using both radiometric and in situ techniques show that the fractions of black carbon, organic matter, and mineral dust in atmospheric aerosols determine the wavelength dependence of absorption (expressed as Absorption Angstrom Exponent, or AAE). Taken together, these results hold promise of improving information on aerosol composition from remote measurements. The purpose of this paper is to show that AAE values for Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) retrievals from Sun-sky measurements describing the full aerosol vertical column are also strongly correlated with aerosol composition or type. In particular, we find AAE values near 1 (the theoretical value for black carbon) for AERONET-measured aerosol columns dominated by urban-industrial aerosol, larger AAE values for biomass burning aerosols, and the largest AAE values for Sahara dust aerosols. Ambiguities in aerosol composition or mixtures thereof, resulting from intermediate AAE values, can be reduced via cluster analyses that supplement AAE with other variables, for example Extinction Angstrom Exponent (EAE), which is an indicator of particle size. Together with previous results, these results strengthen prospects for determining aerosol composition from space, for example using the Glory Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS), which promises retrievals of multiwavelength single-scattering albedo (SSA) and aerosol optical depth (and therefore aerosol absorption optical depth (AAOD) and AAE), as well as shape and other aerosol properties. Cluster analyses promise additional information content, for example by using the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) to add AAOD in the near ultraviolet and CALIPSO aerosol layer heights to reduce height-absorption ambiguity.

scholarly journals On the attribution of black and brown carbon light absorption using the Ångström exponent

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 15493-15515 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Lack ◽  
J. M. Langridge
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Light Absorption ◽  
Absorption Efficiency ◽  
Potential Range ◽  
Brown Carbon ◽  
Angstrom Exponent ◽  
Ångström Exponent ◽  
Absorbing Material ◽  
Visible Wavelengths ◽  
Ångstrom Exponent

Abstract. The absorption Ångström exponent (åAbs) of black carbon (BC), or BC internally mixed with non-absorbing material (BCInt), is often used to differentiate the contribution of black carbon, dust and brown carbon to light absorption at low-visible wavelengths. This attribution method contains assumptions with uncertainties that have not been formally assessed. We show that the potential range of åAbs for BC (or BCInt) in the atmosphere can reasonably lead to +7% to −22% uncertainty in BC (or BCInt) absorption at 404nm derived from measurements made at 658 nm. These uncertainties propagate to errors in the attributed absorption and mass absorption efficiency (MAE) of brown carbon (BrC). For data collected during a biomass-burning event, the mean uncertainty in MAE at 404 nm attributed to BrC using the åAbs method was found to be 34%. In order to yield attributed BrC absorption uncertainties of ±33%, 23% to 41% of total absorption must be sourced from BrC. In light of the potential for introducing significant and poorly constrained errors, we caution against the universal application of the åAbs attribution method.

scholarly journals The absorption Ångström exponent of black carbon: from numerical aspects

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 6259-6273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Liu ◽  
Chul Eddy Chung ◽  
Yan Yin ◽  
Martin Schnaiter
Keyword(s):  
Particle Size ◽  
Refractive Index ◽  
Black Carbon ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Geometric Mean ◽  
Optical Parameter ◽  
Angstrom Exponent ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Ångström Exponent ◽  
Ångstrom Exponent

Abstract. The absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) is an important aerosol optical parameter used for aerosol characterization and apportionment studies. The AAE of black carbon (BC) particles is widely accepted to be 1.0, although observational estimates give quite a wide range of 0.6–1.3. With considerable uncertainties related to observations, a numerical study is a powerful method, if not the only one, to provide a better and more accurate understanding on BC AAE. This study calculates BC AAE using realistic particle geometries based on fractal aggregate and an accurate numerical optical model (namely the multiple-sphere T-matrix method), and considers bulk properties of an ensemble of BC particles following lognormal size distributions. At odds with the expectations, BC AAE is not 1.0, even when BC is assumed to have small sizes and a wavelength-independent refractive index. With a wavelength-independent refractive index, the AAE of fresh BC is approximately 1.05 and relatively insensitive to particle size. For BC with geometric mean diameters larger than 0.12 µm, BC AAE becomes smaller when BC particles are aged (compact structures or coated by other non-absorptive materials). For coated BC, we prescribe the coating fraction variation based on a laboratory study, where smaller BC cores are shown to develop larger coating fractions than those of bigger BC cores. For both compact and coated BC, the AAE is highly sensitive to particle size distribution, ranging from approximately 0.8 to even over 1.4 with wavelength-independent refractive index. When the refractive index is allowed to vary with wavelength, a feature with observational backing, the BC AAE may show an even wider range. For different BC morphologies, we derive simple empirical equations on BC AAE based on our numerical results, which can serve as a guide for the response of BC AAE to BC size and refractive index. Due to its complex influences, the effects of BC geometry is better to be discussed at certain BC properties, i.e., known size and refractive index.

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