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Studies on Black Carbon (BC) Variability Over Northern India

Jay Pandey, Chandravati Prajapati and R. S. Singh

In recent years, the mass concentration of black carbon (BC) aerosol has been increased tremendously resulting into severe fog (winter period) and atmospheric heating thus playing a major role in global warming. So keeping in views all these fatal consequences, the proper measurement of BC mass concentration and its decisive analysis have become very crucial. Therefore the extensive measurement of aerosol BC mass concentration was being carried out by using the instrument Aethalometer at IT-BHU, located in the Indo-Gangetic plane of northern India. So far, the continuous observations for the winter periods have been collected and analyzed thoroughly. The daily average values are significantly high in the early morning hours and at the night hours due to the stable atmospheric boundary layer causing very little dispersion of BC. However, the monthly average values show that the BC mass concentration continuously increasing due to the lowering of temperature and creation of shallow atmosphere. It is expected that for the upcoming months i.e. for winter period the BC mass concentration is going to be higher due the substantial accumulation of BC thus causing severe fog which is completely lashing normal life. Along with this, the meteorological parameters (wind speed, wind direction, % RH, and rainfall status) were also being taken into account since these are the major influencing factors. At present an endeavor was being planned to explore the major contributor of BC in the Varanasi region.