Importance of precipitation and dust storms in regulating black carbon deposition on remote Himalayan glaciers
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Updated: Aug 17, 2025

Split Point Analysis and Uncertainty Quantification of Thermal-Optical Organic/Elemental Carbon Measurements
Published on: September 7, 2019
Chaoliu Li1, Shichang Kang2, Fangping Yan3
1State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China; State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China.
Abstract:
Black carbon (BC) can be transported over long distances and is an important trigger of climate warming and glacier melting at remote high mountains and polar regions. It is normally assumed that the variation of BC flux in remote regions is dominated by its emissions. However, after a comprehensive investigation of potential influencing factors on temporal variations of BC from ice cores of the Himalayas, this short communication shows that in addition to BC emissions, contributions from dust storms and precipitation are also important (up to 56% together) in regulating the variation of BC deposition flux and concentrations derived from remote Himalayan ice core measurements. Therefore, besides BC emissions, the influence of precipitation and BC transported by dust storms should also be considered to better quantify the lifetime and behavior of BC during its long-range transport from source to sink regions as well as to quantify the climatic effects of BC over remote Himalayan glaciers.
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