Particulate matter and black carbon in the Brahmaputra Valley of northeast India: Observations and model simulation

Murthy, B. S., Latha, R., Srinivas, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6194-5871 and Beig, G. (2020) Particulate matter and black carbon in the Brahmaputra Valley of northeast India: Observations and model simulation. Pure and Applied Geophysics, 177 (12). pp. 5881-5893. ISSN 0033-4553

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Abstract

Brahmaputra Valley of northeast India is relatively pristine, with low local emission levels, but is susceptible to long-range transport from west Asian deserts. Hourly measurements of aerosol particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) and black carbon (BC) over a period of 1 year (June 2013–May 2014) over Tezpur station (26.63° N, 92.77° E), located in the Brahmaputra Valley, display annual mean PM2.5 and BC of 42 ± 25 µg m−3 and 6 ± 1.5 µg m−3, respectively, indicating that Tezpur enjoys lower pollution levels than other northeast stations. The lowest concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 (~ 14.7 and 24 µg m−3, respectively) are observed during the monsoon season (JJAS). The highest values (~ 91 and 114 µg m−3) are observed during the winter (DJF) due to local atmospheric conditions and some additional transport from the west Asian deserts and the Indo-Gangetic Basin (IGB). Local emissions seem to be mainly responsible for moderate values (~ 24 and 42 µg m−3) of PM during the post-monsoon (ON) season with weak winds. Coarse particles (diameter > 2.5 µm) are much higher (approx. 47% of PM10) in the pre-monsoon than in the other seasons due to the long-range transport of dust particles from the IGB and west Asian deserts as well as sea salt particles from the Bay of Bengal. WRF-Chem model simulation underestimated the concentration of PM2.5 and PM10 as compared to daily mean observations. The variation in the “model–observation” time series for relative humidity (RH) and boundary layer height suggests that underestimation of PM10 is due mainly to the underestimation of RH and overestimation of the ventilation coefficient by the model during winter and pre-monsoon seasons.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) for the provision of the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model and/or READY website (http://www.ready.noaa.gov ) used in this publication. We would like to thank the scientists/junior research fellows associated with the MAPAN station at Tezpur University for monitoring data collection. MoES, Government of India, has funded the project MAPAN. We acknowledge with thanks the GioVanni-MERRA and MODIS for the data on boundary layer height, PM2.5 and black carbon. We also thank the Director, IITM, for logistical and moral support. Publisher Copyright: © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Uncontrolled Keywords: aerosols,black carbon,boundary layer height,brahmaputra valley,relative humidity,simulation,geophysics,geochemistry and petrology ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1908
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 04 Nov 2022 09:30
Last Modified: 27 Oct 2023 02:14
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/89582
DOI: 10.1007/s00024-020-02590-1

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