Dual‐Isotope Constraints on Seasonally Resolved Source Fingerprinting of Black Carbon Aerosols in Sites of the Four Emission Hot Spot Regions of China

Abstract Despite much recent efforts, the emission sources of black carbon (BC) aerosols―central input to understanding and predicting environmental and climate impact―remain highly uncertain. Here we present observational δ13C/Δ14C‐based constraints on the sources of BC aerosols over the four seasons in each of the four key hot spot emission regions of China: Beijing‐Tianjin‐Hebei (BTH‐Wuqing; where Wuqing is the sampling location), Yangtze River Delta (YRD‐Haining), Pearl River Delta (PRD‐Zhongshan), and Sichuan Basin (SC‐Deyang). Overall, BC loadings were highest in winter, yet elevated loadings were also observed in other seasons, for example, spring at SC‐Deyang and fall at PRD‐Zhongshan. Annually, the dominant BC sources were coal (50 ± 20%) for BTH‐Wuqing, liquid fossil for YRD‐Haining (46 ± 8%) and PRD‐Zhongshan (48 ± 18%), whereas liquid fossil (42 ± 17%) and biomass burning (41…