Atmospheric Pollution Research xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Atmospheric Pollution Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apr

Extended fumigation effect on surface and boundary layer aerosol

concentrations observed during solar eclipse
M. Venkat Ratnam a, *, S. Talukdar a, P. Prasad a, S.T. Akhil Raj a, M. Roja Raman b,
S. Satheesh Kumar a, V. Ravi Kiran a, Chaithanya D. Jain a, Ghouse Basha a
a
National Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Gadanki, 517112, India
b
Research Centre for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, 11529, Taiwan

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Solar eclipse (with maximum obscuration of 85.3% and magnitude of 0.893) occurred on 26 December 2019
Solar eclipse during morning hours (08:10 to 11:15 LT with a peak at 09:33 LT) over Gadanki (13.5oN, 79.2oE) has provided a
Fumigation unique opportunity to test the hypothesis of ‘Extended Fumigation Effect’ or ‘Second Fumigation’ on the surface
ABL
and boundary layer pollutants. To capture this event, a campaign using multi-instrument (AWS, Aethalometer,
Pollutants
PM sensors, ceilometer, radiosonde) on multi-platform (surface, surface based remote sensing, drone, tethered
balloon, in-situ balloon) was conducted. Eclipse obscuration caused decrease in surface temperature by 4.3 ◦ C
around 10:00 LT. Boundary layer remained shallow until 09:00 LT (between 500 m and 900 m) but near the
termination of the eclipse and soon after the termination a convective boundary layer showed a rapid increase to
above 1 km within a short time (1 h). A Fumigation peak (common phenomenon in normal days) in black carbon
occurred with a sharp peak concentration of 9.4 μg/m3 at around 07:00 LT and then started decreasing. How­
ever, concentration started to increase unusually again at around 08:20 LT and remained at the range of 4–6 μg/
m3instead of a normal decreasing trend, which is about 2–3 times of the mean concentration at this period of
time. Similar variation in PM1, PM2.5, and PM10are also observed. Background instability estimated using
radiosonde measurements suggests Fumigation, Fumigation/Lofting and Trapping before, during and after the
eclipse, respectively.

1. Introduction
The solar eclipse is one of the most imperative astronomical phe­
nomena that delivers natural laboratory conditions with the sudden
switch-off of the solar radiation and provides a unique opportunity to
test several hypotheses. It offers a chance to investigate the atmo­
sphere’s reaction when the incident solar radiation is suddenly turned
off and on within a short time. The response of the Earth’s environment
to the abrupt and short-time disturbance in the radiation, and in
consequence the thermal imbalance of the atmosphere, has been the
subject of many environmental studies during the last century. The solar
eclipse has its effect on the background atmosphere right from sub-
surface to the ionosphere/magnetosphere (Gerasopoulos et al., 2008).
Since its impact on the background meteorology and dynamics depends
on the magnitude, duration of solar obscuration, season and time of the
day, location, measurement heights, topography, synoptic scale fea­
tures, and prevailing flora makes every eclipse unique. Therefore, each
eclipse event is observed with a lot of scientific interest by the re­
searchers across the globe.
An intense solar eclipse occurred on 15 January 2010 over the Indian
region has revealed several interesting aspects in the atmosphere (Rat­
nam et al., 2010, 2011). The turbulence activity in the near surface
layers of the atmosphere was suppressed causing a decrease in the at­
mospheric boundary layer (Amiridis et al., 2007 over Greece), similarly
a simultaneous shallow entrainment zone during sunset hours (Ratnam
et al., 2010). In the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere (UTLS)
region, drastic changes in the vertical structures of temperature (Dutta
et al., 2011) and ozone were observed (Ratnam et al., 2011). The cooling
of the ozone layer in the stratosphere was experimentally shown to be
the major source of gravity waves induced by the passage of moon’s
shadow from the atmosphere (Gerasopoulos et al., 2008). Its effect on
surface trace gases and greenhouse gases was also investigated by Girach
et al. (2012). However, until date detailed investigations to observe the
solar eclipse effects on the surface aerosol concentrations have been very

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: vratnam@narl.gov.in (M.V. Ratnam).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apr.2020.10.003
Received 9 August 2020; Received in revised form 14 September 2020; Accepted 2 October 2020
Available online 8 October 2020
1309-1042/© 2020 Turkish National Committee for Air Pollution Research and Control. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: M. Venkat Ratnam, Atmospheric Pollution Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apr.2020.10.003
M.V. Ratnam et al. Atmospheric Pollution Research xxx (xxxx) xxx

sparse (e.g., Babu et al., 2011; Mishra et al., 2012).

A profound increase or peak in the surface mass concentration of
aerosols (including Black Carbon-BC) and other pollutants observed
during the morning hours after the local sunrise time in a typical diurnal
variability profiles known as the ‘fumigation effect’ (Stull, 1988). The
fumigation occurs due to the breakup of the nocturnal inversion layer
(Kim et al., 2005) after the sunrise. In the daytime, aerosols (BC) are
lifted and mixed up to higher altitudes through boundary layer
convective activities and in the night, they remain in the stable region
just above the nocturnal boundary layer (known as residual layer) as a
low-level inversion develops. After the sunrise, this temperature inver­
sion starts to break up rapidly allowing the trapped aerosols above to
entrain into the surface layer below, manifesting the ‘fumigation peak’
(Nair et al., 2009; Kumar et al., 2011). After that, near surface concen­
tration of aerosol starts to fall due to the increasing solar radiation
leading to a more turbulent, well mixed and increased boundary layer
height (Babu and Moorthy, 2002). The near surface aerosol concentra­ Fig. 1. Photos taken from NARL during experiments while capturing the solar
tion reaches its minimum value when the boundary layer attains its eclipse effects. It includes tethered balloon, drone, in situ (radiosonde) along
maximum height at around mid-day hours. with several ground based and remote sensing instruments. Photo of the sun
Over Gadanki (13.5oN, 79.2oE), the fumigation peak in the surface during Eclipse captured using a filter from Gadanki is also shown.
concentration of BC is noticed at around 07:00 to 08:00 LT in the month
of December in accordance to the sunrise time and the concentration in the temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and wind direction
used to decrease nearly to the half of the fumigation peak value in the measurements are 0.2 ◦ C, 1%, 0.2 m/s and 1◦ , respectively.
following one or one and half hour (Ravi Kiran et al., 2018).The solar
eclipse occurred on 26December 2019 during 08:10 to 11:15 LT with its
2.2. Aethalometer (AE-31)
maximum obscuration of 85.3% and magnitude of 0.893 at around
09:33 LT over Gadanki provided a unique opportunity and convenient
December 2019 month (including eclipse event) data from a seven
window or time period to examine whether the fumigation peak shows
channel Aethalometer (AE-31), which is being continuously operated at
any relevant change in association with the solar eclipse event. In this
NARL, Gadanki, has been used for the surface level BC concentrations in
framework, the present study investigates the effect of relevant meteo­
the present study. The aethalometer works on the principle of measuring
rological processes and boundary layer dynamics on the diurnal varia­
the attenuation of the transmitted light at seven wavelengths (viz., 370
tion of BC and particulate matter (PM) due to eclipse. A special
nm, 470 nm, 520 nm, 590 nm, 660 nm, 880 nm and 950 nm) through a
campaign named ‘Solar Eclipse Experiment of NARL (SEEN-2019)’ using
quartz fibre filter tape loaded with aerosol particles on it (Hansen et al.,
multi-instrument (AWS, aethalometer, PM sensors, ceilometer, radio­
1982; Hansen, 1984). Ambient air flow was fixed at a flow rate of 3 lpm
sonde) on multi-platform (surface, surface based remote sensing, drone,
with 5 min time resolution and occasionally with 2 min resolution
tethered balloon, in-situ balloon) has been conducted to study the
depending on the BC load. The tape is set such that it will advance one
salient behaviour of various background meteorological and dynamical
step when the attenuation of the 370 nm light through aerosol loaded
processes during the eclipse event. Important results obtained from the
filter is higher than 75%. The aethalometer model AE-31 can measure
entire campaign presented in this study reinforce some of the funda­
the BC concentrations in the range of 0–500 μg/m3. The instrumental
mental aspects on the interactions between aerosols and boundary layer
uncertainty ranges from 50% at 0.05 μg/m3to 6% at 1 μg/m3 (Corrigan
dynamics in association with a celestial phenomenon. Surface level trace
et al., 2006). The attenuation at 880 nm is usually considered for
gas measurements were also conducted as a part of this campaign. Direct
measuring BC only as BC aerosol has its highest absorption at this
and indirect photo-chemical impacts of eclipse on trace gases have been
wavelength with lowest interference. The quality check of the BC values
reported in Jain et al. (2020).
is done by following three criteria: there are no negative values at any
wavelength, power law dependency is followed by the absorption co­
2. Campaign details and data base
efficients at all seven wavelengths and for taking a diurnal cycle into
consideration it was made sure that at least six data points are available
Multi-instrument experiments on multi-platforms have been carried
in each hour ensuring at least 50% of the data presence in an hour (Ravi
out at National Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Gadanki (13.5oN,
Kiran et al., 2018). Upon applying the said criteria, seven days in
79.2oE, 360 m a.s.l) as a part of SEEN-2019 campaign during the solar
December 2019 were omitted for not passing the quality check while
eclipse occurred on 26 December 2019. Instruments include an auto­
calculating the mean diurnal variation of BC.
matic weather station (AWS), two aethalometers (AE-31 and AE-51),
three PM sensors, ceilometer and three radiosondes. Photos taken
from Gadanki during the campaign while capturing the solar eclipse 2.3. Micro-aethalometer (AE-51)
effects are shown in Fig. 1. Different platforms used for the measure­
ments by different sensors include surface, on-board drone, tethered The AethLabs micro-aethalometer AE-51 has also been used in the
balloon and in-situ balloon covering from surface to the top of the present study to obtain BC concentration profile on the eclipse day
boundary layer. Details of these instruments and their measurement within the 1 km of the ABL height by boarding it on a tethered balloon
accuracies are given below. platform along with GPS radiosonde. AE-51is a sensitive, miniature,
portable instrument with high temporal resolution, designed for
2.1. Automatic weather station (AWS) measurements measuring BC component of aerosol. It works with the same principle as
AE-31 unlike uses a single filter strip for each measurement (typically
AWS measurement data has been used to investigate the variation in spanning over a day) at 880 nm. The AE-51 can measure the BC con­
the background surface meteorological parameters (temperature (T), centration in the range of 0–1000 μg/m3with a resolution of 0.001 μg/
relative humidity (RH), wind speed (WS) and wind direction (WD)). m3 and can draw an air sample at a user tuneable flow rates of 50, 100,
AWS is located at 2 m above the ground at 1-min resolution. Accuracies 150 or 200 ml/min through a 3 mm diameter portion of filter media. For

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M.V. Ratnam et al. Atmospheric Pollution Research xxx (xxxx) xxx

the present study the flow rate was fixed at around 100 ml/min and with
a time resolution of 1 min. During post processing, data has been
averaged 2 min to make it synchronised with the time resolution of AE-
31. Consistent measurements have been observed when the two
aethalometers were operated simultaneously at the ground. The credi­
bility of this instrument to obtain BC concentration profile up to 10 km
on a balloon platform is reported by Ratnam et al. (2020).
2.4. PM sensors (PMS 7003)
A low-cost PM sensor is a promising tool to monitor the real time air
pollution at different environments both indoors and outdoors as well as
in the field measurements. Three PM sensors (Model: Plantower PMS
7003) have been operated during solar eclipse one at ground continu­
ously, one on-board of drone and the third one on-board of tethered
balloon. The vertical PM concentration profiles during the solar eclipse
event have been captured while keeping them on drone and tethered
balloon platform (while ascent and descent and sustained float at around
1 km during eclipse period). By using light scattering method, PM sen­
sors can detect the particles with diameter of 0.3–10 μm and infer the
real time mass concentrations of PM1, PM2.5, PM10 based on the confi­
dential proprietary algorithm (Kelly et al., 2017). These sensors draw
the ambient air into the measurement zone using a micro-fan attached to
them. A laser beam illuminates the particles, as a result the scattered
light is measured perpendicularly by a diode-based photo-detector. The
scattered light signal collected by the detector is filtered and amplified
via electronic filters and converted into mass concentration in the form
of PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 fractions at 1 s time resolution. During the post
processing raw data has been averaged for 1-min time interval before
going for further analysis. These optical sensors follow volume scat­
tering detection technique; hence measurements are independent of
flow rate. According to the manufacturers, their accuracy is between
±10–15 μg/m3.Detailed description and accuracy of PM sensor mea­
surements is discussed in Zheng et al. (2018). In their study, they found
good agreement between the measurements when they carried out
inter-comparison studies in the field using the PM sensors and standard
PM instruments.
the balloon. Quality checks (consistency and continuity checks) were
again applied to remove outliers, if any. The reported accuracy of T is
0.5 K and more details of different sensors and their accuracy can be
found in Ratnam et al. (2014). Other meteorological parameters (RH,
Wind speed and wind direction) from radiosonde have not been used in
this present study, so the details are also not given.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Solar eclipse occurred on 26 December 2019
The complete eclipse path, magnitude and obscuration over Gadanki
on 26 December 2019simulated using Stellarium software (https://stell
arium.org) is shown in Fig. 2. This annular solar eclipse happened over a
course of 3h 10 min, the moon umbra travel for about 9785.27 km from
Riyadh to Western Pacific along Kerala (Kannur, Kozhikode) and Tamil
Nadu (Coimbatore and Madurai) over India as shown in Fig. 2a. The
Moon’s umbra shadow first touched down to Earth in South of Riyad at
03:38 UTC and travelled over the Arabian Sea and reached India at
03:54 UTC (end at 04:04 UTC over India) and ends over western pacific.
Eclipse started at 08:08 IST (IST = UT + 05:30 h) over Gadanki and the
maximum obscuration (85.3%) has been observed around 09:33 LT with
a magnitude of 0.893 (Fig. 2b). The total duration of the solar eclipse
was 3 h and 10 min over Gadanki. Sunrise time on the eclipse day was
06:33 LT over Gadanki.
3.2. Meteorological conditions during eclipse
Basic meteorological parameters such as temperature, relative hu­
midity, wind speed and wind directions were monitored at 2m altitude
from the ground during the course of solar eclipse and compared it with
the adjoining days of observations (24–28 December 2019) in Fig. 3.
Mean (excluding 26 December 2019) with standard deviation along
with 26 December measurements and anomaly is shown. Fig. 3a shows a
very small rise in the temperature in the first half of the eclipse time and
shows a clear reduction in temperature rising during the solar eclipse. A
maximum anomaly of − 4.3 ◦ C in the temperature has been observed

2.5. Väisälä Ceilometer

We used Väisälä Ceilometer (model - CL51), a ground-based remote

sensing instrument, to investigate the changes in the boundary layer
height during the solar eclipse. Ceilometer pumps 910 nm infrared In­
dium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) diode laser pulses into the atmosphere
in the vertical direction and the backscattered signals are processed to
determine the boundary layer height. Gradient method on the raw data
(archived at 16 s (sec) temporal resolution and 10 m height resolution)
has been used to detect the boundary layer height sequentially with
additional processing procedures that include vertical and temporal
averaging to improve the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). Cloud and pre­
cipitation filters have also been applied to exclude the backscattered
signals from clouds and precipitation while averaging to avoid the
distortion in the mean backscatter profile. Further outliers were
removed with variable thresholds to obtain boundary layer height. For
the present study, 10 m vertical resolution has been retained and 5 min
averaging has been per formed on temporal scale to obtain the realistic
boundary layer heights.

2.6. GPS radiosonde

GPS radiosondes (Meisei, Japan and iMET) have been launched at 3-

h intervals starting at 05:30 LT until 14:30 LT in order to obtain the
background stability conditions before, during and after the eclipse.
From these measurements, temperature (T) profiles with an altitude
resolution of 5–6 m was obtained from ground level. Later it was gridded
to 100 m to remove outliers, if any, arising from the random motion of
Fig. 2. (a) Path of Solar eclipse showing northern and southern limits (blue
lines) and central points (filled circles) that occurred on 26 December 2019.
Star mark shows the location of Gadanki. (b) Magnitude and obscuration of
eclipse observed over Gadanki during different timings.

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M.V. Ratnam et al.
Fig. 3. Time series of (a) Temperature, (b) Relative Humidity, (c) Wind Speed
and (d) Wind direction obtained from AWS on the eclipse day (red line) and
mean and standard deviation of four normal days (24–28 December 2019
excluding 26 December 2019) (line with shading). Anomalies from the mean
are plotted (blue line) in the respective panels.
around 10:00 LT after the maximum eclipse obscuration (09:33 LT). The
temperature was almost steady (~21.1–21.4 ◦ C) between 09:20 and
10:00 LT and a sudden rise in temperature has been noticed after 10:35
LT. Almost 1-h delay has been observed in the heating at 2 m above the
ground followed by the maximum obscuration (~09:33 LT). The tem­
perature reached to the normal around 13:00 IST, 1 h and 45 min after
the completion of solar eclipse event.
A similar feature has also been observed in the relative humidity as
shown in Fig. 3b. Since the eclipse event occurred in a winter, it is
typical to observe a colder day with foggy night with ~100% relative
humidity in the mid-night and morning hours during this season. In
general, the relative humidity decreases after 08:00 LT, however, on the
eclipse day, 100% relative humidity was prolonged until 10:40 LT. The
relative humidity also shown a sudden reduction between 10:40 LT and
11:05 LT (100–73%, for ~ 25 min) as we observed in the case of tem­
perature. The atmosphere has also been found to be cooler than the
adjoining days with higher relative humidity in the night hours on the
eclipse day.
Wind speed and direction plotted in Fig. 3(c) and (d) show very calm
condition between 08:28 IST to 10:18 IST (1 h and 50 min) during the
eclipse. The mean wind speed and direction in the early morning and
mid-night hours shows atmosphere with wind blowing in the south-
south-east (SSE, 160◦ ) direction. After the sun rise, the direction
changed to east-north-east (ENE, 70-80◦ ) and it persisted during the
entire day and it changed back to SSE during the night. However, on the
eclipse day, the wind direction did not vary as was observed in the case
of adjoining days. It was mostly west-north-west (WNW, ~323◦ ) or
west-south-west (WSW, ~245◦ ) during the course of eclipse. This
change in wind direction lasted up to 14:30 LT. During the night (18:58
to 20:05LT, for ~1 h 10 min) the wind speed once again became calm
and the direction suddenly changed to SSE.
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Atmospheric Pollution Research xxx (xxxx) xxx
3.3. BC and PM concentrations at surface during the eclipse period
The diurnal variation of BC concentration on the eclipse day with the
mean diurnal variation of the same for the month of December 2019 has
been inter-compared and shown in Fig. 4b. Solar eclipse magnitude has
also been superimposed to obtain the time resolved stages of eclipse over
Gadanki. Fumigation peak in the mean BC concentration occurred at
07:00LT for the December month in 2019 with a peak value of 4.8±3 μg/
m3.Themean concentration decreased to the half (~2.5 ± 1.5 μg/m3) of
the peak value at around 09:00 LT. On the eclipse day also, the fumi­
gation peak occurred with a sharp peak concentration value of 9.4 μg/
m3at 07:00 LT (coinciding with the monthly occurrence time mean) and
then started decreasing. In contrast, concentration again started
increasing at around 08:20LT which coincides well with the beginning
time of eclipse event. During the following hours from 09:00 LT to 10:30
LT (when the obscuration was most impactful), the surface concentra­
tion of BC remained in the range of 4–6μg/m3instead of decreasing. The
observed concentration was about 2–3 times higher than the mean
concentration (during same time window) of the days leading to the
eclipse event. Starting from 12:00 LT onwards, the BC concentration on
the eclipse day reached the same range with the mean monthly con­
centration value and continued up to 17:00 LT. Even though few fluc­
tuations were noticed in the evening and night time concentrations, but
all were well within standard deviation limits.
Similarly, Fig. 4a shows the variations in surface level PM (PM1,
PM2.5, PM10) concentrations observed on the eclipse day and December
monthly mean PM concentrations along with standard deviation. In
general, in a monthly mean, a fumigation peak has been seen around
~07:00 LT and it started to decrease until ~10:00 LT. Again, an
enhancement in the PM concentration has been noticed around 15:00 LT
and a second peak in the evening is seen around ~19:00 LT with low
concentrations during noon hours. Diurnal variation of PM concentra­
tion on eclipse day matches well with December monthly mean from
midnight to 08:00 LT. After 08:00 LT the diurnal pattern of PM con­
centration on the eclipse day has been completely different from the
monthly mean. During the eclipse, PM concentrations showed an
enhancement in their concentration from 08:00 to 10:00 LT (coinciding
with the solar eclipse) instead of decreasing trend normally seen. After
eclipse, during the noon time, all PM concentration levels have been
decreased by a factor of2–3 when compared with pre-eclipse concen­
trations. The concentrations after the eclipse event were lower than the
monthly mean values. Interestingly, after eclipse, close values between
PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations indicate that the larger size particles
might have been removed through dry deposition. Again, a sharp peak
in the evening hours (~17:00 to 20:00 LT) has been noticed. Further,
these PM concentration levels during evening peak were coming within
the limit of standard deviation. However, post evening peak in the PM
concentrations decreased once again below mean values and PM10 and
PM2.5 values reach close by. This indicates larger size particles are
almost settled down due to calm wind leading to fine particulate matter
as the main pollutant. These observations demonstrate that the solar
eclipse had triggered a distinct diurnal variation in surface aerosol (BC
and PM) concentrations. The close values between PM10 and PM2.5 is
interplay between boundary layer evolution and aerosol removal
process.
3.4. Vertical distribution of BC aerosol and PM concentrations during the
eclipse
Two consecutive tethered balloon launches were conducted between
07:20 LT to 13:00 LT with a micro aethalometer (AE-51) and PM sensor
on board. From these launches, four profiles (two during ascent and two
during descent) of BC aerosols and PM concentrations before, during
and well after the eclipse events were obtained (Fig. 5). Between 08:45
LT and 10:37 LT, the tethered balloon floated at an altitude of 900
m–1000 m continuously measuring BC and PM concentrations during
M.V. Ratnam et al. Atmospheric Pollution Research xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 4. Time series of (a) PM1 (dark magenta line), PM2.5(dark orange line), and PM10(dark blue line) and (b) Black carbon (thick black line) mass concentration
observed at the surface on the solar eclipse day. Light color line indicates the December month mean of PM and BC mass concentrations and the shaded area
represents the standard deviation. Solar eclipse magnitude observed over Gadanki is also included in (b) with axis on the right.

Fig. 6. Time series of PM (PM1, PM2.5, PM10) and BC concentrations observed

on-board tethered balloon during the eclipse. Altitude of balloon at different
timings is shown for the reference.

Fig. 5. Vertical distribution of PM1, PM2.5, PM10 and BC mass concentrations
obtained from tethered balloon measurements (a) Before eclipse ascent, (b)
descent, (c) After eclipse ascent and (d) descent. Note that scale for BC is
provided on top axis. Time on the graph shows the observation time window.
the eclipse event and results are shown in Fig. 6. During the continuous
float, the micro-aethalometer (AE-51) measurement of BC concentration
showed consistent values below 2 μg/m3 (Fig. 6), and PM values have
shown slight variations along with the balloon height. BC decreases with
height (from 5 μg/m3 to below 2 μg/m3) during the first ascent and a
similar observation is true for PM (PM1, PM2.5, PM10) concentrations
(Fig. 5a). However, the second and third profiles obtained during teth­
ered balloon descent at the final phase of the eclipse and a further ascent
just after the eclipse (Fig. 5(b) and (c)) have shown a prominent
enhancement in BC concentration up to 10 μg/m3, 7 μg/m3, and 6 μg/
m3at around 500 m,700 m and 900 m altitudes, respectively. Whereas,
the other aerosol parameters have also shown increase around
700–800m.These multiple layers (~900m, 700m, 500m) between 10:37
to 12:30 LT (first descent and second ascent profile) disappeared 1 h
after the solar eclipse event, and only a single layer around ~500m
(Fig. 5d) has been observed. These layers might be formed due to small
inversion in the temperature.
A detailed investigation from all the four profile observations along
with the ground-based observation revealed that the BC mass concen­
tration decreased with height before and after the eclipse. Three peaks
(at 500 m, 700 m and 900 m) observed during the ascent and descents
within and close to eclipse event sustained until 12:15 LT and did not
show any decrease with altitude. After the eclipse at around 12:30 to
13:00 LT, the BC profile has shown a consistent concentration exceeding

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M.V. Ratnam et al.
2 μg/m3 throughout the measurement height while retaining the lower
peak with magnitude exceeding 5 μg/m3. On the other hand, surface
concentration of BC remained at around4-6μg/m3during the eclipse
event and dropped to 2 μg/m3 after the eclipse at 12:00 LT. Thus, the
values and timing of the BC concentrations in the profile observations
seem to be quite consistent with the ground-based observation.
A gradual decrease in the PM concentrations has been noticed and
most of the concentrations were picked up in the altitudes below 750m
in the ascent profile before eclipse (Fig. 5a). Similar to BC mass con­
centration, a peak has been observed at 400 m in the PM concentrations.
The variations in the BC profiles closely matched with the PM1 con­
centrations below 750m whereas above the agreement was with PM2.5.
In the descent profile (Fig. 5b) a small peak has been noticed around
700m and the PM concentrations were almost homogeneous throughout
the altitude, whereas more fluctuations in the BC concentrations were
noticed in its profile. After the eclipse, the near surface PM concentra­
tions in the profile have been reduced close to half. At the same time a
broader peak in the PM concentrations has been noticed between 650
and 1000m. This may be due to an increase in the surface temperature
after the eclipse, inducing the convective uplift of pollutants to higher
altitudes. Interestingly, after and just before end of the eclipse, PM10 and
PM2.5 concentrations are close by throughout the profile (Fig. 5c and d)
indicating the domination of finer particles as the PM10 contains PM2.5.
A similar feature has already been seen in the surface observations
(Fig. 4a). Comparable peak in the BC profile has been noticed between
650 and 1000m and also an additional peak has also been observed in BC
mass concentration around 500m which was not seen in the PM con­
centrations. However, no such significant changes were observed in the
descent profile of PM concentration after eclipse (Fig. 5d). The PM
concentrations in the descent profile after the eclipse were almost uni­
form throughout the altitude.
3.5. PM concentration profiles obtained from drone during the solar
eclipse
As a part of this observation campaign changes in the PM concen­
tration profiles have also been observed using drone measurements. A
total of 3 independent launches were conducted on solar eclipse day i.e.,
before, during and after the solar eclipse event. Vertical distribution of
PM concentrations obtained from drone observations conducted before,
during and after the eclipse along with the respective time stamp are
shown in Fig. 7. In the drone observations, the ascent rates were faster
compared to the descent rates resulting in better resolved descent pro­
files. A peak has been seen in the PM concentrations around 425m and
also an inversion has been noticed at 475m with large separation be­
tween all the three PM concentrations before the eclipse (Fig. 7a). Most
Fig. 7. Vertical distribution of PM1, PM2.5, and PM10 concentrations obtained from drone measurements (a) before, (b) during and (c) after the eclipse. Time duration
of the observation is also stamped in the respective panels.
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Atmospheric Pollution Research xxx (xxxx) xxx
of the PM concentrations were restricted to 550m and sudden drop in the
concentration has been noticed above during the eclipse (Fig. 7b). PM
concentrations reduced to half and a broader peak has been noticed
(Fig. 7c) between 450 and 575m similar to the tethered balloon obser­
vations after the eclipse. Drone measurements also showed close values
between PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations similar to that observed at the
surface (Fig. 4) and tethered balloon (Fig. 5) observations after the solar
eclipse suggesting the removal of bigger particles through dry deposition
process. These observations clearly indicate that lower atmosphere
(with in boundary layer) is composed primarily with smaller particles
rather than the bigger size after the eclipse event.
4. Effect of boundary layer dynamics on the BC and PM
concentrations
Due to the gradual decrease and then shutting off of the incoming
shortwave solar radiation during a solar eclipse, a fall in surface tem­
perature and a transition in atmospheric boundary layer will be seen.
Fumigation peak has strong association with this boundary layer dy­
namics as well as with the change in ambient and surface temperature.
The boundary layer height obtained from the ceilometer collocated at
Gadanki on the eclipse day is shown in Fig. 8a. Boundary layer height
before 05:30 LT is not shown due to foggy conditions prevailing on the
eclipse day. Further, monthly mean variation along with standard de­
viation in boundary layer height obtained while averaging over 11
December 2019 to 10 January 2020 excluding the eclipse day is also
shown for comparison. In general, the mean boundary layer height is
shallow during the mid-night and morning hours. The growth of the
boundary layer has been observed from ~08:00 LT onwards, almost
same time when surface temperature starts increasing, and the peak
convective boundary layer is formed around 15:00 LT. In contrast, the
boundary layer height remained shallow until post 09:00 LT on the solar
eclipse day. Right after the peak eclipse, the boundary layer height
raised by 1 km within a short interval (of 1 h) after the eclipse event and
formed the peak convective boundary layer at around 16:00 LT with
almost an hour delay when compared to normal days. In general, a
decrease of 600m during the eclipse and increase of 250m after the
eclipse has been noticed in the ABL height. Boundary layer show sudden
collapse (~1.7 km–0.8 km) during the evening hours (18:30 to 21:00
LT) in both the monthly mean and on the eclipse day. The boundary
layer on the eclipse night has been found to be slightly lower than the
mean value. This ABL variation during the eclipse is very much useful
while discussing its effect on BC and PM concentrations.
During the eclipse, a decrease in the near surface temperature of
4.3 ◦ C has been noticed over Gadanki in AWS measurements with a peak
just before the end of the eclipse (Fig. 8a). On the eclipse day, the first
M.V. Ratnam et al.
Fig. 8. (a) Time series of solar obscuration observed over Gadanki on 26
December 2019. Time of sun rise on the same is shown with vertical orange
line. Starting and ending of solar eclipse is shown with vertical dashed lines and
peak with vertical grey line. Time series of T anomaly obtained from AWS
monthly mean and eclipse day is also shown. Time series of ABL height ob­
tained from ceilometer on the eclipse day and monthly mean excluding eclipse
day along with standard deviation is also shown. (b) Time series of BC and PM1,
PM2.5 and PM10concentrations obtained using aethalometer and PM sensor,
respectively, on the eclipse day. Dry adiabatic lapse rate, temperature and
virtual potential temperature obtained from radiosonde launched at (c) 05:30
IST, (d) 08:30 IST and (e) 11:30 IST representing the background instability
before, during and after the eclipse.
fumigation peak in BC and PM concentrations occurred at 07:00 LT and
then started falling (Fig. 8b). However, the concentrations again started
to increase at around 08:20 LT and this time correspond to the beginning
of the solar eclipse and the concentrations remained at the same range
during 09:00 to 10:30 LT followed by a sharp peak immediately after
eclipse. These observations indicate that the blocking phase of solar
eclipse had led to confinement of BC aerosol and PM concentrations over
Gadanki due to low surface temperatures and consistent shallow ABL
height. Interestingly, during the withdrawal phase or with the drop of
solar obscuration from its peak, a sudden rise in BC aerosol is observed.
This is because of the intrusion of pollutants from above due to breaking
of the inversion layer caused by more solar insolation reaching the
surface. This mechanism is similar to the process of fumigation effect,
thus this peak in BC can be termed as second fumigation peak or
extended fumigation effect. Again from 12:00 LT onwards, the concen­
trations on the eclipse day remained lowest and continued up to 17:00
LT. These low PM concentrations during noon time are mainly associ­
ated to sudden enhancement in the boundary layer height (Fig. 8a)
driven by the convective activity which causes the pollutants and
aerosols to disperse vertically and horizontally near the surface. Again, a
sharp peak in the evening hours (~17:00 to 20:00 LT) has been noticed
which can be attributed to the sudden reduction in the boundary layer
height (Fig. 8a) from ~1.7 km to ~0.8 km over this location and also
calm wind during this period (Fig. 3d). Nair et al. (2009) also reported
7
Atmospheric Pollution Research xxx (xxxx) xxx
that evening peak is mainly associated with reduction in boundary layer
height and changes in the source strength.
Interestingly, PM10 concentrations are close to the PM2.5 after the
eclipse which indicates that larger size particles have almost been settled
down to the surface. In fact, this observation has also been observed in
the vertical distribution of PM concentrations obtained from tethered
(Fig. 5) and drone (Fig. 7) measurements. Further, BC concentrations
show a consistent concentration exceeding 2 μg/m3 throughout the
measured height, which was decreasing with the height before the
eclipse (Fig. 5). On the other hand, surface concentration of BC remained
between 4 and 6 μg/m3 during the eclipse span and dropped to 2 μg/m3
after the eclipse at 12:00 LT (Fig. 8b). Thus, the values and timings of the
BC concentration in the profile observation seems to be quite consistent
with the ground-based observation and indicates gradual mixing up of
the trapped mass of BC through the ABL well after the eclipse.
In order to pin point the exact mechanism (type) happening during
the extended/second fumigation, we make use of the background
instability theory (Geiger et al., 1995). To investigate the stability of the
atmosphere before, during and after the eclipse, dry adiabatic lapse rate,
environmental lapse rate temperature and virtual potential temperature
profiles obtained from radiosonde launched on 26 December 2019 at
05:30 LT, 08:30 LT and 11:30 LT have been shown in Fig. 8c–(e),
respectively. Dry adiabatic lapse rate has been calculated while taking
the surface temperature at a given time followed by lapse in temperature
at the rate of 9.8 C/km. Virtual potential temperature is estimated using
◦
potential temperature and mixing ratio following Wallace and Hobbs
(2006). Before the eclipse, very weak lapse rate below 1 km altitude and
inversion aloft (clearer in virtual potential temperature profile) has been
observed fulfilling the required condition for the ‘Fumigation’ (Fig. 8c).
This feature continued and became clearer during the eclipse (Fig. 8d).
In fact, there exists small inversion below and lapse aloft at 500 m
revealing conditions prevailing similar to the ‘Fumigation/Lofting’.
After the eclipse (Fig. 8e), high lapse rate below 1.2 km and inversion
above has been observed suggesting the dominance of ‘Trapping’. The
timing of the eclipse and the adjacent fall in temperature followed by the
formation of near surface temperature inversion along with the reduc­
tion in boundary layer height together caused the BC and PM concen­
trations to get intrude once again to confine near to the surface during
the prolonged hours of the eclipse creating an ‘extended/second fumi­
gation peak’. Additionally, the instantaneous and constant flux of BC
emitted from anthropogenic activities also got trapped near to surface,
partially contributing to the extended/second peak. Thus, extended/­
second fumigation peak leading to the trapping of boundary layer
aerosols is clearly noticed during the solar eclipse.
5. Summary and conclusions
It is well known that diurnal variation in the surface aerosol con­
centration is closely associated with boundary layer dynamics, surface
meteorological conditions and local anthropogenic activities. An early
morning solar eclipse occurred on 26 December 2019 provided a unique
opportunity to investigate the mechanism of formation and maintenance
of ‘fumigation peak’ in the morning hours. Solar eclipse with maximum
obscuration of 85.3% and magnitude of 0.893 has occurred on 26
December 2019 during morning hours (08:10 to 11:15 LT) with peak at
09:33 LT over Gadanki. Seizing the opportunity, a comprehensive
campaign (SEEN-19) has been designed and executed covering the ob­
servations right from surface to the boundary layer height with multi-
instruments on multiple platforms to test the hypothesis of ‘extended/
second fumigation effect’ due to the solar eclipse. Summary of the
important findings of this campaign are provided below.
1. Maximum reduction in temperature of 4.3 ◦ C is observed around
10:00 LT due to eclipse. Almost 1-h delay has been observed in the
surface heating followed by the maximum obscuration. Wind speed
M.V. Ratnam et al.
show very clam conditions between 08:28 IST to 10:18 IST (1 h and
50 min) during the eclipse.
2. Boundary layer remained shallow until 09:00 LT on the eclipse day in
contrast to the increase starting at 08:00 LT on normal days. Right
after the peak eclipse, the boundary layer reached above 1 km within
a short time (1 h) and formed the peak convective boundary layer at
around 16:00 LT with almost an hour delay when compared to
normal days.
3. Fumigation peak in the surface BC concentrations occurred with a
sharp peak value of 9.4 μg/m3 at the same time of 07:00 LT even on
the eclipse day and then started falling. However, the concentrations
again started to increase from 08:20 LT corresponding to the
commencement of the eclipse timing and remained at the range of
4–6 μg/m3 during 09:00 to 10:30 LT, which is about 2–3 times of the
mean concentration at this span of time. Again from 12:00 LT on­
ward the BC concentration on the eclipse day reached same con­
centration as of the mean concentration value. Similar variation in
PM concentrations (PM1, PM2.5 and PM10) is observed.
4. Tethered balloon measurements reveal that the BC and PM concen­
trations decrease with height before eclipse and a prominent hike in
BC concentration (above 6 μg/m3) around 500m, 700 m and 900 m
altitudes after the eclipse and sustained up to 12:15 LT. After the
eclipse (12:30 to 13:00 LT) the BC profile tends to show a consistent
concentration exceeding 2 μg/m3throughout the measured height
while retaining only one peak around 500m. A nearly homogeneous
BC and PM concentrations is noticed after the eclipse. Multiple peaks
observed might be due to temperature inversions
5. Surface concentration of BC remained at 6 μg/m3 during the eclipse
span and dropped to 2 μg/m3 after the eclipse at 12:00 LT. Thus, the
values and timings of the BC concentration in the profile observation
have been quite consistent with the ground-based observation and
indicates a delayed and gradual mixing up of the trapped mass of BC
through the ABL well after the eclipse.
6. In drone measurements, a peak has been seen around 425 m and also
an inversion was noticed at 475 m with large separation between
PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations before the eclipse. During the
eclipse, most of the PM concentrations are restricted to 550 m and
sudden drop in the concentrations is noticed above. PM concentra­
tions reduce to half and a broader peak is noticed between 450 and
575 m after the eclipse.
7. Close by values between PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations are
observed in the surface measurements and also in drone and tethered
measurements suggesting settling of bigger particles throughout the
boundary layer after the eclipse. This is result of interplay between
the boundary layer dynamics and removal mechanisms.
8. Background instability estimated using radiosonde measurements
suggested Fumigation, Fumigation/Lofting and Trapping before,
during and after the eclipse, respectively.
All these observations supported the fact of the trapping of BC and
PM concentrations near to the surface due to the development of a near
surface inversion and shallow boundary layer height induced by the
solar eclipse.
Credit author statement
M. Venkat Ratnam: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft, Su­
pervision. S. Talukdar, P. Prasad, S.T. Akhil Raj: Data curation, Formal
analysis, Writing - review & editing, M. Roja Raman, S. Satheesh Kumar,
V. Ravi Kiran, Chaithanya D. Jain, Ghouse Basha: Writing - review &
editing.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
8
Atmospheric Pollution Research xxx (xxxx) xxx
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all Aerosol, Radiation and Trace gases Group
supporting staff of National Atmospheric research Laboratory for
actively participating in collecting data from multi-instruments and
multiple platforms used in the present study. We also thank National
Atmospheric Research Laboratory for supporting this campaign. We
thank T.V.C. Sarma and his team for providing tethered balloon platform
for hosting aerosol and meteorological instruments. Data used in the
present study can be obtained on request.
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