[DLS] Chandra Venkataraman (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay)

“Small fires, large fires: Implications for climate and clean air in India”

The Indian region atmosphere receives large injections of emissions from fires on many scales: small, carefully tended cooking fires of home hearths, widespread fires for waste disposal, and large, discontinuous fires from agricultural stubble burning. Increases in levels of anthropogenic aerosols, typically mixtures of pollution particles and dust, pose a public health risk and drive climate change. Aerosols are among lesser known regional thermodynamic drivers of heatwaves, through alteration of the surface energy balance, and widely believed to cool local near-surface temperatures. Here, I will address questions related to intrinsic aerosol optical and chemical properties emitted from fires, their influence on particulate pollution levels and effects on extreme heat in the Indian region.

EAPS Department Lecture Series 

Weekly talks aimed to bring together the entire EAPS community, given by leading thinkers in the areas of geology, geophysics, geobiology, geochemistry, atmospheric science, oceanography, climatology, and planetary science. Runs concurrently with class 12.S501. 

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