Substantial brown carbon emissions from wintertime residential wood burning over France

Yunjiang Zhang (Author), Alexandre Albinet (Author), Jean-Eudes Petit (Author), Véronique Jacob (Author), Florie Chevrier (Author), Gregory Gille (Author), Jean-Luc Jaffrezo (Author), Olivier Favez (Author), Sabrina Pontet (Author), Eve Chrétien (Author), Marta Dominik-Sègue (Author), Gilles Levigoureux (Author), Griša Močnik (Author), Valérie Gros (Author)

Abstract

Brown carbon (BrC) is known to absorb light at subvisible wavelengths but its optical properties and sources are still poorly documented, leading to large uncertainties in climate studies. Here, we show its major wintertime contribution to total aerosol absorption at 370 nm (18–42%) at 9 different French sites. Moreover, an excellent correlation with levoglucosan (r2 = 0.9 and slope = 22.2 at 370 nm), suggesting important contribution of wood burning emissions to ambient BrC aerosols in France. At all sites, BrC peaks were mainly observed during late evening, linking to local intense residential wood burning during this time period. Furthermore, the geographic origin analysis also highlighted the high potential contribution of local and/or small-regional emissions to BrC. Focusing on the Paris region, twice higher BrC mass absorption efficiency value was obtained for less oxidized biomass burning organic aerosols (BBOA) compared to more oxidized BBOA (e.g., about 4.9 ± 0.2 vs. 2.0 ± 0.1 m2 g−1, respectively, at 370 nm). Finally, the BBOA direct radiative effect was found to be 40% higher when these two BBOA fractions are treated as light-absorbing species, compared to the non-absorbing BBOA scenario.

Keywords

brown carbon;multi sites;residential wood burning;mass absorption efficiency;France;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2020
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UNG - University of Nova Gorica
UDC:	53
COBISS:	22976259
ISSN:	0048-9697
Views:	2230
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