Source apportionment of black carbon in PM2.5 in China and its implications on estimation of direct radiative forcing

Chinese black carbon (BC) causes concerns for climate warming and air pollution, yet the emission sources of black carbon are in large uncertainty. Emission inventory models suggest that fossil fuel and biomass/biofuel burning are the primary contributors to atmospheric BC. In this study, top-down sourcing of Chinese BC was conducted to quantify the apportionment between bio- and fossil- based fuel burning using radiocarbon method. Results for black carbon aerosols collected at urban and regional receptor areas showed that 81±5% of Chinese BC were produced from fossil fuel combustion, contrasting with the results from emission inventories, which report 50-70% of BC were from fossil fuel combustion. Since fossil BC aerosols are perceived as stronger climate forcers than biomass BC aerosols, accurate understanding of BC apportionment would be essential to improve modeling of climate effect of BC. A simulation on BC's radiative forcing effect was carried out by differentiating the sources using the top-down approach. Preliminary modeling results are presented.