Impact of Black Carbon and Other Aerosols on Himalayan Glaciers: A Brief Review

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Gautam, Alok Sagar^a | Nainwal, H.C.^{b; *}

Affiliations: [a] Department of Physics, H.N.B. Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India | [b] Department of Geology, H.N.B. Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding Author. [email protected]

Abstract: Black carbon aerosol plays a unique and important role in Earth’s climate system to rise the average global surface temperature, thus responsible for warming the globe. Black carbon (BC) is a type of carbonaceous material with a unique combination of physical properties. These assessments provide an evaluation of black-carbon climate forcing that is comprehensive in its inclusion of all known and relevant processes and that is quantitative in providing best estimates and uncertainties of the main forcing terms: direct solar absorption, ice clouds and accumulation of snow/ice over the Himalayan glaciers. Any changes in the total radiative forcing would lead to drastic changes in the impact of BC aerosols over the glaciers and affect downstream flows of melt water streams emanating from glaciers as well as micro-climatic condition of the terrain.

Keywords: Black carbon, Aerosols, Himalayas, Glacier, Climate

DOI: 10.3233/JCC-170008

Journal: Journal of Climate Change, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 83-92, 2017