Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Impacts Of Reduced Anthropogenic Activities On Black Carbon Concentration And Related Atmospheric Parameters At An Urban Metropolis Near The Land Ocean Boundary During COVID-19 Pandemic


Affiliations
1 Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata 700 009, India
 

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a complete lockdown from 24 March to 31 May 2020 as imposed by the Government of India to prevent the spread of the virus that resulted into halting most of the economic activities during that period. The stringent anthropogenic activities during the lockdown phase resulted in a notable drop in the air pollution level. The prevailing global scenario during the pandemic has provided an opportunity of assessing the air quality in the absence of normal anthropogenic activities. In the present article, the impacts of reduced anthropogenic activities on the black carbon concentration and associated atmospheric parameters have been studied over a tropical urban location, Kolkata (22.57°N, 88.37°E) in eastern India. Investigations have been made on the impacts on the parameters like atmospheric electric field, wind speed, temperature, relative humidity, dew point temperature, rain accumulation and soil moisture during this unusual time in comparison to the same time span of the previous year 2019 when the usual human activities were pursued.

Keywords

Atmospheric Parameters, Black Carbon, COVID-19 Lockdown, Rainfall, Soil Moisture, Wind Speed.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Andreae, M. O. and Crutzen, P. J., Atmospheric aerosols: Biogeochemical sources and role in atmospheric chemistry. Science, 1997, 276, 1052–1056.

  • Ramanathan, V. and Carmichael, G., Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon. Nature Geosci., 2008, 1(4), 221–227.

  • Babu, S. S., Satheesh, S. K. and Moorthy, K. K., Aerosol radiative forcing due to enhanced black carbon at an urban site in India. Geophys. Res. Lett., 2002, 29(18), 27–1.

  • Menon, S., Hansen, J., Nazarenko, L. and Luo, Y., Climate effects of black carbon aerosols in China and India. Science, 2002, 297(5590), 2250–2253.

  • Tripathi, S. N., Dey, S., Tare, V. and Satheesh, S. K., Aerosol black carbon radiative forcing at an industrial city in northern India. Geophys. Res. Lett., 2005, 32(8), L08802.

  • Babu, S. S. and Moorthy, K. K., Aerosol black carbon over a tropical coastal station in India. Geophys. Res. Lett., 2002, 29(23), 13–1.

  • Talukdar, S., Jana, S. and Maitra, A., Variation of black carbon concentration associated with rain events at a tropical urban location. Curr. Sci., 2014, 107(1), 72–78.

  • Talukdar, S., Jana, S., Maitra, A. and Gogoi, M. M., Characteristics of black carbon concentration at a metropolitan city located near land–ocean boundary in Eastern India. Atmos. Res., 2015, 153, 526–534.

  • Jana, S. and Maitra, A., Electric field variation in clear and convective conditions at a tropical urban location. J. Geophys. Res.: Atmospheres, 2019, 124(4), 2068–2078.

  • Bodhaine, B. A., Aerosol absorption measurements at Barrow, Mauna Loa and the south pole. J. Geophys. Res.: Atmospheres, 1995, 100(D5), 8967–8975.

  • Bloemink, H., Static electricity measurements for lightning warnings – an exploration. INFRA-R&D, KNMI, 2013; http:// bibliotheek.knmi.nl/knmipubIR/IR2013-01.pdf

  • Ferro, M. A. D. S., Yamasaki, J., Pimentel, D. R. M., Naccarato, K. P. and Saba, M. M. F., Lightning risk warnings based on atmospheric electric field measurements in Brazil. J. Aerosp. Technol. Manage., 2011, 3(3), 301–310.

  • Lanzinger, E., Theel, M. and Windolph, H., Rainfall amount and intensity measured by the Thies laser precipitation monitor. TECO-2006, Geneva, Switzerland, 2006, pp. 4–6.

  • Stull, R. B., An Introduction to Boundary Layer Meteorology, Springer, 2012, vol. 13.

  • Sreekanth, V., Niranjan, K. and Madhavan, B. L., Radiative forcing of black carbon over eastern India. Geophys. Res. Lett., 2007, 34(17).

  • Harrison, R. G. and Carslaw, K. S., Ion–aerosol–cloud processes in the lower atmosphere. Rev. Geophys., 2003, 41(3).

  • Piper, I. M. and Bennett, A. J., Observations of the atmospheric electric field during two case studies of boundary layer processes. Environ. Res. Lett., 2012, 7(1), 014017.

  • Talukdar, S., Jana, S. and Maitra, A., Dominance of pollutant aerosols over an urban region and its impact on boundary layer temperature profile. J. Geophys. Res.: Atmospheres, 2017, 122(2), 1001–1014.

  • Le Quéré, C., Jackson, R. B., Jones, M. W., Smith, A. J., Abernethy, S., Andrew, R. M. and Friedlingstein, P., Temporary reduction in daily global CO2 emissions during the COVID-19 forced confinement. Nature Climate Change, 2020, 10, 647–653.

  • Varikoden, H. and Revadekar, J. V., Relation between the rainfall and soil moisture during different phases of Indian Monsoon. Pure Appl. Geophys., 2018, 175, 1187–1196.

  • Findell, K. L. and Eltahir, E. A., An analysis of the soil moisture– rainfall feedback, based on direct observations from Illinois. Water Resources Res., 1997, 33(4), 725–735.

  • Blume, T., Zehe, E. and Bronstert, A., Use of soil moisture dynamics and patterns at different spatio-temporal scales for the investigation of subsurface flow processes. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 2009, 13(7), 1215.


Abstract Views: 352

PDF Views: 118




  • Impacts Of Reduced Anthropogenic Activities On Black Carbon Concentration And Related Atmospheric Parameters At An Urban Metropolis Near The Land Ocean Boundary During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract Views: 352  |  PDF Views: 118

Authors

Soumyajyoti Jana
Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata 700 009, India
Gargi Rakshit
Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata 700 009, India
Animesh Maitra
Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata 700 009, India

Abstract


The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a complete lockdown from 24 March to 31 May 2020 as imposed by the Government of India to prevent the spread of the virus that resulted into halting most of the economic activities during that period. The stringent anthropogenic activities during the lockdown phase resulted in a notable drop in the air pollution level. The prevailing global scenario during the pandemic has provided an opportunity of assessing the air quality in the absence of normal anthropogenic activities. In the present article, the impacts of reduced anthropogenic activities on the black carbon concentration and associated atmospheric parameters have been studied over a tropical urban location, Kolkata (22.57°N, 88.37°E) in eastern India. Investigations have been made on the impacts on the parameters like atmospheric electric field, wind speed, temperature, relative humidity, dew point temperature, rain accumulation and soil moisture during this unusual time in comparison to the same time span of the previous year 2019 when the usual human activities were pursued.

Keywords


Atmospheric Parameters, Black Carbon, COVID-19 Lockdown, Rainfall, Soil Moisture, Wind Speed.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv120%2Fi2%2F296-303