Mass absorption efficiency of light absorbing organic aerosols from source region of paddy-residue burning emissions in the Indo-Gangetic Plain

The mass absorption efficiency (MAE) of light absorbing water-soluble organics, representing a significant fraction of brown carbon (BrC), has been studied in fine mode aerosols (PM2.5) from a source region (Patiala: 30.2 °N, 76.3 °E) of biomass burning emissions (BBEs) in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). The mass absorption coefficient of BrC at 365 nm (babs-365), assessed from absorption spectra of aqueous extracts, exhibits significant linear relationship with water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) for day (R2 = 0.37) and night time (R2 = 0.77) samples; and slope of regression lines provides a measure of MAE of BrC (daytime: ∼0.75 m2 g−1 and night time: 1.13 m2 g−1). A close similarity in the temporal variability of babs-365 (for BrC) and K+ in all samples suggests their common source from BBEs. The babs-365 of BrC follows a power law (babs-λ ≈ λ−α; where α = angstrom exponent) and averages around 5.2 ± 2.0 M m−1 (where M = 10−6). A significant decrease in the MAE of BrC from the source region (this study) to the downwind oceanic region (over Bay of Bengal, Srinivas and Sarin, 2013 ) could be attributed to relative increase in the contribution of non-absorbing WSOC and/or photo-bleaching of BrC during long-range atmospheric transport. The atmospheric radiative forcing due to BrC over the study site accounts for ∼40% of that from elemental carbon (EC).