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Black carbon and chemical characteristics of PM10 and PM2.5 at an urban site of North India

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Abstract

The concentrations of PM10, PM2.5 and their water-soluble ionic species were determined for the samples collected during January to December, 2007 at New Delhi (28.63° N, 77.18° E), India. The annual mean PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations (± standard deviation) were about 219 (± 84) and 97 (±56) µgm−3 respectively, about twice the prescribed Indian National Ambient Air Quality Standards values. The monthly average ratio of PM2.5/PM10 varied between 0.18 (June) and 0.86 (February) with an annual mean of ∼0.48 (±0.2), suggesting the dominance of coarser in summer and fine size particles in winter. The difference between the concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5, is deemed as the contribution of the coarse fraction (PM10−2.5). The analyzed coarse fractions mainly composed of secondary inorganic aerosols species (16.0 µgm−3, 13.07%), mineral matter (12.32 µgm−3, 10.06%) and salt particles (4.92 µgm−3, 4.02%). PM2.5 are mainly made up of undetermined fractions (39.46 µgm−3, 40.9%), secondary inorganic aerosols (26.15 µgm−3, 27.1%), salt aerosols (22.48 µgm−3, 23.3%) and mineral matter (8.41 µgm−3, 8.7%). The black carbon aerosols concentrations measured at a nearby (∼300 m) location to aerosol sampling site, registered an annual mean of ∼14 (±12) µgm−3, which is significantly large compared to those observed at other locations in India. The source identifications are made for the ionic species in PM10 and PM2.5. The results are discussed by way of correlations and factor analyses. The significant correlations of Cl−, SO 2−4 , K+, Na+, Ca2+, NO −3 and Mg2+ with PM2.5 on one hand and Mg2+ with PM10 on the other suggest the dominance of anthropogenic and soil origin aerosols in Delhi.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank Prof. B. N. Goswami, Director, IITM, Pune for his encouragement and support for collecting aerosol samples at Delhi. Thanks are also due to Dr. P.C.S. Devara, Head P M & A Division for his valuable suggestions in organizing field observational programs for collecting samples. The authors are acknowledged to Dr. Nazeer Ahmed, National Physical Laboratory New Delhi for providing surface meteorological data at Delhi. One of the authors T. Bano is thankful to CSIR for senior research fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, India

    Suresh Tiwari, Atul K. Srivastava, Deewan S. Bisht, Sudhamayee Behura & D. M. Chate

  2. Radio and Atmospheric Sciences Division, National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, India

    Tarannum Bano & Sachchidanand Singh

  3. Department of Geophysics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India

    Manoj K. Srivastava

  4. B-3B/8C, Jankpuri, New Delhi-58, India

    B. Padmanabhamurty

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  1. Suresh Tiwari
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Tiwari, S., Srivastava, A.K., Bisht, D.S. et al. Black carbon and chemical characteristics of PM10 and PM2.5 at an urban site of North India. J Atmos Chem 62, 193–209 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10874-010-9148-z

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