Variation in aerosol black carbon concentration and its emission estimates at the mega-city Delhi

Abstract

Simultaneous measurements of aerosol black carbon (BC) mass concentration using an Aethalometer Model AE-42 and mixing layer height (MLH) using a monostatic sonic detection and ranging (SODAR) system were carried out from January 2006 to January 2007 at the mega-city Delhi. The BC concentration generally had a typical diurnal variation with morning and late-afternoon/night peaks. The average BC concentration during the whole period of observation was fairly high at 14.75 μg m⁻³. The BC concentration nearly doubled during cloudy-sky conditions compared to that during clear-sky conditions. The seasonal variation showed a maximum average concentration during the winter (25.5 μg m⁻³) and a minimum during the monsoon season (7.7 μg m⁻³), with post- and pre-monsoon values at 13.7 and 9.4 μg m⁻³, respectively. The average BC concentrations were strongly affected by the ventilation coefficient, a product of average wind speed (WS) and average MLH, and were found to be strongly anticorrelated. A simple model of BC concentration along with the MLH and WS was applied to estimate the average BC emission, which was found to vary in the range 11 000–17 000 kg of BC per day. The maximum emission during the day averaged every hour for different months lay in the range 1000–2100 kg h⁻¹. The mean monthly emission varied in the range 0.35–0.52 Gg per month, giving rise to an annual estimated emission of 4.86 Gg in the year 2006 over Delhi.

Acknowledgements

Part of this work was sponsored by the ISRO-GBP (Indian Space Research Organisation – Geosphere Biosphere Programme) during the ICARB (Integrated Campaign for Aerosol trace gases and Radiation Budget) [G6] campaign. T.B. thanks CSIR for the Senior Research Fellowship provided during this work. We thank the anonymous referees for their suggestions in improving the manuscript.