Equivalent Black Carbon Aerosol Properties and Their Relationship with the Heating Season in Urban Environments

Abstract

Black carbon (BC) aerosols have a considerable impact on humans because they not only cause environmental pollution and reduce visibility but also harm human health. During the heating season in northern China, a large amount of coal is burned for heating, producing a large amount of BC. There are few studies on BC properties during the heating season. In this paper, BC is measured optically, so it is referred to as equivalent black carbon (EBC). This paper investigated EBC properties in depth during the heating and nonheating seasons of a typical urban environment in China with two years of EBC measurements. The results show that: (1) EBC aerosol concentrations during the heating season were significantly higher than those during the nonheating season. (2) The main sources of EBC aerosols throughout the year are liquid sources. During the heating season, solid sources (coal and biomass combustion) are dominant. (3) The proportion of brown carbon (BrC) produced by biomass energy during the heating season is greater than that during the nonheating season. (4) The resulting backward trajectory indicates that a large portion of the high EBC aerosol concentration sources originate from northern and northwestern China. Our results reveal that the characteristics and sources of EBC in the urban environment of northern China vary widely, suggesting that different measures should be taken to reduce BC aerosol concentrations during heating and nonheating seasons.