Black carbon and organic carbon dataset over the Third Pole
<p>The Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings, also known as the Third Pole, play an important role in the global and regional climate and hydrological cycle. Carbonaceous aerosols (CAs), including black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC), can directly or indirectly absorb and scatter solar rad...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2022-02-01
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| Series: | Earth System Science Data |
| Online Access: | https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/14/683/2022/essd-14-683-2022.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>The Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings, also known as
the Third Pole, play an important role in the global and regional climate
and hydrological cycle. Carbonaceous aerosols (CAs), including black carbon
(BC) and organic carbon (OC), can directly or indirectly absorb and scatter
solar radiation and change the energy balance on the Earth. CAs, along with the
other atmospheric pollutants (e.g., mercury), can be frequently transported
over long distances into the inland Tibetan Plateau. During the last decades,
a coordinated monitoring network and research program named “Atmospheric
Pollution and Cryospheric Changes” (APCC) has been gradually set up and
continuously operated within the Third Pole regions to investigate the
linkage between atmospheric pollutants and cryospheric changes. This paper
presents a systematic dataset of BC, OC, water-soluble organic carbon
(WSOC), and water-insoluble organic carbon (WIOC) from aerosols (20
stations), glaciers (17 glaciers, including samples from surface snow and ice,
snow pits, and 2 ice cores), snow cover (2 stations continuously observed and
138 locations surveyed once), precipitation (6 stations), and lake sediment
cores (7 lakes) collected across the Third Pole, based on the APCC program.
These data were created based on online (in situ) and laboratory
measurements. High-resolution (daily scale) atmospheric-equivalent BC
concentrations were obtained by using an Aethalometer (AE-33) in the Mt.
Everest (Qomolangma) region, which can provide new insight into the
mechanism of BC transportation over the Himalayas. Spatial distributions of
BC, OC, WSOC, and WIOC from aerosols, glaciers, snow cover, and precipitation
indicated different features among the different regions<span id="page684"/> of the Third Pole,
which were mostly influenced by emission sources, transport pathways, and
deposition processes. Historical records of BC from ice cores and lake
sediment cores revealed the strength of the impacts of human activity since the
Industrial Revolution. BC isotopes from glaciers and aerosols identified the
relative contributions of biomass and fossil fuel combustion to BC
deposition on the Third Pole. Mass absorption cross sections of BC and WSOC
from aerosol, glaciers, snow cover, and precipitation samples were also
provided. This updated dataset is released to the scientific communities
focusing on atmospheric science, cryospheric science, hydrology, climatology,
and environmental science. The related datasets are presented in the form of
excel files. BC and OC datasets over the Third Pole are available to download from the National Cryosphere Desert Data Center (<a href="https://doi.org/10.12072/ncdc.NIEER.db0114.2021">https://doi.org/10.12072/ncdc.NIEER.db0114.2021</a>; Kang and Zhang, 2021).</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1866-3508 1866-3516 |