Refractory black carbon aerosols in rainwater in the summer of 2019 in Beijing: Mass concentration, size distribution and wet scavenging ratio

Black carbon (BC) aerosols in the atmosphere play a significant role in climate systems due to their strong ability to absorb solar radiation. The lifetime of BC depends on atmospheric transport, aging and consequently on wet scavenging processes (in-cloud and below-cloud scavenging). In this study, sequential rainwater samples in eight rainfall events collected in 2 mm interval were measured by a tandem system including a single particle soot pho-tometer (SP2) and a nebulizer. The results showed that the volume-weighted average (VWA) mass concentrations of refractory black carbon (rBC) in each rainfall event varied, ranging from 10.8 to 78.9 pg/L. The highest rBC concentrations in the rainwater samples typically occurred in the first fraction from individual rainfall events. The geometric mean median mass-equivalent diameter (MMD) decreased under precipitation, indicating that rBC with larger sizes was relatively aged and preferentially removed by wet scavenging. A positive correlation ( R 2 = 0.73) between the VWA mass concentrations of rBC in rainwater and that in ambient air suggested the important contribution of scavenging process. Additionally, the contributions of in-cloud and below-cloud scavenging were distinguished and accounted for 74% and 26% to wet scavenging, respectively. The scavenging ratio of rBC particles was estimated to be 0.06 on average. This study provides helpful information for better under-standing the mechanism of rBC wet scavenging and reducing the uncertainty of numerical simulations of the climate effects of rBC. (c) 2022 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V.