A study of temporal variations of Be and Pb concentrations and their correlations with rainfall and other parameters in the South West Coast of India.

As a part of establishing a regional database on natural radioactivity, the atmospheric concentrations of Pb and Be were measured over a three and half year period (2014-2017) in Mangalore and Kaiga in the South West Coast of India. A total of 99 air samples, collected in the different months of the year, were analysed in this study. The mean activity concentrations of Be and Pb were found to be 5.5 ± 3.1 mBq m and 1.1 ± 0.73 mBq m, respectively. Both the radionuclides exhibited strong seasonal variations, with maximum concentration of Be occurring in the summer and that of Pb in the winter season. The concentration of both the radionuclides was minimum in the rainy season. Higher Pb concentration during winter was attributed to the ingression of continental air masses due to the wind regime from the North East. The sunspot number index of the solar activity also plays an important role in the increase and decrease of Be concentration in the air. A clear trend of increased and lowered concentration of Be with lower and higher solar activity (low and high sunspot number), respectively, in accordance with the 11-year solar cycle, was observed in this study. The temporal variation of PM concentration was also studied and it showed maximum value in the winter and minimum in the rainy season with an average of 56.9 μg m. Statistically significant positive correlation was observed between the PM and Pb activity concentration, whereas a weak correlation was observed between PM and Be. This is due to the fact that Be is largely associated with sub-micrometer size particles, whereas PM is contributed by larger sizes. The dependence of the activity concentrations of Be and Pb with meteorological parameters such as rainfall, temperature, and humidity was studied through linear regression analysis. A significant correlation was observed between Be and Pb concentrations with rainfall intensity (with identical correlation coefficients), which suggested that the removal mechanisms of these two radionuclides were similar. Be showed a strong correlation with temperature, whereas Pb with humidity. A comparison of the data obtained in the present study for the South West Coast of India with the global literature values of Be and Pb in aerosols showed that the values did not reflect the well-known latitudinal dependence of the Be tropospheric fluxes. Overall, the study provides an improved understanding of the correlation and variability of Pb and Be concentrations in the atmosphere in the South West Coast of India.