Black carbon-climate interactions regulate dust burdens over India revealed during COVID-19

Wei, Linyi; Lu, Zheng; Wang, Yong; Liu, Xiaohong; Wang, Weiyi; Wu, Chenglai; Zhao, Xi; Rahimi, Stefan; Xia, Wenwen; Jiang, Yiquan

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-29468-1

Black carbon-climate interactions regulate dust burdens over India revealed during COVID-19

Journal Article · Tue Apr 05 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29468-1· OSTI ID:1904005

Wei, Linyi ^[1]; ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[2]; Wang, Weiyi ^[4]; ; ^[2]; Rahimi, Stefan ^[5]; ^[3]; Jiang, Yiquan ^[6]

Tsinghua University, Beijing (China); OSTI
Texas A & M University, College Station, TX (United States)
Tsinghua University, Beijing (China)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
University of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
Nanjing University (China)

India as a hotspot for air pollution has heavy black carbon (BC) and dust (DU) loadings. BC has been identified to significantly impact the Indian climate. However, whether BC-climate interactions regulate Indian DU during the premonsoon season is unclear. Here, using long-term Reanalysis data, we show that Indian DU is positively correlated to northern Indian BC while negatively correlated to southern Indian BC. We further identify the mechanism of BC-dust-climate interactions revealed during COVID-19. BC reduction in northern India due to lockdown decreases solar heating in the atmosphere and increases surface albedo of the Tibetan Plateau (TP), inducing a descending atmospheric motion. Colder air from the TP together with warmer southern Indian air heated by biomass burning BC results in easterly wind anomalies, which reduces dust transport from the Middle East and Sahara and local dust emissions. The premonsoon aerosol-climate interactions delay the outbreak of the subsequent Indian summer monsoon.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Texas A & M University, College Station, TX (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Key Research and Development Program of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

OSTI ID:: 1904005

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 13; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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