One of the persistent environmental problems in the provinces of northern Thailand is severe air pollution during the dry season because of open vegetation burning by farmers for land clearance purpose. Aerosol optical depth and Ångstrom exponent data from MODIS-Terra satellite indicated that from mid-March to April, 2019, entire Thailand was covered with a high concentration of fine-sized aerosols. Trace metal concentrations of PM 2.5 collected from Chiang Rai in northern Thailand and Bangkok in southern Thailand between January and April 2019 were analyzed. Average concentrations of crustal metals such as Al, Ca, and Fe are higher in Chiang Rai compared to that in Bangkok. The Fe/Al ratio in Chiang Rai decreases from 1.65 during the onset of haze to 0.87 during the peak haze approaching a crustal ratio of 0.48. In contrast, Bangkok has higher Na, Mg, and Zn with an average Na/Mg ratio of 6.07 indicative of a sea spray (Na/Mg ∼ 8) origin. Principal component analysis identifies three possible sources in Chiang Rai: (1) crustal dust and biomass burning, (2) industrial source, and (3) refuse incineration mixed with road dust; and for Bangkok (1) natural background, industrial emissions, and coal combustion, (2) traffic emission, and (3) sea spray. The ranges of Pb isotope ratios in the bulk fraction of PM 2.5
India is one of the world's wettest countries receiving over 1000 mm of rainfall annually and also one of the countries experiencing regular floods and droughts. This study quantifies elemental composition of rainwater and aerosol collected simultaneously during 2019 monsoon season from Kolkata, a megacity in Eastern India marred by air pollution to understand sources and estimate wet deposition flux. Elemental composition (Na,
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