Anthropogenic fine aerosols dominate over the Pune region, Southwest India

Abstract

The major water-soluble ions, organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC) and mass concentration of fine-(PM 2.5 ) and coarse-mode (PM 10-2.5 ) aerosols were measured at Pune during January-December 2016. The mass closure approach was used by comparing the sum of the masses of the individual chemical species to the gravimetric PM obtained by weighting the filter samples. The 1 year mean total mass concentration of fine and coarse mode was 40 µgm −3 (64%) and 23 µg m −3 (36%), respectively. The PM 2.5 /PM 10 ratio was 0.64 ± 0.9 indicating an abundance of fine-mode particles over Pune during the study period. A principal component analysis identified three components, where the one with highest explanatory power (59%) displayed clear impact of anthropogenic sources on the measured mass concentration of a majority of the compounds. The strong linear relationships between EC, OC, nss-SO 4 2− and nss-K + suggest a predominance of a common primary source, with a contribution from biofuel as well as biomass burning sources. Keeping the strong correlation and sources of individual chemical species as the base, it was noticed that (1) major contributors to fine-and coarse-mode particles over the Pune regions are carbonaceous aerosols and secondary inorganic aerosols (non-sea-salt SO 4 2− , NO 3 − , and NH 4 + ), (2) anthropogenic aerosols contribute mostly to the fine-mode, and (3) meteorological parameters play an important role in controlling levels of fine-and coarse-mode particles. Taken together, the study clearly indicates the dominance of anthropogenic sources during the entire year with more significance in the winter season.

Seasonal variation and sources of PM2.5 bound water‐soluble ions at Jammu city in the foothills of the North‐western Himalayas, India

“…Na + , Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ and Cl − were found to have the highest concentrations during summer. Being land‐locked site and having low concentrations of Na + and Cl − in monsoon, it appears that the study site had little contributions from sea salt unlike those reported by George et al (2008) from Trivandrum; Gawhane et al (2019) from Pune; Chatterjee et al (2010) from Darjeeling experiencing air masses originating from the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal during the monsoon. As reported in the previous literature, carbonate minerals of Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ are known to neutralize the particles or rainwater acidity of anthropogenic pollutants (HNO 3 and H 2 SO 4 ) forming CaSO 4 and Ca(NO 3 ) 2 (P. Kumar et al, 2014).…”

An Analysis of the Aerosol Lifecycle Over India: COALESCE Intercomparison of Three General Circulation Models

“…Here, we used daily averaged air quality data obtained from in‐situ observations in 119 stations under the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) across India for PM2.5. OC, BC, and SO 4 measurement data are directly taken from different literature (Chatterjee et al., 2012; Das et al., 2015; Gawhane et al., 2019; Guttikunda et al., 2013; Joseph et al., 2012; Murari et al., 2015; Pant et al., 2015; Pipalatkar et al., 2014; Ram et al., 2012; Rastogi et al., 2014; Samiksha et al., 2017). These data are mainly used to compare the model‐simulated surface concentrations of PM2.5, OC, BC, and SO 4 over the Indian land mass.…”

A Review on Anthropogenic Biomass Burning: Emission of Aerosol Pollutants, Impact on Climate Change, Human Health and its Mitigation Strategies

“…They emerge from both natural and anthropogenic activities like farming, engineering, coal burning, etc. [14][15][16][17]. Aerosols are diverse in nature, driven by troposphere rollers, whereas, eliminated either by dry deposition through clouds and precipitation progressions [18][19][20].…”