Anthropogenic black carbon emissions to the atmosphere: Surface distribution through Russian territory

Official statistical data from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation on anthropogenic pollutant emissions from Russian cities and regions for 2010 are analyzed, and the black carbon (BC) emission distribution through the Russian territory is estimated. The lack of this information makes it difficult to study the long-range atmospheric transport of BC and forecast the related climate and ecological effects. Calculations are based on available data on carbon monoxide (CO) and BC emissions from Russian cities and regions under the assumption of proportionality of the BC and CO emissions, indepen-dently of transport and stationary sources. The analysis includes 54 regions and almost 100 cities in an area within (50–72° N × 20–180° E), which covers about 94% of the Russian territory. The spatial distribution of the annual BC emission through the territory under study is modeled on a (1° × 1°) grid for the first time. The total annual BC emission from this area is estimated at (210 ± 30) Gg. The main anthropogenic BC sources are located in industrial regions of the central European part of Russia, Southern Ural, Western Siberia, and on the large sparsely populated territories of the Western Siberia with natural oil/gas extraction industry. © 2015, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.