Source apportionment of absorbing aerosols in the central Indo-Gangetic Plain

Abstract

Atmospheric aerosols in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) depicts high spatial and temporal heterogeneity in their radiative properties. Despite the fact that significant advancement in terms of characterizing aerosols radiative and physiochemical properties in the IGP have been made, information regarding the organic content towards total absorbing aerosol budget is lacking. In the present study we have analyzed two years of aerosol spectral light absorption measurements from the central-IGP, Gorakhpur (26.75°N, 83.38°E, 85m amsl), in order to study their seasonal behavior and to quantify their magnitude in terms of absorbing aerosols loading and source speciation. Remote sensing data in the form of 'Cloud corrected Fire Count' from MODIS Terra and 'Absorption Aerosol Index' from OMI satellites platform have been used to identify absorbing aerosol source regions. Spectral absorption analysis reveals a four-fold enhancement in absorption in the winter (W) and the post-monsoon (PoM) seasons at UV wavelengths as compared to 880 nm on account of increased biomass aerosol contribution to total absorbing aerosol load. Despite having higher fire events and absorption aerosol index, both indicating high biomass burning activities, in the pre-monsoon (PM) season, aerosols from the biomass sources contribute ~ 27% during the W and the PoM seasons as against ~17% in the PM season to the total absorbing aerosol content. This is due to near stagnant wind conditions and shallow height of air masses travelling to the central IGP in the W and the PoM seasons.