10th International Aerosol Conference
September 2 - September 7, 2018
America's Center Convention Complex
St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Abstract View


Effects of Sugarcane Pre-Harvest Burning on Aerosol Optical Properties in the Cauca Valley, Colombia

ANGELA VARGAS, Jennifer Marin, Lady Mateus, Nestor Rojas, Rodrigo Jimenez, German Ruega, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

     Abstract Number: 1613
     Working Group: Air Quality in Megacities: from Sources to Control

Abstract
Open biomass burning increases the concentration of gaseous pollutants such as CH4, CO, SO2, NOX, VOCs, and Particulate Matter (PM), which contains trace metals, organic compounds, elemental carbon and ions. Pre-harvest burning in extensive sugarcane plantations is a significant source of elemental carbon and organic compounds, including highly carcinogenic and mutagenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which can be transported to urban centers.

Palmira, a city with 350,000 inhabitants in the Cauca river Valley, is surrounded by 238,204 Ha of sugarcane plantations and is the center of sugarcane–related agroindustrial activity. Health data show that its population suffers different diseases commonly related with air pollution, such as ischemic heart diseases (17%), cerebrovascular diseases (8%), chronic respiratory diseases (7%) and acute respiratory diseases (5%). Furthermore, the impact of pre-harvest burning emissions on local air pollution in Palmira has not been determined.

This work focuses on the analysis of physical and optical properties of aerosols in Palmira with the aim to estimate the impact of sugarcane pre-harvest burning on air quality. The sampling site is located at the National University of Colombia (3º30’44.2620” N, 76º,18’27.3960 W ) on a building rooftop. A sun photometer CE-318 of AERONET network was used to measure long term the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and Angstrom Exponent, furthermore a Nephelometer IN 101 of SPARTAN network to measure Total and Back scattering (Red, Green and Blue).

AOD values oscillated between 0.01 and 0.42, higher than AOD measured at large cities in Colombia. The Angstrom Exponent was 1.54, associated with fine particles. The aerosol size distribution shows two size modes, a fine mode around 100 nm and a coarse mode around 3 um. The preliminary data of sun photometer and nephelometer show relationship between AOD (500 nm) and Total scattering.