Columnar-integrated aerosol optical properties and classification of different aerosol types over the semi-arid region, Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh

An assessment of the impact of Indian summer monsoon droughts on atmospheric aerosols and associated radiative forcing at a semi-arid station in peninsular India

A continuing increase in droughts/floods in Asian monsoon regions and worsening air quality due to aerosols are the two biggest threats to the health and well being of over 60% of the world's population. This study focuses on in-situ observations of atmospheric aerosols and their impact on shortwave direct aerosol radiative forcing (SDARF) during the southwest monsoon season (June-September) from 2015 to 2020 over a semi-arid station in Southern India. The Standardized precipitation index (SPI) is used to identify the droughts and normal monsoon years. Based on the SPI index, 2015, 2016, and 2018 were considered the drought monsoon years, while 2017, 2019, and 2020 were chosen as the normal monsoon years. During the drought monsoon years (normal monsoon years), the monthly mean black carbon (BC) was 1.17 ± 0.25 (0.72 ± 0.18), 1.02 ± 0.31 (0.64 ± 0.17), 1.02 ± 0.38 (0.74 ± 0.28), and 1.28 ± 0.35 μg/m³ (0.88 ± 0.21 μg/m³), for June, July, August and September respectively. The lower BC concentration during the normal monsoon years is mainly due to the enhanced wet-removal rates by high rainfall over the measurement location. In July, there was a high ventilation coefficient (VC) and low concentration of BC, while in September, low VC, and a high concentration of BC was observed in both the drought and the normal monsoon years. In addition, a plane-parallel radiative transfer model was used to estimate shortwave direct aerosol radiative forcing for composite and without BC at various surfaces, including the surface (SUF), atmosphere (ATM), and top of the atmosphere (TOA). During the drought monsoon years (normal monsoon years), the estimated monthly mean ATM forcing was 17.6 ± 2.4 (13.9 ± 2.1), 17.5 ± 7.5 (12.7 ± 4.4), 17.2 ± 4.0 (13.5 ± 1.9), and 17.4 ± 2.8 Wm^-2 (14.6 ± 0.7 Wm^-2) for June, July, August, and September, respectively. During the drought monsoon years, the estimated BC forcing was substantially larger (8.8 ± 2.6 Wm^-2) than that of normal monsoon years (6.0 ± 1.5 Wm^-2). It indicates the important role of absorbing BC aerosols during the drought monsoon years in introducing additional heat to the lower atmosphere, particularly over peninsular India.

Monitoring atmospheric particulate matters using vertically resolved measurements of a polarization lidar, in-situ recordings and satellite data over Tehran, Iran

The highly polluted atmosphere above Tehran has been investigated by using a polarization lidar operating at 532 nm, in-situ particulate matter suites distributed over the city, and meteorological observations. The measurement campaign is conducted from Nov. 2014 to Jan. 2016. Three typical cases are studied in detail where, the atmosphere is polluted with urban pollution, mixture of urban pollution and dust particles from local sources, and long range transported dust from the Arabian Peninsula. For these cases, vertical profiles of the lidar backscatter coefficient, extinction coefficients, particle depolarization ratio (\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\delta _{\text {p}}$$\end{document}δp) and mass concentrations of atmospheric aerosols (separated into dust and non-dust particles) are presented. Using the lidar recordings, variations of the planetary boundary layer height above the city are investigated along the year. During November to February, lidar profiles frequently show polluted boundary layers that are reaching up to 1 km above the ground level. The depolarization ratio (\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\delta _{\text {p}}$$\end{document}δp) varies between 0.04 and 0.08 in the polluted boundary layer. During the campaign, for 103 days the urban pollution was dominant, 45 recorded dust events (\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$0.15<\delta _{\text {p}}<0.20$$\end{document}0.15<δp<0.20) were originated from the dry regions in the south of Tehran and 15 dust events (\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$0.20<\delta _{\text {p}}<0.35$$\end{document}0.20<δp<0.35) impacted the city that were originated from the Arabian Desert and Mesopotamia.