Diurnal, seasonal, and vertical distribution of carbon monoxide levels and their potential sources over a semi-arid region, India

Abstract

The present study focuses on the investigation of both near-surface and vertical variability of carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations and their potential sources obtained from both in situ and satellite Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) over a semiarid region (Anantapur, India) from January 2016 to December 2017. The diurnal variation of CO shows sharp morning (07:00-09:00 LT) and evening (07:00-09:00 LT) peaks associated to local anthropogenic activities as well as the impact of the mixed layer height, and low concentrations during daytime (12:00-15:00 LT). The low levels during afternoon hours may be due to the increase of the mixed layer height and the decrease of anthropogenic sources. The seasonal mean CO showed no obvious variation, with highest levels observed in winter (329 ± 52 ppbv), followed by the pre-monsoon (327 ± 57 ppbv), post-monsoon (234 ± 36 ppbv) and monsoon (192 ± 22 ppbv). The high levels of CO during the winter are attributed to increased emissions from anthropogenic sources and a shallow mixed layer height. The vertical distribution of CO showed secondary peaks at high-pressure levels (300-200 hPa) during winter, pre-monsoon, and post-monsoon, which indicates CO transport from different source regions. These findings are reasonably confirmed through the air mass Concentrated Weighted Trajectory (CWT) analysis obtained from the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model. This study suggests that except for the monsoon, air masses transported from Indo-Gangetic Basin region also contribute to the enhancement of CO concentrations at the receptor site.