Environmental Engineering Science Seminar
Friday, October 14, 2005
Lopata 101
Time: 11 am
“Sources and transport mechanisms of atmospheric aerosols in the Indian region"
Dr.
Chandra Venkataraman,
Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay,
Powai, Mumbai 400 076, INDIA.
High concentrations of pollution particles exist over the Indian Ocean, but their sources, geographical origins and transport patterns are only beginning to be understood. This talk will focus on our work related to developing emissions databases for India, with suitable spatial and temporal resolution for regional air quality and climate assessment, and to the investigation of mechanisms leading to aerosol lofting and long-range transport during the Indian Ocean experiment, from January to March, 1999. Predominant regional sources like the combustion of biofuels, including wood species, crop waste and dried animal dung, for cooking, will be discussed in regard to aerosol composition, radiation absorption, and their contribution to regional emissions and atmospheric loading. Approaches that combine inventory calculations, field reporting and high-resolution satellite data of active fires and landcover classification, will be described, along with estimates of emissions from crop waste and forest burning, and their seasonal and spatial variability. Elevated aerosol layers transported several hundred kilometers from India, were a distinct feature during the north-east monsoon season of the Indian Ocean Experiment. The lofting of air masses from sea-breeze interactions along the west coast of India with the north-easterly synoptic flow, over the subcontinent, has been investigated as a potential mechanism for entrainment of aerosols into the free troposphere leading to long-range transport. Simulation of these features, using the Laboratoire d’Météorologie Dynamique general circulation model (LMDZT), will be presented, toward examining the channels of outflow and evaluating local and meso-scale effects of the sea-breeze on aerosol vertical structure at Goa (15.5˚N, 73.1˚E) and Hulule (4.4˚N, 73.5˚E), about 700 km downwind of India.
Biosketch
Dr.
Chandra Venkataraman received her PhD degree from the University of California,
Los Angeles in 1992, and her BTech degree from IIT Delhi in Chemical Engineering
in 1985. After a Postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, she joined IIT
Bombay as a faculty member. Her research interests are in Aerosols and
climate; Air pollution; Toxicity / risk assessment; Aerosol science and
engineering. Some of her professional achievements include:
Editorial Advisory Board, Atmospheric Environment (2000-present). Member of the
Haagen-Smit Award Committee, Atmospheric Environment (2001-2004). START Young
Scientist Award (1998) “given internationally in recognition of outstanding
research on regional aspects of global change.” The Global Change SysTem for
Analysis Research and Training (START, Washington DC, USA) is funded by a
consortium of international and national science agencies. Invited participant
in several international workshops, e.g., Composition and Acidity of Asian
Precipitation (International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project), November
11-15, 1998, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand; International INDOEX
Workshop, September 5-8, 1999, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands;
Planning Workshop of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project,
January 27-30, 2002, Stockholm University, Sweden.
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