Pre-monsoon air quality over Lumbini, a world heritage site along the Himalayan foothills

doi:10.5194/acp-17-11041-2017

	Pre-monsoon air quality over Lumbini, a world heritage site along the Himalayan foothills
	Rupakheti, D (Rupakheti, Dipesh)1,2; Adhikary, B (Adhikary, Bhupesh)3; Praveen, PS (Praveen, Puppala Siva)3; Rupakheti, M (Rupakheti, Maheswar)4,5; Kang, SC (Kang, Shichang)2,6,7; Mahata, KS (Mahata, Khadak Singh)4; Naja, M (Naja, Manish)8; Zhang, QG (Zhang, Qianggong)1,7; Panday, AK (Panday, Arnico Kumar)3; Lawrence, MG (Lawrence, Mark G.)4
刊名	ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
	2017
卷号	17 期号:18 页码:11041-11063
关键词	Black Carbon Aerosols Atmospheric Brown Clouds Long-range Transport 5079 m A.s.l. Light-absorption Tropospheric Ozone Surface Ozone North-india Seasonal-variations Particulate Matter
DOI	10.5194/acp-17-11041-2017
文献子类	Article
英文摘要	Lumbini, in southern Nepal, is a UNESCO world heritage site of universal value as the birthplace of Buddha. Poor air quality in Lumbini and surrounding regions is a great concern for public health as well as for preservation, protection and promotion of Buddhist heritage and culture. We present here results from measurements of ambient concentrations of key air pollutants (PM, BC, CO, O-3) in Lumbini, first of its kind for Lumbini, conducted during an intensive measurement period of 3 months (April-June 2013) in the pre-monsoon season. The measurements were carried out as a part of the international air pollution measurement campaign; SusKat-ABC (Sustainable Atmosphere for the Kathmandu Valley -Atmospheric Brown Clouds). The main objective of this work is to understand and document the level of air pollution, diurnal characteristics and influence of open burning on air quality in Lumbini. The hourly average concentrations during the entire measurement campaign ranged as follows: BC was 0.3-30.0 mu gm(-3), PM1 was 3.6-197.6 mu gm(-3), PM2:5 was 6.1-272.2 mu gm(-3), PM10 was 10.5-604.0 mu gm(-3), O-3 was 1.0-118.1 ppbv and CO was 125.0-1430.0 ppbv. These levels are comparable to other very heavily polluted sites in South Asia. Higher fraction of coarsemode PM was found as compared to other nearby sites in the Indo-Gangetic Plain region. The Delta BC/Delta CO ratio obtained in Lumbini indicated considerable contributions of emissions from both residential and transportation sectors. The 24 h average PM2:5 and PM10 concentrations exceeded the WHO guideline very frequently (94 and 85% of the sampled period, respectively), which implies significant health risks for the residents and visitors in the region. These air pollutants exhibited clear diurnal cycles with high values in the morning and evening. During the study period, the worst air pollution episodes were mainly due to agro-residue burning and regional forest fires combined with meteorological conditions conducive of pollution transport to Lumbini. Fossil fuel combustion also contributed significantly, accounting for more than half of the ambient BC concentration according to aerosol spectral light absorption coefficients obtained in Lumbini. WRF-STEM, a regional chemical transport model, was used to simulate the meteorology and the concentrations of pollutants to understand the pollutant transport pathways. The model estimated values were similar to 1 : 5 to 5 times lower than the observed concentrations for CO and PM10, respectively. Model-simulated regionally tagged CO tracers showed that the majority of CO came from the upwind region of Ganges Valley. Model performance needs significant improvement in simulating aerosols in the region. Given the high air pollution level, there is a clear and urgent need for setting up a network of long-term air quality monitoring stations in the greater Lumbini region.
学科主题	自然地理学
WOS研究方向	Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
语种	英语
WOS记录号	WOS:000410989900002
内容类型	期刊论文
源URL	[http://ir.itpcas.ac.cn/handle/131C11/7990]
专题	青藏高原研究所_图书馆
通讯作者	Rupakheti, D; Kang, SC
作者单位	1.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Tibetan Plateau Res, Key Lab Tibetan Environm Changes & Land Surface P, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China. 2.Univ Chinese Acad Sci, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China. 3.Int Ctr Integrated Mt Dev ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal. 4.Inst Adv Sustainabil Studies, D-14467 Potsdam, Germany. 5.Himalayan Sustainabil Inst HIMSI, Kathmandu, Nepal. 6.Cold & Arid Regions Environm & Engn Res Inst, State Key Lab Cryospher Sci, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, Peoples R China. 7.Chinese Acad Sci, Ctr Excellence Tibetan Plateau Earth Sci, Beijing 100085, Peoples R China. 8.Aryabhatta Res Inst Observat Sci ARIES, Naini Tal, India.
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Rupakheti, D ,Adhikary, B ,Praveen, PS ,et al. Pre-monsoon air quality over Lumbini, a world heritage site along the Himalayan foothills[J]. ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS,2017,17(18):11041-11063.
APA	Rupakheti, D .,Adhikary, B .,Praveen, PS .,Rupakheti, M .,Kang, SC .,...&Kang, SC.(2017).Pre-monsoon air quality over Lumbini, a world heritage site along the Himalayan foothills.ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS,17(18),11041-11063.
MLA	Rupakheti, D ,et al."Pre-monsoon air quality over Lumbini, a world heritage site along the Himalayan foothills".ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS 17.18(2017):11041-11063.