High rise in carbonaceous aerosols under very low anthropogenic emissions over eastern Himalaya, India: Impact of lockdown for COVID-19 outbreak.

ABSTRACT: The present study has been conducted to investigate the relative changes of carbonaceous aerosols (CA) over a high altitude Himalayan atmosphere with and without (very low) anthropogenic emissions. Measurements of atmospheric organic (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) were conducted during the lockdown period (April 2020) due to global COVID 19 outbreak and compared with the normal period (April 2019). The interesting, unexpected and surprising observation is that OC, EC and the total CA (TCA) during the lockdown (OC: 12.1 ± 5.5 μg m^-3; EC: 2.2 ± 1.1 μg m^-3; TCA: 21.5 ± 10 μg m^-3) were higher than the normal period (OC: 7.04 ± 2.2 μg m^-3; EC: 1.9 ± 0.7 μg m^-3; TCA: 13.2 ± 4.1 μg m^-3). The higher values for OC/EC ratio too was ob

SUBMITTER: Chatterjee A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7501850 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature