Enhancement in BC absorption under varying hygroscopic conditions

Shamjad Puthukkadan Moosakutty, S. N. Tripathi, S. G. Aggarwal, S. K. Mishra, Manish Joshi, Arshad Khan, B. K. Sapra, Kirpa Ram

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstractpeer-review

Abstract

The estimation of radiative impact of BC strongly depends on the accurate measurement of its absorption coefficient, mass concentration and its mixing state. Mixing of BC with other inorganic species induce changes in optical properties. Models that consider Internal mixing of BC provide more realistic absorption estimates as compared to external mixing models. Absorption by BC increases when BC particles are mixed and/or coated with other less absorbing materials, which are hygroscopic in nature. We quantified the hygroscopic growth of aerosols during winter season over an urban site (Kanpur) in the Indo-Gangetic Plane (IGP) and thereby explain the enhancement in BC absorption coefficient observed for the same period. From the calculated hygroscopic growth factor we derived a model to predict the chemical composition of particles during the experimental period. Absorption and scattering coefficients are calculated using a core-shell assumption based on Mie theory. These derived optical parameters are compared with experimental values and the closure is found to be very good. The estimated optical properties agree within 7% for absorption coefficient and 30% for scattering coefficient with that of measured values. The enhancement of absorption is found to vary according to the thickness of the shell and BC mass, with a maximum of 2.3 for a shell thickness of 18 nm for the particles.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2012
Externally publishedYes

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