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Seasonal, interannual, and long-term variabilities in biomass burning activity over South Asia

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Abstract

The seasonal, interannual, and long-term variations in biomass burning activity and related emissions are not well studied over South Asia. In this regard, active fire location retrievals from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), the retrievals of aerosol optical depth (AOD) from MODIS Terra, and tropospheric column NO2 from Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) are used to understand the effects of biomass burning on the tropospheric pollution loadings over South Asia during 2003–2013. Biomass burning emission estimates from Global Fire Emission Database (GFED) and Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) are also used to quantify uncertainties and regional discrepancies in the emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and black carbon (BC) due to biomass burning in South Asia. In the Asian continent, the frequency of fire activity is highest over Southeast Asia, followed by South Asia and East Asia. The biomass burning activity in South Asia shows a distinct seasonal cycle that peaks during February-May with some differences among four (north, central, northeast, and south) regions in India. The annual biomass burning activity in north, central, and south regions shows an increasing tendency, particularly after 2008, while a decrease is seen in northeast region during 2003–2013. The increase in fire counts over the north and central regions contributes 24 % of the net enhancement in fire counts over South Asia. MODIS AOD and OMI tropospheric column NO2 retrievals are classified into high and low fire activity periods and show that biomass burning leads to significant enhancement in tropospheric pollution loading over both the cropland and forest regions. The enhancement is much higher (110–176 %) over the forest region compared to the cropland (34–62 %) region. Further efforts are required to understand the implications of biomass burning on the regional air quality and climate of South Asia.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the mission scientists and principal investigators who provided the data used in this study. MCD14ML products used in this study are distributed from an ftp server at University of Maryland (http//:fuoco.geog.umd.edu). Emission inventory data are obtained from ECCAD database ( http://ether.ipsl.jussieu.fr/eccad ). The OMI tropospheric NO2 and MODIS AOD data products used in this study were acquired using the GES‐DISC Interactive Online Visualization and Analysis Infrastructure (Giovanni). AATSR fire Data is taken from http://due.esrin.esa.int/wfa/ and TRMM 3b42 data product from MIRADOR. Agricultural data are taken from http://data.fao.org . Authors are thankful to ARIES and ISRO-ATCM project for supporting this work. Authors are also thankful to Christine Wiedinmyer from NCAR for her fruitful discussions in writing the manuscript. The National Center for Atmospheric Research is supported by the National Science Foundation. We are also thankful to the editor and reviewer for their constructive suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Manora Peak, Nainital, Uttarakhand, 263002, India

    P. Bhardwaj & M. Naja

  2. Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO, USA

    R. Kumar

  3. Physics Department, Dev Singh Bisht Campus, Kumaun University, Nainital, India

    P. Bhardwaj & H. C. Chandola

Authors
  1. P. Bhardwaj
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  2. M. Naja
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  3. R. Kumar
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  4. H. C. Chandola
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Correspondence to M. Naja.

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Responsible editor: Gerhard Lammel

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Bhardwaj, P., Naja, M., Kumar, R. et al. Seasonal, interannual, and long-term variabilities in biomass burning activity over South Asia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 4397–4410 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5629-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5629-6

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