(IGP) Special Current Affairs Material for IAS (Pre) 2013 - PIB "Topic : Impact Of Black Carbon On Climate"

Chapter: Gist of Press Information Bureau Articles

Topic: Impact Of Black Carbon On Climate

Q. How Aerosols influence climate/ how black carbon aerosols influence climate?

• Aerosols influence climate indirectly by changing cloud properties and precipitation and hence can have a profound impact on the hydrological cycle.

• Among the various aerosol types, black carbon aerosols have greater impact because of the high absorption of solar radiation.

• Several studies have suggested that aerosols may modify global warming by changing the planetary albedo.

Q. Integrated Campaign for Aerosols, gases and Radiation Budget (ICARB)?

• The Integrated Campaign for Aerosols, gases and Radiation Budget (ICARB) was a multi- institutional, multi-instrumental, multi-platform field campaign, where integrated observation and measurements of aerosols with special emphasis on black carbon, radiation and trace gases along with other complementary measurements on boundary layers and meteorological parameters were made simultaneously.

• The main goal of the ICARB was to assess the regional radiative impact of aerosols and trace gases, and to quantify the effect of the long-range transport of aerosols and trace gases, involving the Indian mainland, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and tropical Indian Ocean.

• The ICARB was conceived as an integrated campaign, comprising three segments namely the land, ocean, and aircraft segments. In each one of these segments, measurements of the optical, physical and chemical properties of atmospheric aerosols were carried out.

• The ISRO-GBP is maintaining 32 surface observatories covering representative locations in India. In all these sites black carbon measurements have been made. The duration of data available from these sites vary with location.

• ICARB aircraft segment carried out a few measurements of altitude profiles of black carbon aerosols. Our knowledge on the OC/BC ratios are based on isolated measurements only. There are several aspects on which the knowledge and understanding is rather fragmented and inadequate. These include Vertical distribution of Black Carbon State of mixing of Black Carbon with other aerosols Organic Carbon / Black Carbon Ratio Effect of Black Carbon on Cloud Cover and Effect of Black Carbon on Monsoon.

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