The coatings mixing with the refractory black carbon (rBC) may enhance its light absorption (E abs ). Uncertainty largely arises from to what extent the coatings can envelope the rBC, in addition to the particle-resolved diversities for rBC size, coatings, and their combinations. Here, by using in situ characterization of particle morphology for all ambient BC, we propose a single metric to well discriminate the BC populations with and without E abs , which is the dynamic shape factor (χ) to describe the effect of particle nonsphericity in enhancing the drag force in an electrical field compared to a volume-equivalent sphere (higher χ means more nonspherical). BC with χ ≤ 1.75 can be considered well capsulated by coatings showing E abs , while χ > 1.75 is not. Given the initial nonsphericity of BC, increasing coatings causes BC to approach more sphericity and more likely encapsulates the rBC, thus exerting E abs . By applying this scenario, we are able to identify the fraction (F) of the BC mass with E abs present (likely core−shell) from a complex mixture (linearly correlated with a logarithmic coating/rBC volume ratio (VR), parametrized as F = 0.27 × log(VR) + 0.36), by which the predicted E abs in bulk can be improved by 36% compared to a core−shell only model, well capturing the transition of the BC mixing state when increasing coatings.