Elemental carbon and sulfate aerosols over a rural mountain site in the northeastern United States: Regional emissions and implications for climate change

The effect of elemental carbon (EC) on global as well as regional climate forcing is potentially very important. However, the EC data for northeastern U.S. is sparse. Daily EC concentrations, [EC], and [SO4] were measured in the northeastern U.S. at a regionally representative rural site, Whiteface Mountain (WFM; 44.366°N, 73.903°W, 1.5 km amsl, above mean sea level), New York (NY), for 1997. The air mass origin was determined using 6-h backward in time air trajectories obtained from the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model (HYSPLIT 4). [EC] and [SO4] were highly variable and influenced by synoptic–scale meteorology (rainy vs dry periods). The maximum daily [EC] and [SO4] were 364 ± 55 and 28,800 ± 3000 ng m−3, respectively. [EC] and [SO4] also showed seasonal variations at WFM. Occurrences of high daily [EC] were mainly in spring months, while peak daily [SO4] concentrations occurred in summer months. This behavior of aerosols is due to the fact that the sources of EC and SO4 are not the same and also due to the enhanced photochemical activity during summer months that increased the production of SO4 from SO2. High [EC] and [SO4] values were associated with westerly air flow from the industrialized Midwestern U.S. Sector analysis using HYSPLIT 4 air trajectories showed that regions lying between the southwest and northwest of the WFM contributed 81% and 83% of the [EC] and [SO4], respectively. The monthly net direct radiative forcing for shortwave (SW) due to EC and SO4 aerosols at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) varied from −0.05 to −0.50 W m−2, with an annual average of −0.20 ± 0.15 W m−2 that gives a net cooling effect. Average net radiative forcing at WFM for clear sky is lower than the global average radiative forcing reported by IPCC (Foster and Ramaswamy, 2007).