Atmospheric Fine and Coarse Mode Aerosols at Different Environments of India and the Bay of Bengal During Winter-2014: Implications of a Coordinated Campaign

Abstract

In this paper, we present mass concentrations of particulate matter [PM 2.5 , PM 10 size fractions and total suspended particulates (TSP)] measured simultaneously over land stations (123 Indo-Gangetic plain (IGP) of India as well as in the marine atmosphere over Bay of Bengal (BoB) in the period from 20 January to 3 February, 2014. The main objective of this study was to quantify the continental outflow of particulates (PM 2.5 , PM 10 and TSP) from IGP and associated regions into the BoB along with low level north-east wind flow during winter monsoon period. The present study provides a glimpse of the aerosol loading over the IGP region. During this campaign, the highest average PM 2.5 (187.8 ± 36.5 lg m -3 , range 125.6-256.2 lg m -3 ), PM 10 (272.6 ± 102.9 lg m -3 , range 147.6-520.1 lg m -3 ) and TSP (325.0 ± 71.5 lg m -3 , range 220.4-536.6 lg m -3 ) mass concentrations were recorded at Varanasi, Kolkata and Lucknow over middle and lower IGP regions. The PM 2.5 (average 41.3 ± 11.9 lg m -3 ; range 15.0-54.4 lg m -3 ), PM 10 (average 53.9 ± 18.9 lg m -3 ; range 30.1-82.1 lg m -3 ) and TSP (average 78.8 ± 29.7 lg m -3 ; range 49.1-184.5 lg m -3 ) loading over BoB were found to be comparable to land stations and suggests possible continental outflow. Over the continental region, the highest PM 2.5 /PM 10 ratio was recorded at Delhi (0.87). The PM 2.5 /PM 10 ratio over BoB (0.77) was found to be quite high and comparable to Varanasi (0.80) and Agra (0.79).

Wintertime characteristics of aerosols at middle Indo-Gangetic Plain: Impacts of regional meteorology and long range transport

“…Additionally, every single 24-h particulate mass concentrations were found to persist (PM 10 and PM 2.5 : 100%) well above the prescribed standards, which pose a considerable threat to surrounding inhabitants. For the entire monitoring period, particulate mass depicts higher variability from 106 to 373 mg m À3 (PM 10 ) and 70À286 mg m À3 (PM 2.5 ) which typically resemble the pattern of particulate mass concentrations for the same station reported in earlier studies (Murari et al, 2014;Sen et al, 2014).…”

“…Altitudinal distribution of aerosols is extremely critical for Varanasi as long-range transboundary particulates are believed to be significant contributors of total particulate loading (Murari et al, 2014;Sen et al, 2014). CALIPSO total (b 0 532) and perpendicular (b 0 532⊥) attenuated backscattering profiles comparison initially identifies two separated regions (X and Y).…”

“…10e), eventually establish the presence of dust (subtype 2) in region X (altitude: 1.4e4.2 km) while enormous quantity of polluted continental (subtype 3), polluted dust (subtype 5) and smoke (subtype 6) for region Y (altitude: 0.2e4.3 km). Collapse of ABL and reduced convective activity during winter nights (Satheesh et al, 2009) or long range transports (Sen et al, 2014) of aerosols are the possible reasons of aerosol dominance in such high altitude. These aerosols are well capable of modifying extinction of incident light and consequently modify total AOD.…”

Spatio-temporal variation in chemical characteristics of PM10 over Indo Gangetic Plain of India

“…Particulate matter has been extensively studied in recent years over the continents including IGP region due to its potential impacts on human health and air quality (Schwartz et al 1996;Li et al 2009;Ram et al 2012;Sharma et al 1995;Sharma et al 2014a, b;Sen et al 2014). The previous studies Ram et al 2012;Sharma et al 2014a, b) demonstrated that the soil dust, agricultural activities, biomass burning, vehicular emission, and industries, are responsible for the formation of secondary inorganic particles and other anthropogenic sources over IGP, India.…”

Study on Comparison of Indian Ozonesonde Data with Satellite Data

“…This discrepancy may contribute in averaged changes between ozonesonde and MOZAIC data. It is to be mentioned Delhi is considered as polluted city of the world [43][44][45].…”