Reduced mass absorption cross section of black carbon under an extremely polluted condition in southern suburb of Beijing, China

Abstract:

Black carbon (BC), as one of the most important climate-warming agent, has been the focus of extensive studies in recent years. Mass absorption cross section (MAC) is a key parameter to assess the radiative forcing by linking the mass concentration with the radiation effect. In this study, we conducted a two-month field campaign in Beijing, the capital city of China, in a October and November, a period that severe PM_2.5 pollution occurred.

PM_2.5 offline samples were collected daily onto quartz fiber filters by a Partisol 2300 Speciation Sampler. Size-segregated aerosol samples of the size ranged from 0.056 – 10 µm with 11 bins were collected onto quartz fiber filters by a cascade impactor developed by National Chiao Tung University (NCTU). A DRI Model 2001 thermal/optical carbon analyzer were used to analyze the samples. The MAC of BC is measured by a thermal-optical carbon analyzer. In contrast to previous studies, we found that after “shadow effect” has been corrected, the MAC is reduced from 14 m²/g to 5 m²/g with the increase of BC concentrations. There was no significant correlation between MAC with secondary inorganic aerosols. Such unexpected reduction in MAC of BC is possibly associated with the microphysical property of BC modulated under serious pollution condition. The study of size-segregated species concentrations shows that the size distribution of BC is unimodal, with the peak around 0.56-1.8 µm. The results also show the proportion of BC larger than 0.56 µm is significant increased. Additionally, “soot superaggregate”, as distinct from conventional sub-micron aggregates, was found in the bins of BC with size ranged from 1 to1.8 µm. Such high carbon aerosol proportion and large BC size distribution suggests that emissions from residential biomass burning is dominant during this episode. This study suggests that the optical property for BC from different emission sectors should be considered in the estimation of radiative forcing.