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At a time when carbon aerosols including black carbon caused by incomplete combustion are being linked to global warming, an integrated national research programme will study its impact on public health, rainfall patterns and glacial health in the country.
“While various institutes in the country have been working on aerosols, including black carbon for some time now, India needs to assume a major leadership role in aerosol science,” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said.
He pointed out that research on the impact of aerosols on three areas is critical: public health, rainfall patterns and glacial health.
“The long-term integrated programme on aerosols will involve the 3M approach � Measure, Model and Monitor. Research on black carbon will be an integral part of this programme,” Ramesh said recently while announcing the move.
Residues of combusted wood and dung, coal in cooking and heating stoves, the burning of coal and petroleum products in industrial and transportation sectors are leading sources of black carbon containing nitrates, sulfates, carbon and other matter.
Experts have claimed to have identified black carbon as the second or third largest contributor to the current anthropogenic global warming by absorbing thermal infrared radiation from the ground and within clouds.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has also included it in its Fourth Assessment Report, 2007 and proposes to cover the same in its next (Fifth Assessment Report, 2014) report to understand its role on climate change.
“Thus, there is a need to undertake studies at the regional and national level and to devise a science programme on aerosols, especially black carbon, involving our leading scientists and experts,” said the Union Minister who has been stressing on in-house researches instead of those in Western countries.
The aerosols programme to be covered under the Indian Network for Climate Change (INCAA) of the Environment Ministry will address issues such as its contribution to regional warming, its role on atmospheric stability and the consequent effect on cloud formation and monsoon.
Role of black carbon as a result of its deposition on snow as well as warming on Himalayan retreat, the response of tropical oceans to large decrease in surface solar heating and the consequent effect on the hydrological cycle will also be studied, he said.
Aerosols are a suspension of small particles in a gas.
They are formed by the conversion of gases to particles, the disintegration of liquids or solids, or the resuspension of powdered material. Dust, smoke, fume, haze, and mist are common terms for aerosols.
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