Biomass Burning Effects on the Climate over Southern West Africa During the Summer Monsoon

Abstract

Biomass Burning (BB) aerosol has attracted considerable attention due to its detrimental effects on climate through its radiative properties. In Africa, fire patterns are anticorrelated with the southward-northward movement of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). Each year between June and September, BB occurs in the southern hemisphere of Africa, and aerosols are carried westward by the African Easterly Jet (AEJ) and advected at an altitude of between 2 and 4 km. Observations made during a field campaign of Dynamics-Aerosol-Chemistry-Cloud Interactions in West Africa (DACCIWA) (Knippertz et al., Bull Am Meteorol Soc 96:1451–1460, 2015) during the West African Monsoon (WAM) of June–July 2016 have revealed large quantities of BB aerosols in the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) over southern West Africa (SWA).This chapter examines the effects of the long-range transport of BB aerosols on the climate over SWA by means of a modeling study, and proposes several adaptation and mitigation strategies for policy makers regarding this phenomenon. A high-resolution regional climate model, known as the Consortium for Small-scale Modelling – Aerosols and Reactive Traces (COSMO-ART) gases, was used to conduct two set of experiments, with and without BB emissions, to quantify their impacts on the SWA atmosphere. Results revealed a reduction in surface shortwave (SW) radiation of up to about 6.5 W m−2 and an 11% increase of Cloud Droplets Number Concentration (CDNC) over the SWA domain. Also, an increase of 12.45% in Particulate Matter (PM25) surface concentration was observed in Abidjan (9.75 μg m−3), Accra (10.7 μg m−3), Cotonou (10.7 μg m−3), and Lagos (8 μg m−3), while the carbon monoxide (CO) mixing ratio increased by 90 ppb in Abidjan and Accra due to BB. Moreover, BB aerosols were found to contribute to a 70% increase of organic carbon (OC) below 1 km in the PBL, followed by black carbon (BC) with 24.5%. This work highlights the contribution of the long-range transport of BB pollutants to pollution levels in SWA and their effects on the climate. It focuses on a case study of 3 days (5–7 July 2016). However, more research on a longer time period is necessary to inform decision making properly.This study emphasizes the need to implement a long-term air quality monitoring system in SWA as a method of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

A call for action: Air Pollution, a serious health and economic hazard suffocating Africa

“…African PM emissions originate from sources different from those in high-income countries. In Africa, biomass burning (including agricultural burning and wild fires) is one of the major sources of aerosols after Saharan dust (Dajuma et al, 2021). Globally, biomass burning make up a majority of primary combustion aerosol emissions with ~52% originating from Africa, (Bond et al, 2013, Andreae, 2019, Brown et.al, 2021.…”