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On the widespread enhancement in fine particulate matter across the Indo-Gangetic Plain towards winter
Fine particulate matter (PM(2.5), aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5 µm) impacts the climate, reduces visibility and severely influences human health. The Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), home to about one-seventh of the world’s total population and a hotspot of aerosol loading, observes strong enhancements in the...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7125076/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32246046 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62710-8 |
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author | Ojha, Narendra Sharma, Amit Kumar, Manish Girach, Imran Ansari, Tabish U. Sharma, Som K. Singh, Narendra Pozzer, Andrea Gunthe, Sachin S. |
author_facet | Ojha, Narendra Sharma, Amit Kumar, Manish Girach, Imran Ansari, Tabish U. Sharma, Som K. Singh, Narendra Pozzer, Andrea Gunthe, Sachin S. |
author_sort | Ojha, Narendra |
collection | PubMed |
description | Fine particulate matter (PM(2.5), aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5 µm) impacts the climate, reduces visibility and severely influences human health. The Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), home to about one-seventh of the world’s total population and a hotspot of aerosol loading, observes strong enhancements in the PM(2.5) concentrations towards winter. We performed high-resolution (12 km × 12 km) atmospheric chemical transport modeling (WRF-Chem) for the post-monsoon to winter transition to unravel the underlying dynamics and influences of regional emissions over the region. Model, capturing the observed variations to an extent, reveals that the spatial distribution of PM(2.5) having patches of enhanced concentrations (≥100 µgm(−3)) during post-monsoon, evolves dramatically into a widespread enhancement across the IGP region during winter. A sensitivity simulation, supported by satellite observations of fires, shows that biomass-burning emissions over the northwest IGP play a crucial role during post-monsoon. Whereas, in contrast, towards winter, a large-scale decline in the air temperature, significantly shallower atmospheric boundary layer, and weaker winds lead to stagnant conditions (ventilation coefficient lower by a factor of ~4) thereby confining the anthropogenic influences closer to the surface. Such changes in the controlling processes from post-monsoon to winter transition profoundly affect the composition of the fine aerosols over the IGP region. The study highlights the need to critically consider the distinct meteorological processes of west-to-east IGP and changes in dominant sources from post-monsoon to winter in the formulation of future pollution mitigation policies. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7125076 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-71250762020-04-08 On the widespread enhancement in fine particulate matter across the Indo-Gangetic Plain towards winter Ojha, Narendra Sharma, Amit Kumar, Manish Girach, Imran Ansari, Tabish U. Sharma, Som K. Singh, Narendra Pozzer, Andrea Gunthe, Sachin S. Sci Rep Article Fine particulate matter (PM(2.5), aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5 µm) impacts the climate, reduces visibility and severely influences human health. The Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), home to about one-seventh of the world’s total population and a hotspot of aerosol loading, observes strong enhancements in the PM(2.5) concentrations towards winter. We performed high-resolution (12 km × 12 km) atmospheric chemical transport modeling (WRF-Chem) for the post-monsoon to winter transition to unravel the underlying dynamics and influences of regional emissions over the region. Model, capturing the observed variations to an extent, reveals that the spatial distribution of PM(2.5) having patches of enhanced concentrations (≥100 µgm(−3)) during post-monsoon, evolves dramatically into a widespread enhancement across the IGP region during winter. A sensitivity simulation, supported by satellite observations of fires, shows that biomass-burning emissions over the northwest IGP play a crucial role during post-monsoon. Whereas, in contrast, towards winter, a large-scale decline in the air temperature, significantly shallower atmospheric boundary layer, and weaker winds lead to stagnant conditions (ventilation coefficient lower by a factor of ~4) thereby confining the anthropogenic influences closer to the surface. Such changes in the controlling processes from post-monsoon to winter transition profoundly affect the composition of the fine aerosols over the IGP region. The study highlights the need to critically consider the distinct meteorological processes of west-to-east IGP and changes in dominant sources from post-monsoon to winter in the formulation of future pollution mitigation policies. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-04-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7125076/ /pubmed/32246046 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62710-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Ojha, Narendra Sharma, Amit Kumar, Manish Girach, Imran Ansari, Tabish U. Sharma, Som K. Singh, Narendra Pozzer, Andrea Gunthe, Sachin S. On the widespread enhancement in fine particulate matter across the Indo-Gangetic Plain towards winter |
title | On the widespread enhancement in fine particulate matter across the Indo-Gangetic Plain towards winter |
title_full | On the widespread enhancement in fine particulate matter across the Indo-Gangetic Plain towards winter |
title_fullStr | On the widespread enhancement in fine particulate matter across the Indo-Gangetic Plain towards winter |
title_full_unstemmed | On the widespread enhancement in fine particulate matter across the Indo-Gangetic Plain towards winter |
title_short | On the widespread enhancement in fine particulate matter across the Indo-Gangetic Plain towards winter |
title_sort | on the widespread enhancement in fine particulate matter across the indo-gangetic plain towards winter |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7125076/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32246046 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62710-8 |
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