Double blanket effect caused by two layers of black carbon aerosols escalates warming in the Brahmaputra River Valley

Abstract - First ever 3-day aircraft observations of vertical profiles of Black Carbon (BC) were obtained during the Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEEX) conducted on 30th August, 4th and 6th September 2009 over Guwahati (26°11′N, 91°44′E), the largest metropolitan city in the Brahmaputra River Valley (BRV) region. The results revealed that apart from the surface/near surface loading of BC due to anthropogenic processes causing a heating of 2K/day, the large-scale Walker and Hadley atmospheric circulations associated with the Indian summer monsoon help in the formation of a second layer of black carbon in the upper atmosphere, which generates an upper atmospheric heating of ~2 K/day. Lofting of BC aerosols by these large-scale circulating atmospheric cells to the upper atmosphere (4–6 Km) could also be the reason for extreme climate change scenarios that are being witnessed in the BRV region.

Rahul, P.R.C., R.L. Bhawar, D.C. Ayantika, A.S. Panicker, P.D. Safai, V. Tharaprabhakaran, B. Padmakumari, & M.P. Raju (2014) Double blanket effect caused by two layers of black carbon aerosols escalates warming in the Brahmaputra River Valley, Nature Scientific Reports.