Seasonal Variation of Black Carbon in Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) at the Tropical Coastal City of Mumbai, India

Black Carbon (BC) is a pollutant species primarily emitted from the combustion of fossil fuels. BC levels, associated with fine particulate matter (PM2.5), were monitored from January 2009 to December 2010 at an urban industrial area in Mumbai to study the seasonal and temporal variations and its contribution to fine particulate matter. Air particulate samples were collected in two size fractions, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and coarse particulate matter (PM2.5−10), using a Gent air sampler. During the study period, arithmetic means of PM2.5 and PM2.5−10 were found to be 30.4 and 68.2 μg/m3, respectively. The average value of BC in fine particulate matter was 4.0 μg/m3, with a range of 1.0–9.4 μg/m3. Studies carried out using Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model indicated the contribution of BC from the northern and central part of India during days of high BC levels.