Black Carbon – A Menace

Recent study suggests that black carbon deposition in Arctic regions may contribute to global warming by reducing the albedo of snow. This not only reduces the amount of solar energy reflected by snow in Arctic regions, but also increases the rate of snow melt, revealing dark substrates like vegetation and soil earlier in the year and thus amplifying black carbon’s effect on climate.

And also new observations show that in some regions black carbon is as culpable as CO2 for the warming, and in some cases, has a greater effect. In the winter and spring, heavily polluted air masses are transported over the Indian Ocean from central Asia, where the majority of black carbon is from cooking fires. Black carbon has been found to be part of brown cloud hovering over the Indian Ocean and it also contributes to warming of atmosphere.