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Advances in Meteorology
Volume 2010 (2010), Article ID 812075, 7 pages
doi:10.1155/2010/812075
Research Article

Vertical and Horizontal Gradients in Aerosol Black Carbon and Its Mass Fraction to Composite Aerosols over the East Coast of Peninsular India from Aircraft Measurements

S. Suresh Babu,1 K. Krishna Moorthy,1 and S. K. Satheesh2

1Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum 695022, India
2Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India

Received 4 January 2010; Accepted 18 March 2010

Academic Editor: Victoria E. Cachorro

Copyright © 2010 S. Suresh Babu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

During the Integrated Campaign for Aerosols, gases and Radiation Budget (ICARB) experiment of ISRO-GBP, altitude profiles of mass concentrations of aerosol black carbon ( M B ) and total (composite) aerosols ( M T ) in the lower troposphere were made onboard an aircraft from an urban location, Chennai (13.04  ∘ N , 80.17  ∘ E ). The profiling was carried out up to 3 km (AGL) in eight levels to obtain higher resolution in altitude. Besides, to explore the horizontal gradient in the vertical profiles, measurements were made at two levels [500 m (within ABL) and 1500 m (above ABL)] from ~10  ∘ N to 16 ∘ N and ~80  ∘ E to 84 ∘ E . The profiles showed a significant vertical extent of aerosols over coastal and offshore regions around Chennai with BC concentrations (~2  𝜇 g m − 3 ) and its contribution to composite aerosols remaining at the same level (between 8 to 10% for F B C ) as at the surface. Even though the values are not unusually high as far as an urban location is concerned, but their constancy throughout the vertical column will have important implications to climate impact of aerosols.