Black carbon aerosol, hereafter ref

Black carbon aerosol, hereafter referred to as BC, is a term used to describe the refractory carbonaceous residues resulting from incomplete combustion of biomass and fossil fuels (Cooke et al., 1999; Chang et al., 2008).


Since BC is relatively resistant to degradation, it can be used as a tracer for the burning of biomass, and processes of human pollution in natural environments including the atmosphere, soils, sediments, ice and seawater (Schmidt and Noach, 2000).