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Seasonal source variability of carbonaceous aerosols at the Rwanda Climate Observatory
Name
acp-20-4561-2020.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.66 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
dd2e67b6dda4841c63b3457bfa171bbf
Author(s)
Andersson, August
Kirillova, Elena N
Decesari, Stefano
DeWitt, Langley
Gasore, Jimmy
Potter, Katherine E
Prinn, Ronald G
Rupakheti, Maheswar
de Dieu Ndikubwimana, Jean
Nkusi, Julius
Date Issued
2020
Journal
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
Abstract
© 2020 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is a global hot spot for aerosol emissions, which affect the regional climate and air quality. In this paper, we use ground-based observations to address the large uncertainties in the source-resolved emission estimation of carbonaceous aerosols. Ambient fine fraction aerosol was collected on filters at the high-altitude (2590ma.s.l.) Rwanda Climate Observatory (RCO), a SSA background site, during the dry and wet seasons in 2014 and 2015. The concentrations of both the carbonaceous and inorganic ion components show a strong seasonal cycle, with highly elevated concentrations during the dry season. Source marker ratios, including carbon isotopes, show that the wet and dry seasons have distinct aerosol compositions. The dry season is characterized by elevated amounts of biomass burning products, which approach ~ 95% for carbonaceous aerosols. An isotopic mass-balance estimate shows that the amount of the carbonaceous aerosol stemming from savanna fires may increase from 0.2 μgm-3 in the wet season up to 10 μgm-3 during the dry season. Based on these results, we quantitatively show that savanna fire is the key modulator of the seasonal aerosol composition variability at the RCO.
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
10.5194/ACP-20-4561-2020
