| 1. |
- Chen, Bing, et al.
(författare)
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Light absorption enhancement of black carbon from urban haze in Northern China winter
- 2017
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Ingår i: Environmental Pollution. - : Elsevier BV. - 0269-7491 .- 1873-6424. ; 221, s. 418-426
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Atmospheric black carbon (BC) is an important pollutant for both air quality and Earth's energy balance. Estimates of BC climate forcing remain highly uncertain, e.g., due to the mixing with non-absorbing components. Non-absorbing aerosols create a coating on BC and may thereby act as a lens which may enhance the light absorption. However, this absorption enhancement is poorly constrained. To this end a two-step solvent dissolution protocol was employed to remove both organic and inorganic coatings, and then investigate their effects on BC light absorption. Samples were collected at a severely polluted urban area, Jinan, in the North China Plain (NCP) during February 2014. The BC mass absorption cross-section (MAC) was measured for the aerosol samples before and after the solvent-decoating treatment, and the enhancement of MAC (E-MAC) from the coating effect was defined as the ratio. A distinct diurnal pattern for the enhancement was observed, with EMAC 1.3 +/- 0.3 (1 S.D.) in the morning, increasing to 2.2 +/- 1.0 in the afternoon, after that dropping to 1.5 +/- 0.8 in the evening-night. The BC absorption enhancement primarily was associated with urban-scale photochemical production of nitrate and sulfate aerosols. In addition to that, regional-scale haze plume with increasing sulfate levels strengthened the absorption enhancement. These observations offer direct evidence for an increased absorption enhancement of BC due to severe air pollution in China.
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| 2. |
- Chen, Bing, et al.
(författare)
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Reconciling modeling with observations of radiative absorption of black carbon aerosols
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres. - 2169-897X .- 2169-8996. ; 122:11, s. 5932-5942
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The physical treatment of internal mixing and aging of black carbon (BC) aerosols that allow for enhanced solar absorption of the BC is an important parameterization in climate models. Many climate models predict a factor of 2-3 lower aerosol absorption optical depth (AAOD) than the atmospheric columnar absorption observed from ground-based networks such as AERONET, likely because these models do not parameterize properly the BC absorption enhancement (E-MAC). Models that are configured with an internal mixing have predicted large variations of E-MAC, which are poorly constrained from ambient measurements. We determined the BC E-MAC from aerosol coatings with a two-step solvent experiment to remove both organic and inorganic coatings in ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Observations in a rural North China site showed that the E-MAC varied from 1.4 to 3. The E-MAC increases simultaneously with SO42-/EC ratios, suggesting the photochemical production of sulfate coatings enhanced BC absorption. A global climate model, parameterized to account for these observational constraints, verifies that sulfates are primary drivers of the BC absorption enhancement in severely polluted area in China. This magnification of the radiative forcing of coated BC is stronger by a factor of similar to 2 than predicted by the standard parameterization (external mixing) in the climate model and is in better agreement with AERONET observations of AAOD. This result would be useful for testing the representation of solar absorption by BC-containing particles in the newer generation of climate models. Plain Language Summary Atmospheric black carbon (BC) or soot in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is emitted from incomplete combustion of fossil fuel or biomass/biofuel. The BC is an important pollutant for both air quality and Earth's energy balance, and the BC radiative forcing maybe second only to that of CO2. The photochemical production of nonabsorbing secondary aerosols may create a coating on BC and may thereby act as a lens which may enhance the light absorption. However, this absorption enhancement is poorly constrained by ambient measurements, and thus the estimates of BC climate forcing remain highly uncertain. To this end, an aerosol filter dissolution-filtration (AFD) with two-step solvent dissolution protocol was employed to remove both organic and inorganic coatings and then investigate their effects on BC light absorption. The observations and model simulation showed that the BC warming effect likely doubled due to lens effect from secondary aerosols.
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| 3. |
- Cui, Xinjuan, et al.
(författare)
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Radiative absorption enhancement from coatings on black carbon aerosols
- 2016
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 551, s. 51-56
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The radiative absorption enhancement of ambient black carbon (BC), by light-refractive coatings of atmospheric aerosols, constitutes a large uncertainty in estimates of climate forcing. The direct measurements of radiative absorption enhancement require the experimentally-removing the coating materials in ambient BC-containing aerosols, which remains a challenge. Here, the absorption enhancement of the BC core by non-absorbing aerosol coatings was quantified using a two-step removal of both inorganic and organic matter coatings of ambient aerosols. The mass absorption cross-section (MAC) of decoated/pure atmospheric BC aerosols of 4.4 +/- 0.8 m(2)g(-1) was enhanced to 9.6 +/- 1.8 m(2)g(-1) at 678-nm wavelength for ambiently-coated BC aerosols at a rural Northern China site. The enhancement of MAC (E-MAC) rises from 1.4 +/- 0.3 in fresh combustion emissions to similar to 3 for aged ambient China aerosols. The three-week high-intensity campaign observed an average E-MAC of 2.25 +/- 0.55, and sulfates were primary drivers of the enhanced BC absorption.
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