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Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of bulk aerosols over India and northern Indian Ocean

DRS at CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography

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Title Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of bulk aerosols over India and northern Indian Ocean
 
Creator Agnihotri, R.
Mandal, T.K.
Karapurkar, S.
Naja, M.
Gadi, R.
Ahammed, Y.N.
Kumar, A.
Saud, T.
Saxena, M.
 
Subject Aerosols
Arabian Sea
Bay of Bengal
Carbon isotopes
Nitrogen isotopes
Indian Ocean
 
Description Atmospheric carbonaceous aerosols of South Asian origin have received immense concerns in the Anthropocene owing to their plausible role in the observed regional to inter-continental scale climate anomalies. Tracking plausible sources and alterations during their transport (secondary processes) are keys to understanding their net influence on regional climate. Here, we report elemental concentrations of C and N (TC and TN), their isotopes (delta sup (13)C,delta sup (15)N) and TC/TN ratios of bulk carbonaceous aerosol particles over northern Indian Ocean [Bay of Bengal (BOB) and Arabian Sea (AS)] collected as a part of Integrated Campaign for Aerosol, Gases and Radiation Budget (ICARB) during March–May, 2006. In order to understand typical sources, we also measured same parameters of (i) aerosols emitted from typical biomasses conventionally burnt in north and northeastern India and (ii) aerosols particles present in ambient air over selected Indian cities during pre-monsoon season. Bulk aerosols over AS are characterized by significantly higher TC/TN ratios (approx.50 + or - 10) compared to aerosol over Indian cities (5.6 + or - 2.6) as well as over BOB (6.8 + or - 12.5), most likely due to having significant inorganic carbon contributed by mineral dust. delta sup (13)C of aerosols over AS and BOB do not show significant variation (-25.6 ppt + or - 0.6, -26.5 ppt + or - 0.8; n = 24 and 21 respectively), however delta sup (15)N values showed a conspicuous difference between the two braches of northern Indian Ocean (10.6 ppt + or - 2.7 over BOB and 1.4 ppt + or - 3.3 over the AS). Depleted delta sup (15)N of aerosols over AS can be interpreted in terms of significant mixing of isotopically depleted nitrogenous compounds (NH3 and NOxs) emitted from the underlying (denitrifying) waters
 
Date 2011-06-16T04:19:06Z
2011-06-16T04:19:06Z
2011
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Atmospheric Environment, vol.45(17); 2011; 2828-2835
http://drs.nio.org/drs/handle/2264/3859
 
Language en
 
Rights An edited version of this paper was published by Elsevier. Copyright [2011] Elsevier
 
Publisher Elsevier