Abstract
Aerosol behavior over the Himalayas plays an important role in the regional climate of South Asia. Previous studies at high-altitude observatories have provided evidence of the impact of long-range transport of pollutants from the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). However, little information exists for the valley areas in the high Himalayas where significant local anthropogenic emissions can act as additional sources of short-living climate forcers and pollutants. The valley areas host most economic activities based on agriculture, forestry, and pilgrimage during every summer season. We report here first measurements at a valley site at ~2600 m a.s.l. on the trek to the Gangotri glacier (Gaumukh), in the Western Himalayas, where local infrastructures for atmospheric measurements are absent. The study comprised short-term measurement of aerosols, chemical characterization, and estimation of aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) during the winter and summer periods (2015–2016). The particulate matter mass concentrations were observed to be higher than the permissible limit during the summer campaigns. We obtained clear evidence of the impact of local anthropogenic sources: particulate nitrate is associated with coarse aerosol particles, the black carbon (BC) mass fraction appears undiluted with respect to measurements performed in the lower Himalayas, and in winter, both BC and sulfate concentrations in the valley site are well above the background levels reported from literature studies for mountain peaks. Finally, high concentrations of trace metals such as copper point to anthropogenic activities, including combustion and agriculture. While most studies in the Himalayas have addressed pollution in the high Himalayas in terms of transport from IGP, our study provides clear evidence that local sources cannot be overlooked over the high-altitude Himalayas. The estimated direct clear-sky ARF was estimated to be in the range of −0.1 to +1.6 W m−2, with significant heating in the atmosphere over the high-altitude Himalayan study site. These results indicate the need to establish systematic aerosol monitoring activities in the high Himalayan valleys.
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Acknowledgements
The authors express sincere thanks to anonymous reviewers for critical evaluation and constructive suggestions to improve the manuscript. We appreciate Prof. Gerhard Lammel for his kind editorial handling.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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University Grant Commission (UGC) provided funding for the instruments and fellowship to Ashish Soni through UGC major project (ENVI-2013-42/419). Ashish Soni is also thankful to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, India, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Italy, for providing scholarship for research mobility in Italy (Protocol No. 1198).
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AS, VS, and UK designed the manuscript. AS prepared outline of the manuscript. AS, SD, HG, and MP did the data curation; AS, SD, HG, MP, DO, and FV helped with analysis and editing; AS, SD, HG, MP, and DO finally reviewed and edited the manuscript.
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Soni, A., Decesari, S., Gadhavi, H. et al. Chemical composition and radiative forcing of atmospheric aerosols over the high-altitude Western Himalayas of India. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 1961–1974 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15609-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15609-4