Spatial Distribution in Surface Aerosol Light Absorption Across India
Abstract Light‐absorbing carbonaceous aerosols that dominate atmospheric aerosol warming over India remain poorly characterized. Here, we delve into UV‐visible‐IR spectral aerosol absorption properties at nine PAN‐India COALESCE network sites (Venkataraman et al., 2020, https://doi.org/10.1175/bams‐d‐19‐0030.1 ). Absorption properties were estimated from aerosol‐laden polytetrafluoroethylene filters using a well‐constrained technique incorporating filter‐to‐particle correction factors. The measurements revealed spatiotemporal heterogeneity in spectral intrinsic and extrinsic absorption properties. Absorption analysis at near‐UV wavelengths from carbonaceous aerosols at these regional sites revealed large near‐ultraviolet brown carbon absorption contributions from 21% to 68%—emphasizing the need to include these particles in climate models. Further, satellite‐retrieved column‐integrated absorption was dominated by surface absorption, which opens possibilities of using satellite measurements to model surface‐layer optical properties (limited to specific sites) at a higher spatial resolution. Both the satellite‐modeled and direct in‐situ absorption measurements can aid in validating and constraining climate modeling efforts that suffer from absorption underestimations and high uncertainties in radiative forcing estimates.
Authors
- Baerbel Sinha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8614-7473)
- Harish Chandra Phuleria (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5801-0015)
- Akila Muthalagu
- Ankur Bhardwaj (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2141-319X)
- A.G. Apte
- Sujit Singh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0273-1064)
- Chimurkar Navinya
- Jitender Singh Laura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5717-9089)
- Pooja Chaudhary (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2341-704X)
- Nishit Shetty (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0488-7716)
- Tanveer Ahmad Najar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3970-7467)
- Lian Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1249-2722)
- Taveen Singh Kapoor (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9137-4240)
- Meena Deswal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0667-0828)
- Chandra Venkataraman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2280-3360)
- Arshid Jehangir (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4877-609X)
- G. Pandithurai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7324-3773)
- Shahadev Rabha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7682-3236)
- Sauryadeep Mukherjee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8299-4747)
- Pradnya Lokhande
- Asif Qureshi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3329-0166)
- Ramya Sunder Raman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3518-7170)
- Abhijit Chatterjee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1553-4470)
- Rajan K. Chakrabarty (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5753-9937)
- Binoy K. Saikia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3382-6218)
- Sadashiva Murthy
Institutions
- Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IN)
- University of Kashmir (IN)
- Bose Institute (IN)
- Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IN)
- Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali (IN)
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- North East Institute of Science and Technology (IN)
- Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal (IN)
- Ministry of Earth Sciences (IN)
- JSS Science and Technology University (IN)
- Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IN)
- Maharshi Dayanand University (IN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Published
- 2024-09-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2024gl110089
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.26
Funders
- Wildlife Institute of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change