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Are fireworks a significant episodic source of brown carbon?

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Abstract

We hypothesize that firework events involving the combustion of charcoal fuel, organic binders, metal salts, and cellulose-based wrapping material could be significant transient sources of aerosol brown carbon (BrC). To test this, we couple high time-resolution (1 min) measurements of black carbon (BC) and BrC absorption from a 7-wavelength aethalometer with time-integrated (12–24 h) measurements of filter extracts, i.e., UV–visible, fluorescence, and Fourier-transformed infrared (FT-IR) signatures of BrC, total and water-soluble organic carbon (OC and WSOC), ionic species, and firework tracer metals during a sampling campaign covering the Diwali fireworks episode in India. In sharp contrast to BC, BrC absorption shows a distinct and considerable rise of 2–4 times during the Diwali period, especially during the hours of peak firework activity, as compared to the background. Fluorescence profiles suggest enrichment of humic-like substances (HULIS) in the firework plume, while the enhancement of BrC absorption in the 400–500 nm range suggests the presence of nitroaromatic compounds (NACs). Considerable contributions of WSOC and secondary organics to OC (44.1% and 31.2%, respectively) and of the water-soluble fraction of BrC to total BrC absorption (71.0%) during the Diwali period point toward an atmospherically processed, polar signature of firework-related BrC, which is further confirmed by FT-IR profiles. This aqueous BrC exerts a short-lived but strong effect on atmospheric forcing (12.0% vis-à-vis BC in the UV spectrum), which could affect tropospheric chemistry via UV attenuation and lead to a stabilization of the post-Diwali atmosphere, resulting in enhanced pollutant build-up and exposure.

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Data reported in this work is available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) and the READY website (www.ready.noaa.gov) for providing the HYSPLIT transport model and to the LANCE FIRMS operated by NASA’s ESDIS for the VIIRS-375 m active fire product. The Department of Chemical Sciences, IISER Kolkata, is acknowledged for the use of the fluorescence spectrometer. Dr. Raza Rafiqul Hoque, Tezpur University, is acknowledged for his help in the analysis of ionic species. PR, SD, and AM acknowledge INSPIRE fellowship by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, for the course of this work. BS and AR are grateful to IISER Kolkata for providing Integrated-PhD fellowships. This work was funded by IISER-Kolkata as part of a Start-up Grant provided to SS as Principal Investigator.

Funding

This work was funded by IISER Kolkata as part of a Start-up Grant provided to Sayantan Sarkar.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, Mohanpur, 741246, Nadia, India

    Prashant Rawat, Bijay Sharma, Supriya Dey, Archita Rana, Anuraag J. Polana & Sayantan Sarkar

  2. School of Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi, Kamand, Himachal Pradesh, 175075, India

    Prashant Rawat, Bijay Sharma, Supriya Dey & Sayantan Sarkar

  3. Department of Chemical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, Mohanpur, 741246, Nadia, India

    Arya Mukherjee

  4. Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, People’s Republic of China

    Jingying Mao

  5. Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Climate Change and Natural Disaster Studies, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People’s Republic of China

    Shiguo Jia

  6. School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People’s Republic of China

    Shiguo Jia

  7. School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067, India

    Amit K. Yadav & Pandit. S. Khillare

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  1. Prashant Rawat
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  2. Bijay Sharma
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  3. Supriya Dey
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  4. Archita Rana
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  11. Sayantan Sarkar
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Contributions

Prashant Rawat: formal analysis, investigation, methodology, data curation, visualization, writing – original draft; Bijay Sharma: formal analysis, investigation, visualization, data curation; Supriya Dey: formal analysis, investigation, visualization, data curation; Archita Rana: formal analysis, investigation, visualization; Arya Mukherjee: formal analysis, investigation, visualization; Anuraag J. Polana: formal analysis, investigation, visualization; Jingying Mao: formal analysis, investigation, visualization; Shiguo Jia: resources, visualization, validation, writing – review and editing; Amit K. Yadav: formal analysis, investigation, visualization; Pandit S. Khillare: resources; Sayantan Sarkar: conceptualization, methodology, funding acquisition, project administration, resources, validation, supervision, writing – review and editing.

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Correspondence to Sayantan Sarkar.

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Rawat, P., Sharma, B., Dey, S. et al. Are fireworks a significant episodic source of brown carbon?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 40252–40261 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20183-4

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