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Wei L, Lu Z, Wang Y, Liu X, Wang W, Wu C, Zhao X, Rahimi S, Xia W, Jiang Y. Black carbon-climate interactions regulate dust burdens over India revealed during COVID-19. Nat Commun 2022; 13:1839. [PMID: 35383203 PMCID: PMC8983761 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29468-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2021] [Accepted: 03/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
India as a hotspot for air pollution has heavy black carbon (BC) and dust (DU) loadings. BC has been identified to significantly impact the Indian climate. However, whether BC-climate interactions regulate Indian DU during the premonsoon season is unclear. Here, using long-term Reanalysis data, we show that Indian DU is positively correlated to northern Indian BC while negatively correlated to southern Indian BC. We further identify the mechanism of BC-dust-climate interactions revealed during COVID-19. BC reduction in northern India due to lockdown decreases solar heating in the atmosphere and increases surface albedo of the Tibetan Plateau (TP), inducing a descending atmospheric motion. Colder air from the TP together with warmer southern Indian air heated by biomass burning BC results in easterly wind anomalies, which reduces dust transport from the Middle East and Sahara and local dust emissions. The premonsoon aerosol-climate interactions delay the outbreak of the subsequent Indian summer monsoon. Black carbon produced by human activities impacts climate. Here, the authors find that black carbon-climate interactions regulate Indian dust during the premonsoon season and further affect the outbreak of the subsequent Indian summer monsoon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linyi Wei
- Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Zheng Lu
- Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Yong Wang
- Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
| | - Xiaohong Liu
- Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA.
| | - Weiyi Wang
- International Center for Climate and Environment Sciences, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Chenglai Wu
- International Center for Climate and Environment Sciences, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China
| | - Xi Zhao
- Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Stefan Rahimi
- Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
| | - Wenwen Xia
- Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Yiquan Jiang
- CMA-NJU Joint Laboratory for Climate Prediction Studies, Institute for Climate and Global Change Research, School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China
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Sandeep K, Panicker AS, Gautam AS, Beig G, Gandhi N, S S, Shankar R, Nainwal HC. Black carbon over a high altitude Central Himalayan Glacier: Variability, transport, and radiative impacts. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2022; 204:112017. [PMID: 34509481 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.112017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2021] [Revised: 08/29/2021] [Accepted: 09/03/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Ambient equivalent black carbon (BC) measurements spanning from June to October have been carried out over an adjoining location of Satopanth and Bhagirath-Kharak Glaciers (3858m, amsl) of Central Himalaya during the year 2019. Hourly BC varied from 12 ng m-3 to 439 ng m-3 during the entire period of observation. Monthly averaged BC values showed the highest concentration during June (230.96 ± 85.46 ng m-3) and the lowest in August (118.02 ± 71.63 ng m-3). The decrease in BC during monsoon months is attributed to limited long-range transport and rapid wet scavenging processes. Transport model studies indicate a higher retention time of tracer in Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, and adjacent polluted valley regions with increased biomass burning (BB) incidences. The high rate of BC influx during June, September, and October was attributed to transport from the polluted Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) region, wildfires, and vehicular emissions in the valley region. Higher equivalent brown carbon (BrC) influx is linked to BB, especially wood-burning, during intense forest fires at slopes of mountains. Data obtained from limited BC observations during the 2011-19 period showed no significant BC influx change during post-monsoon. The strong correlation between BC mass and BB affirms the dominant role of BB in contributing BC to the Glacier region. Increased TOA forcing induced by surface darkening and BC atmospheric radiative heating indicate an additional warming and possible changes of the natural snow cycle over the glacier depending on the characteristics and extent of debris cover.
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Affiliation(s)
- K Sandeep
- Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, MoES, Govt of India, Pune, India; Savitribhai Phule Pune University, Pune, India.
| | - A S Panicker
- Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, MoES, Govt of India, Pune, India; Savitribhai Phule Pune University, Pune, India
| | | | - G Beig
- Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, MoES, Govt of India, Pune, India
| | - Naveen Gandhi
- Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, MoES, Govt of India, Pune, India
| | - Sanjeev S
- H.N.B. Garhwal University, Srinagar, Uttarakhand, India
| | - R Shankar
- The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, India
| | - H C Nainwal
- H.N.B. Garhwal University, Srinagar, Uttarakhand, India
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Zhao C, Yang Y, Fan H, Huang J, Fu Y, Zhang X, Kang S, Cong Z, Letu H, Menenti M. Aerosol characteristics and impacts on weather and climate over the Tibetan Plateau. Natl Sci Rev 2020; 7:492-495. [PMID: 34692068 PMCID: PMC8288843 DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwz184] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Chuanfeng Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, and College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Yikun Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, and College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Hao Fan
- State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, and College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Jianping Huang
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Western Ecological Safety, College of Atmospheric Sciences, Lanzhou University, China
| | - Yunfei Fu
- School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, China
| | - Xiaoye Zhang
- Institute of Atmospheric Composition, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, China
| | - Shichang Kang
- State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
| | - Zhiyuan Cong
- State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
| | - Husi Letu
- Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
| | - Massimo Menenti
- Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
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Ahmad M, Alam K, Tariq S, Blaschke T. Contrasting changes in snow cover and its sensitivity to aerosol optical properties in Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalaya region. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2020; 699:134356. [PMID: 31678871 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134356] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2019] [Revised: 08/23/2019] [Accepted: 09/06/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Snow cover plays a major role in the earth's climate system. The stability of the snow mass over Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalaya (HKH) in contrast to the worldwide retreat of mountainous glaciers and its relation to aerosol concentration remains poorly understood. The proposed study focused on the understanding of this relationship between various snow parameters and the optical properties of atmospheric aerosols over the HKH region of Northern Pakistan between March and June for a prolonged study period from 2005 to 2015. The aerosol's optical properties were retrieved from snow covered pixels in the study area to avoid the contamination of snow albedo (SA) by other features of land surfaces. The results revealed an increasing trend in the snow cover area (SCA) at the rate of 577.3, 1090.6 and 652.3 km2/year in March, May and June, respectively, with a decrease in April due to the uneven distribution of SCA during 2005-2015. The results revealed a strong positive correlation (R = 0.77) between SCA and SA, whereas SCA and SST were negatively correlated (R = -0.82) during the study period. The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder (CALIPSO) indicated the presence of scattering and absorbing aerosols (e.g., dust, polluted dust, and smoke) both at high and low altitudes. However, the diminution of aerosol concentration was caused by their short time span in atmosphere and the occurrence of snowfall that washed them out from the snow at high altitudes. The findings indicated an increased SCA, with contrasting behavior in the ablation period. However, the presence of aerosols demands proper attention, to monitor any future threat to the high-altitude cryosphere.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maqbool Ahmad
- Department of Meteorology, COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan.
| | - Khan Alam
- Department of Physics, University of Peshawar, Peshawar 25120, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
| | - Shahina Tariq
- Department of Meteorology, COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Thomas Blaschke
- Department of Geoinformatics Z_GIS, University of Salzburg, Schillerstrasse 30, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
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Possible Impacts of Snow Darkening Effects on the Hydrological Cycle over Western Eurasia and East Asia. ATMOSPHERE 2019. [DOI: 10.3390/atmos10090500] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
In this paper, we investigated the possible impact of snow darkening effect (SDE) by light-absorbing aerosols on the regional changes of the hydrological cycle over Eurasia using the NASA GEOS-5 Model with aerosol tracers and a state-of-the-art snow darkening module, the Goddard SnoW Impurity Module (GOSWIM) for the land surface. Two sets of ten-member ensemble experiments for 10 years were carried out forced by prescribed sea surface temperature (2002–2011) with different atmospheric initial conditions, with and without SDE, respectively. Results show that SDE can exert a significant regional influence in partitioning the contributions of evaporative and advective processes on the hydrological cycle, during spring and summer season. Over western Eurasia, SDE-induced rainfall increase during early spring can be largely explained by the increased evaporation from snowmelt. Rainfall, however, decreases in early summer due to the reduced evaporation as well as moisture divergence and atmospheric subsidence associated with the development of an anomalous mid- to upper-tropospheric anticyclonic circulation. On the other hand, in the East Asian monsoon region, moisture advection from the adjacent ocean is a main contributor to rainfall increase in the melting season. A warmer land-surface caused by earlier snowmelt and subsequent drying further increases moisture transport and convergence significantly enhancing rainfall over the region. Our findings suggest that the SDE may play an important role in leading to hotter and drier summers over western Eurasia, through coupled land-atmosphere interaction, while enhancing East Asian summer monsoonal precipitation via enhanced land-ocean thermal contrast and moisture transport due to the SDE-induced warmer Eurasian continent.
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