articleProceedings of the National Academy of SciencesMar 28, 2016BRONZE OA

Markedly enhanced absorption and direct radiative forcing of black carbon under polluted urban environments

Peking University · State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control · +3 more institutions

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Abstract

Black carbon (BC) exerts profound impacts on air quality and climate because of its high absorption cross-section over a broad range of electromagnetic spectra, but the current results on absorption enhancement of BC particles during atmospheric aging remain conflicting. Here, we quantified the aging and variation in the optical properties of BC particles under ambient conditions in Beijing, China, and Houston, United States, using a novel environmental chamber approach. BC aging exhibits two distinct stages, i.e., initial transformation from a fractal to spherical morphology with little absorption variation and subsequent growth of fully compact particles with a large absorption enhancement. The timescales to…

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