Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.

Impact of black carbon aerosol over Italian basin valleys: High-resolution measurements along vertical profiles, radiative forcing and heating rate

TitleImpact of black carbon aerosol over Italian basin valleys: High-resolution measurements along vertical profiles, radiative forcing and heating rate
Publication TypeArticolo su Rivista peer-reviewed
Year of Publication2014
AuthorsFerrero, L., Castelli M., Ferrini B.S., Moscatelli M., Perrone M.G., Sangiorgi G., D'Angelo L., Rovelli G., Moroni B., Scardazza F., Mocnik G., Bolzacchini E., Petitta Marcello, and Cappelletti D.
JournalAtmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Volume14
Pagination9641-9664
ISSN16807316
Keywordsaerosol composition, aerosol formation, black carbon, Italy, radiative transfer, Size distribution, spatial resolution, troposphere, vertical distribution, Vertical profile
Abstract

A systematic study of black carbon (BC) vertical profiles measured at high-resolution over three Italian basin valleys (Terni Valley, Po Valley and Passiria Valley) is presented. BC vertical profiles are scarcely available in literature. The campaign lasted 45 days and resulted in 120 measured vertical profiles. Besides the BC mass concentration, measurements along the vertical profiles also included aerosol size distributions in the optical particle counter range, chemical analysis of filter samples and a full set of meteorological parameters. Using the collected experimental data, we performed calculations of aerosol optical properties along the vertical profiles. The results, validated with AERONET data, were used as inputs to a radiative transfer model (libRadtran). The latter allowed an estimation of vertical profiles of the aerosol direct radiative effect, the atmospheric absorption and the heating rate in the lower troposphere. The present measurements revealed some common behaviors over the studied basin valleys. Specifically, at the mixing height, marked concentration drops of both BC (range: from -48.4 ± 5.3 to -69.1 ± 5.5%) and aerosols (range: from -23.9 ± 4.3 to -46.5 ± 7.3%) were found. The measured percentage decrease of BC was higher than that of aerosols: therefore, the BC aerosol fraction decreased upwards. Correspondingly, both the absorption and scattering coefficients decreased strongly across the mixing layer (range: from -47.6 ± 2.5 to -71.3 ± 3.0% and from -23.5 ± 0.8 to -61.2 ± 3.1%, respectively) resulting in a single-scattering albedo increase along height (range: from +4.9 ± 2.2 to +7.4 ± 1.0%). This behavior influenced the vertical distribution of the aerosol direct radiative effect and of the heating rate. In this respect, the highest atmospheric absorption of radiation was predicted below the mixing height (∼ 2-3 times larger than above it) resulting in a heating rate characterized by a vertical negative gradient (range: from -2.6 ± 0.2 to -8.3 ± 1.2 K day-1km-1). In conclusion, the present results suggest that the BC below the mixing height has the potential to promote a negative feedback on the atmospheric stability over basin valleys, weakening the ground-based thermal inversions and increasing the dispersal conditions. © 2014 Author(s).

Notes

cited By 13

URLhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84907221109&doi=10.5194%2facp-14-9641-2014&partnerID=40&md5=7618b79a0fc9800e7e5808b59998f4f0
DOI10.5194/acp-14-9641-2014
Citation KeyFerrero20149641