Gogoi, MM and Suresh Babu, S and Arun, BS and Krishna Moorthy, K and Ajay, A and Ajay, P and Suryavanshi, A and Borgohain, A and Guha, A and Shaikh, A and Pathak, B and Gharai, B and Ramasamy, B and Balakrishnaiah, G and Menon, HB and Kuniyal, JC and Krishnan, J and Rama Gopal, K and Maheswari, M and Naja, M and Kaur, P and Bhuyan, PK and Gupta, P and Singh, P and Srivastava, P and Singh, RS and Kumar, R and Rastogi, S and Kundu, SS and Kompalli, SK and Panda, S and Rao, TC and Das, T and Kant, Y (2021) Response of ambient BC concentration across the Indian region to the nation-wide lockdown: results from the ARFINET measurements of ISRO-GBP. In: Current Science, 120 (2). pp. 341-351.
|
PDF
cur_sci_120-2_341-351_2021.pdf - Published Version Download (1MB) | Preview |
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.
| Item Type: | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Current Science |
| Publisher: | Indian Academy of Sciences |
| Additional Information: | The copyright for this article belongs to the Authors. |
| Keywords: | ARFINET; black carbon; COVID-19 |
| Department/Centre: | Division of Mechanical Sciences > Divecha Centre for Climate Change Division of Mechanical Sciences > Centre for Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 27 Jun 2022 07:28 |
| Last Modified: | 27 Jun 2022 07:28 |
| URI: | https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/73996 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
