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Response of Ambient BC Concentration Across the Indian Region to the Nation-Wide Lockdown: Results from the ARFINET Measurements of ISRO-GBP


Affiliations
1 Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
2 Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560 012, India
3 Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560 012, India
4 Centre for Atmospheric Studies, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh 786 004, India
5 Regional Remote Sensing Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Nagpur 440 033, India
6 North Eastern – Space Application Centres, Shillong 793 103, India
7 Department of Physics, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar, Agartala 799 022, India
8 Department of Marine Sciences, Goa University, Goa 403 206, India
9 National Remote Sensing Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Hyderabad 500 037, India
10 Indian Institute of Mineral and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751 013, India
11 Sri Krishna Devaraya University, Anantapur 515 003, India
12 G. B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Kullu 175 126, India
13 Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
14 Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Nainital 263 002, India
15 Department of Chemistry, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra 282 005, India
16 Department of Physics, D.D.U. Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur 273 009, India
17 Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT-BHU, Varanasi 221 005, India
18 Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Indian Space Research Organisation, Dehradun 248 001, India
 

In this study, we assess the response of ambient aero-sol black carbon (BC) mass concentrations and spec-tral absorption properties across Indian mainland during the nation-wide lockdown (LD) in connection with the Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pan-demic. The LD had brought near to total cut-off of emissions from industrial, traffic (road, railways, ma-rine and air) and energy sectors, though the domestic emissions remained fairly unaltered. This provided a unique opportunity to delineate the impact of fossil fuel combustion sources on atmospheric BC characte-ristics. In this context, the primary data of BC meas-ured at the national network of aerosol observatories (ARFINET) under ISRO-GBP are examined to assess the response to the seizure of emissions over distinct geographic parts of the country. Results indicate that average BC concentrations over the Indian mainland are curbed down significantly (10–40%) from pre-lockdown observations during the first and most in-tense phase of lockdown. This decline is significant with respect to the long-term (2015–2019) averaged (climatological mean) values. The drop in BC is most pronounced over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (>60%) and north-eastern India (>30%) during the second phase of lockdown, while significant reduction is seen during LD1 (16–60%) over central and peninsular Indian as well as Himalayan and sub-Himalayan regions. De-spite such a large reduction, the absolute magnitude of BC remained higher over the IGP and north-eastern sites compared to other parts of India. Notably, the spectral absorption index of aerosols changed very little over most of the locations, indicating the still persisting contribution of fossil-fuel emissions over most of the locations.

Keywords

ARFINET, Black Carbon, COVID-19.
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  • Response of Ambient BC Concentration Across the Indian Region to the Nation-Wide Lockdown: Results from the ARFINET Measurements of ISRO-GBP

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Authors

Mukunda M. Gogoi
Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
S. Suresh Babu
Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
B. S. Arun
Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
K. Krishna Moorthy
Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560 012, India
A. Ajay
Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560 012, India
P. Ajay
Centre for Atmospheric Studies, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh 786 004, India
Arun Suryavanshi
Regional Remote Sensing Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Nagpur 440 033, India
Arup Borgohain
North Eastern – Space Application Centres, Shillong 793 103, India
Anirban Guha
Department of Physics, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar, Agartala 799 022, India
Atiba Shaikh
Department of Marine Sciences, Goa University, Goa 403 206, India
Binita Pathak
Centre for Atmospheric Studies, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh 786 004, India
Biswadip Gharai
National Remote Sensing Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Hyderabad 500 037, India
Boopathy Ramasamy
Indian Institute of Mineral and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751 013, India
G. Balakrishnaiah
Sri Krishna Devaraya University, Anantapur 515 003, India
Harilal B. Menon
Department of Marine Sciences, Goa University, Goa 403 206, India
Jagdish Chandra Kuniyal
G. B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Kullu 175 126, India
Jayabala Krishnan
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
K. Rama Gopal
Sri Krishna Devaraya University, Anantapur 515 003, India
M. Maheswari
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
Manish Naja
Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Nainital 263 002, India
Parminder Kaur
Department of Physics, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar, Agartala 799 022, India
Pradip K. Bhuyan
Centre for Atmospheric Studies, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh 786 004, India
Pratima Gupta
Department of Chemistry, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra 282 005, India
Prayagraj Singh
Department of Physics, D.D.U. Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur 273 009, India
Priyanka Srivastava
Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Nainital 263 002, India
R. S. Singh
Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT-BHU, Varanasi 221 005, India
Ranjit Kumar
Department of Chemistry, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra 282 005, India
Shantanu Rastogi
Department of Physics, D.D.U. Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur 273 009, India
Shyam Sundar Kundu
North Eastern – Space Application Centres, Shillong 793 103, India
Sobhan Kumar Kompalli
Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
Subhasmita Panda
Indian Institute of Mineral and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751 013, India
Tandule Chakradhar Rao
Sri Krishna Devaraya University, Anantapur 515 003, India
Trupti Das
Indian Institute of Mineral and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751 013, India
Yogesh Kant
Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Indian Space Research Organisation, Dehradun 248 001, India

Abstract


In this study, we assess the response of ambient aero-sol black carbon (BC) mass concentrations and spec-tral absorption properties across Indian mainland during the nation-wide lockdown (LD) in connection with the Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pan-demic. The LD had brought near to total cut-off of emissions from industrial, traffic (road, railways, ma-rine and air) and energy sectors, though the domestic emissions remained fairly unaltered. This provided a unique opportunity to delineate the impact of fossil fuel combustion sources on atmospheric BC characte-ristics. In this context, the primary data of BC meas-ured at the national network of aerosol observatories (ARFINET) under ISRO-GBP are examined to assess the response to the seizure of emissions over distinct geographic parts of the country. Results indicate that average BC concentrations over the Indian mainland are curbed down significantly (10–40%) from pre-lockdown observations during the first and most in-tense phase of lockdown. This decline is significant with respect to the long-term (2015–2019) averaged (climatological mean) values. The drop in BC is most pronounced over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (>60%) and north-eastern India (>30%) during the second phase of lockdown, while significant reduction is seen during LD1 (16–60%) over central and peninsular Indian as well as Himalayan and sub-Himalayan regions. De-spite such a large reduction, the absolute magnitude of BC remained higher over the IGP and north-eastern sites compared to other parts of India. Notably, the spectral absorption index of aerosols changed very little over most of the locations, indicating the still persisting contribution of fossil-fuel emissions over most of the locations.

Keywords


ARFINET, Black Carbon, COVID-19.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv120%2Fi2%2F341-351