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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Index Terms

  • Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Aerosols and particles
  • Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Pollution: urban and regional
  • Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Troposphere: composition and chemistry

Abstract

Features in wavelength dependence of aerosol absorption observed over central India

Dilip Ganguly

Space and Atmospheric Sciences Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India

A. Jayaraman

Space and Atmospheric Sciences Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India

H. Gadhavi

Space and Atmospheric Sciences Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India

T. A. Rajesh

Space and Atmospheric Sciences Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India

Measurements on spectral dependence of aerosol light absorption and BC mass concentrations were made at various locations between Ahmedabad (23.03°N, 72.50°E) and Hyderabad (17.47°N, 78.45°E) during February 2004. Average concentration of BC was close to 2 μg/m3 which is about 2 to 5% of the total aerosol mass loading measured at the surface. Absorption Angstrom coefficient estimated using a relation of the form β abs (λ) = K−α is found to vary between 1.2 to 2.0 at different locations. Our result shows an excess absorption of up to 30% in lower wavelengths below 880 nm. Deviation from λ−1 dependence, which is typical of BC from fossil fuel, shows that aerosol mixture contains other particles from biofuel/biomass or mineral dust. As there was no major biomass burning observed in the study region as well as no specific enhancement observed in the coarse size aerosols, we attribute the observed excess absorption to the biofuel combustion.

Received 19 March 2005; accepted 10 June 2005; published 14 July 2005.

Citation: Ganguly, D., A. Jayaraman, H. Gadhavi, and T. A. Rajesh (2005), Features in wavelength dependence of aerosol absorption observed over central India, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L13821, doi:10.1029/2005GL023023.

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