Light-absorbing organic aerosols, known as brown carbon (BrC), counteract the overall cooling effect of aerosols on Earth's climate. The spatial and temporal dynamics of their light-absorbing properties are poorly constrained and unaccounted for in climate models, because of limited ambient observations. We combine carbon isotope forensics (delta C-13) with measurements of light absorption in a conceptual aging model to constrain the loss of light absorptivity (i.e., bleaching) of water-soluble BrC (WS-BrC) aerosols in one of the world's largest BrC emission regions-South Asia. On this regional scale, we find that atmospheric photochemical oxidation reduces the light absorption of WS-BrC by similar to 84% during transport over 6000 km in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, with an ambient first-order bleaching rate of 0.20 +/- 0.05 day(-1) during over-ocean transit across Bay of Bengal to an Indian Ocean receptor site. This study facilitates dynamic parameterization of WS-BrC absorption properties, thereby constraining BrC climate impact over South Asia.

Black carbon (BC) aerosols perturb climate and impoverish air quality/ human health-affecting similar to 1.5 billion people in South Asia. However, the lack of source-diagnostic observations of BC is hindering the evaluation of uncertain bottom-up emission inventories (EIs) and thereby also models/policies. Here, we present dual-isotope-based (Delta C-14/delta C-13) fingerprinting of wintertime BC at two receptor sites of the continental outflow. Our results show a remarkable similarity in contributions of biomass and fossil combustion, both from the site capturing the highly populated highly polluted Indo-Gangetic Plain footprint (IGP; Delta C-14-f(biomass) = 50 +/- 3%) and the second site in the N. Indian Ocean representing a wider South Asian footprint (52 +/- 6%). Yet, both sites reflect distinct delta C-13-fingerprints, indicating a distinguishable contribution of C-4-biomass burning from peninsular India (PI). Tailored-model-predicted seasonaveraged BC concentrations (700 +/- 440 ng m(-3)) match observations (740 +/- 250 ng m(-3)), however, unveiling a systematically increasing model-observation bias (+19% to -53%) through winter. Inclusion of BC from open burning alone does not reconcile predictions (f(biomass) = 44 +/- 8%) with observations. Direct source-segregated comparison reveals regional offsets in anthropogenic emission fluxes in EIs, overestimated fossil-BC in the IGP, and underestimated biomass-BC in PI, which contributes to the model-observation bias. This ground-truthing pinpoints uncertainties in BC emission sources, which benefit both climate/air-quality modeling and mitigation policies in South Asia.

South Asian air is among the most polluted in the world, causing premature death of millions and asserting a strong perturbation of the regional climate. A central component is carbon monoxide (CO), which is a key modulator of the oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere and a potent indirect greenhouse gas. While CO concentrations are declining elsewhere, South Asia exhibits an increasing trend for unresolved reasons. In this paper, we use dual-isotope (δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O) fingerprinting of CO intercepted in the South Asian outflow to constrain the relative contributions from primary and secondary CO sources. Results show that combustion-derived primary sources dominate the wintertime continental CO fingerprint (f_primary ∼ 79 ± 4%), significantly higher than the global estimate (f_primary ∼ 55 ± 5%). Satellite-based inventory estimates match isotope-constrained f_primary-CO, suggesting observational convergence in source characterization and a prospect for model–observation reconciliation. This “ground-truthing” emphasizes the pressing need to mitigate incomplete combustion activities for climate/air quality benefits in South Asia. 

Black carbon (BC) aerosols cause climate perturbation and affect air quality/human health. In densely populated South Asia—where the warming effect of BC is estimated to be ~ orders of magnitude higher than the global average—model simulations underestimate the wintertime atmospheric abundance of BC relative to surface observations. Two possible explanations for this model-observation offset are ill-constrained regional emission fluxes and atmospheric BC lifetime  (τ_BC). Here, we combine hourly-resolved BC and carbon monoxide (CO) measurements for three successive winters from a South Asian receptor site—the Maldives Climate Observatory at Hanimaadhoo (MCOH)—in inverse frameworks, to assess the impact of emissions fluxes and lifetimes on ambient BC concentrations. The average ΔBC/ΔCO ratio (background corrected) at MCOH of 14±5 ng m^-3 ppb^-1 is found to be 2-3 times higher than in the East Asian outflow (range: 2 to 8 ng m^-3 ppb^-1). A BC transport efficiency of ~86% suggests low influence of wet scavenging processes during the dry South Asian winter period. Using statistical time series analysis, the τ_BC for dry wintertime South Asia is estimated to be 8±0.5 days, which is higher than commonly used in models. By coupling air mass back trajectories, lifetimes, and the ΔBC/ΔCO time-series data within an inverse modelling framework, we provide an observation-based “top-down” BC emission flux for South Asia estimated to be ~2.4±1 Tg/year. This is significantly higher than estimates from current “bottom-up” emission inventories (EIs). Taken together, this study suggests  that to reconcile long-standing BC model-observation offsets in South Asia, existing emission estimates may need to be more than doubled in magnitude.