Source Determination of Health- and Climate-Affecting BC Aerosols and CO Gas in the Plume of Polluted Air Extending into Bangladesh

S Asia is a global mega emitter of air pollution.

Home to 1.5 billion people and to 14 of the World’s 15 most polluted cities, its highly populated northern corridor is perennially blanketed with a haze of climate- and health-affecting air pollution.

This haze of aerosol and gas pollutants results from many different and poorly constrained incomplete combustion sources, This causes severe effects on both the climate, the food and water supply, as well as the quality of the air people breathe.The overarching purpose of this proposed study is to quantitatively apportion the relative contribution of different emission sources to two of the most disruptive components of this South Asian air pollution:  Black Carbon (BC; soot aerosols) and carbon monoxide (CO; a gas).In collaboration with atmospheric scientists at University of Dhaka, we will advance cutting-edge source-diagnostic dual-isotope fingerprinting on samples of BC and CO, collected in megacity Dhaka and at the strategically-located Bangladesh Climate Observatory at Bhola Island (BCOB intercepts the outflow from the entire Indo-Gangetic Plain, IGP).

The quantitative apportionment of biomass and fossil sources of atmospheric BC and CO will also be used to ground-truth predictions from state-of-the-art emission-transport models, and to advise decisions on mitigation efforts.

The project thus addresses central Sustainable Development Goals related to mitigation of climate change, and access to clean air and freshwater.