Light absorption properties of black carbon and brown carbon emitted from biomass combustion at the typical rural cooking stoves in Bangladesh

Understanding and improving inventories regarding the optical characteristics of light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosols is critical due to their effect on local and regional climate. The optical properties of aerosol particles collected during the combustion of nine different biomasses at the typical rural cooking stove in Bangladesh were examined in the laboratory setting. The absorption angstrom ngstrom exponent (AAE) values were found between 1.05 and 5.45, which indicated that the presence of both brown carbon (BrC) and black carbon (BC)-rich aerosols was from biomass-burning emission. On average, BrC contributed about 59 +/- 35% to the overall aerosol absorption at 370 nm. The mass absorption efficiency (MAE) values of BC (880 nm) and BrC (370 nm) ranged from 1.46 to 15.06 m(2)g(-1) (average: 7.46 +/- 4.09 m(2)g(-1)) and 1.35 to 26.45 m(2)g(-1) (average: 13.19 +/- 7.28 m(2)g(-1)), respectively. The projected absorption emission factors (AEF) (per kilogram of fuel) at 370 nm and 880 nm varied from 0.57 to 18.56 m(2) kg(-1) (average: 4.87 +/- 5.30 m(2) kg(-1)), 0.01 to 1.22 m(2) kg(-1), (average: 0.38 +/- 0.26 m(2) kg(-1)), respectively. The prospective climatic influence of biomass-burning events in rural Southeast Asia was illustrated by the projected considerable attribution of BrC to overall light absorption.