Aerosol absorption over Bay of Bengal during winter: Variability and sources

Abstract

Measurements of black carbon (BC) mass concentration were made over the Bay of Bengal (BoB) during the period of 27 December 2008-29 January 2009. BC mass concentration is highest over the Coastal-BoB (5.1 ± 3.0 μg m -3) and is more than a factor of two higher than the South-BoB (2.5 ± 1.4 μg m -3). The source regions of BC over the study region is identified using the Total Potential Source Contribution Function (TPSCF) analysis. The probable source regions over the Coastal-BoB and North-BoB (India, Indo-Gangetic plain, Pakistan, Afghanistan) are found to be distinctly different than that over the East-BoB and South-BoB (mostly from southeast Asia). The spectral distribution of absorption coefficients suggested similar source types of BC present over the entire BoB, with significant contribution of absorbing aerosols from the sources other than fossil fuel burning. Our results suggest that the entire BoB remains dominantly influenced by aerosols emitted from biomass/biofuel burning during winter. Single scattering albedo (SSA) is found to vary in the range of 0.63-0.70 over different parts of BoB with the lowest value over Coastal-BoB and the highest value over South-BoB. SSA values observed in the present study are the lowest ever reported over the BoB in the last decade indicating highest concentration of absorbing aerosols over the BoB during winter. The present work and the results obtained will have strong implications while investigating the effect of anthropogenic aerosols over marine environment, and in estimating the spatiotemporal variation of aerosol radiative impact. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.