Rapid growth and high cloud forming potential of anthropogenic sulfate aerosol during the Covid lockdown in India: Changes in the production and properties of cloud con-densation nuclei (CCN) during heavily polluted compared to relatively cleaner condi-tions
Year: 2022
Type: preprint
Abstract: Covid lockdown presented an important opportunity to study relatively cleaner conditions in India. The complex factors of power production, industry, and transportation could be more carefully dissected because of the extreme reduction in the influence of the latter two emission sources. Measurements of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity and other chemical properties of atmospheric aerosols showed that newly formed aerosol particles were produced in the SO 2 plume from a large coal-fired power plant, contrary to normal conditions of heavy pollution. The sulfate-rich particles had high CCN activity and number concentration, indicating high cloud-forming potential. Examining the sensitivity of CCN properties under relatively clean conditions over India provides important new constraints on the perturbations of past and future climate forcing by anthropogenic emissions. Because most sensitive regime of aerosol climate forcing on cloud development is the midpoint of relatively clean conditions afforded by the Covid lockdown between background and polluted conditions.
Authors: Aishwarya Singh, Subha S Raj, Upasana Panda, Snehitha Kommula, Christi Jose, Tianjia Liu, Shan Huang, Basudev Swain, Mira L. Pöhlker, Ernesto Reyes Villegas, Narendra Ojha, Aditya Vaishya, Alessandro Bigi, Ravikrishna R, Qiao Zhu, Liuhua Shi, James Allen, Scot T. Martin, Gordon McFiggans, Meinrat O. Andreae, Ulrich Poschl, Hugh Coe, Federico Bianchi, Hang Su, Vijay P. Kanawade, Pengfei Liu, Sachin S Gunthe
Institutions: Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Harvard University, Jinan University, University of Bremen, University of Manchester, Physical Research Laboratory, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Ahmedabad University, Emory University, University of Helsinki, University of Hyderabad, National Centre for Atmospheric Science, Georgia Institute of Technology, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, King Saud University, University of California San Diego
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4290790707