Characteristics of Black Carbon Aerosol from a Surface Oil Burn During the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Black carbon (BC) aerosol mass mixing ratio and microphysical properties were measured from the NOAA P-3 aircraft during active surface oil burning subsequent to the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in April 2010. Approximately 4% of the combusted material was released into the atmosphere as BC. The total amount of BC introduced to the atmosphere of the Gulf of Mexico via surface burning of oil during the 9-week spill is estimated to be (1.35 ± 0.72) x106 kg. The median mass diameter of BC particles observed in the burning plume was much larger than that of the non-plume Gulf background air. The plume BC particles were internally mixed with very little non-refractory material, a feature typical of fresh emissions from fairly efficient fossil-fuel burning sources and atypical of BC in biomass burning plumes. BC dominated the total accumulation-mode aerosol in both mass and number. The BC mass-specific extinction cross-section is determined at 405 and 532 nm.