ACPD Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ACPD 1680-7375 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acpd-11-1715-2011 Effect of the summer monsoon on aerosols at two measurement stations in Northern India – Part 1: PM and BC concentrations Hyvärinen A.-P. 1 Raatikainen T. 1 5 Brus D. 1 2 Komppula M. 3 Panwar T. S. 4 Hooda R. K. 4 Sharma V. P. 4 Lihavainen H. 1 Finnish Meteorological Institute, Erik Palménin aukio 1, P.O. Box 503, 00101, Helsinki, Finland Laboratory of Aerosol Chemistry and Physics, Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Rozvojová 135, 165 02 Prague 6, Czech Republic Finnish Meteorological Institute, Yliopistonranta 1F, P.O. Box 1627, 70211 Kuopio, Finland The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Darbari Seth Block, IHC Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi 110 003, India now at: School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332-0340, USA 19 01 2011 11 1 1715 1748 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/11/1715/2011/acpd-11-1715-2011.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/11/1715/2011/acpd-11-1715-2011.pdf

Particulate matter (PM) and black carbon (BC) concentrations were measured at two locations in Northern India during 2006–2010. The first measurement station is a background site in Mukteshwar, about 350 km northeast of New Delhi, in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas. The second measurement site was located in Gual Pahari, about 25 km south of New Delhi. Here we focused on resolving the effects of the Indian summer monsoon on the particulate matter and black carbon concentrations at the two stations. The average monsoon time concentrations were decreased by 55–70% compared to the pre-monsoon average concentrations at both stations, having a linear relationship with the total local rainfall during the monsoon season. In Mukteshwar during the monsoon, the 24 h PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentrations were always below the Indian National Air Quality Standard of 60 μgm<sup>−3</sup>. In Gual Pahari, 13% of days exceeded this level during the monsoon season. However, the 24 h guideline of 25 μgm<sup>−3</sup> given by the World Health Organization was more difficult to meet. In addition to loss processes, aerosol concentrations during the early monsoon were found to be affected by primary emissions, most likely dust event from the Thar Desert. This resulted in elevated fractions of the coarse mode, PM<sub>2.5&minus;10</sub> at both stations. In Mukteshwar, additional dust contribution came from the arid regions on the southern slopes of Himalayas. We also determined the characteristic transition times between the pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon. The onset and withdrawal transitions occurred faster in Mukteshwar than in Gual Pahari, both being typically less than 10 days. Transition periods in Gual Pahari took between 17 and 31 days. The shorter transition times in Mukteshwar were probably related to the more intense rains due to the mountain location.

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