11-12-2020 | 12:23 PM
Brown Carbon Tarballs in the Himalyan Region
Context
A study highlighted that brown carbon ‘tarballs’ which has fastened the glacial melting has been found in the Himalayan atmosphere.
Highlights
On November 4, the study was published in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
As per a study, 28 % of particles obtained from the air samples from a research station in the Himalaya-Tibetan Plateau were tarballs.
Air mass trajectories, satellite detection, and Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled to Chemistry simulations revealed that the tarballs were emitted from biomass burning in the Indo-Gangetic Plain.
The increase in the percentage of tarballs on days with higher levels of pollution could contribute to global warming.
The data revealed that during sampling a dense array of active fire spots — corresponding to large-scale wheat-residue burning on the Indo-Gangetic Plain reached the Himalayan research station.
Tarballs from long-range transport can be a significant factor in the climatic effect and would correspond to a substantial influence on glacial melting in the Himalaya region.
About Tarballs
Tarballs are small carbonaceous light-absorbing particles formed by the burning of biomass or fossil fuels which deposits on snow and ice.
Tarballs are made of brown carbon, which is emitted during the combustion of fossil fuels. Primary brown carbon (BrC) co-emitted with black carbon (BC) from biomass burning is a significant light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosol.
Such aerosols from the Indo-Gangetic Plain can reach the Himalaya region and impact glacial melting as they can deposit on snow and ice.
The median sizes of externally mixed tarballs and internally mixed tarballs were 213 and 348 nanometres respectively.
Till now, black carbon was found to be transported long distances by wind to the Himalayan atmosphere but there was not sufficient direct evidence for primary BrC in the Himalayan atmosphere.
Tarballs hasten glacial melt and global warming.
