Aerosol Black Carbon Measurement at High Altitude Western Ghats Location of Ooty, Tami Nadu

The aerosol Black Carbon (BC) are particles formed from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuel and biomass combustion which was collected from high altitude location in Western Ghats, Ooty, Tamil Nadu using Aethalometer Instrument (model AE-31 of Magee Scientific, USA) during 2017. The monthly averaged BC concentration shows highest value of 1.88 ± 0.44 µg m-3 during April with the annual mean of 0.83 ± 0.20 µg m-3. The diurnal variation shows higher seasonality especially in winter and summer with highest peak in 17:00 to 22:00 hr. The aerosol optical depth derived from MERRA 2 model showed annual mean of 0.29 and it is in line with BC concentration. The results showed that the concentrations are varying within a day, month and season depends on the local meteorological conditions.