Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre

About: Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre is a facility organization based out in Thiruvananthapuram, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Aerosol & Ultimate tensile strength. The organization has 2092 authors who have published 3058 publications receiving 47975 citations. The organization is also known as: VSSC.

Monte Carlo model of electron energy degradation in a CO2 atmosphere

Abstract: [1] A Monte Carlo model has been developed to study the degradation of ≤1000 eV electrons in an atmosphere of CO2, which is one of the most abundant species in Mars' and Venus's atmospheres. The e-CO2 cross sections are presented in an assembled set along with their analytical representations. Monte Carlo simulations are carried out at several energies to calculate the “yield spectra,” which embodied all the information related to the electron degradation process and can be used to calculate “yield” (or population) for any inelastic process. The numerical yield spectra have been fitted analytically, resulting in an analytical yield spectra. We have calculated the mean energy per ion pair and efficiencies for various inelastic processes, including the double and dissociative double ionization of CO2 and negative ion formation. The energy distribution of the secondary electrons produced per incident electron is also presented at few incident energies. The mean energy per ion pair for CO2 is 37.5 (35.8) eV at 200 (1000) eV, compared to the experimental value 32.7 eV at high energies. Ionization is the dominant loss process at energies above 50 eV with a contribution of ∼50%. Among the excitation processes, 13.6 eV and 12.4 eV states are the dominant loss processes consuming ∼28% energy above 200 eV. Around and below ionization threshold, 13.6 eV, 12.4 eV, and 11.1 eV, followed by 8.6 eV and 9.3 eV, excitation states are important loss processes, while below 10 eV, vibrational excitation dominates.

Impact of Precipitation on Aerosol Spectral Optical Depth and Retrieved Size Distributions: A Case Study

Abstract: A case study is presented on the impact of two isolated, strong thundershowers during a prevailing dry, sunny season on the spectral optical depths and inferred columnar size characteristics of atmospheric aerosols at a tropical station. Results show a remarkable decrease in the aerosol optical depth and change in the spectral slope after the rain. The scavenging was found to be dependent on the particle size distribution; the larger, supermicron particles were found to be removed faster during the first shower itself, even though it was of only moderate intensity, resulting in about a 64% decrease in the columnar mass loading. In the second shower, which was stronger and more widespread than the former, more of the submicron particles in the optically active submicron size range were removed, but the reduction in mass loading was very small. The effective radius decreased continuously and so too did the columnar mass loading (total aerosol volume). The data are used to estimate the apparent colu...

Large contrast in the vertical distribution of aerosol optical properties and radiative effects across the Indo-Gangetic Plain during the SWAAMI–RAWEX campaign

Abstract: . Measurements of the vertical profiles of the optical properties (namely the extinction coefficient and scattering and absorption coefficients respectively σext ∕ σscat ∕ σabs ) of aerosols have been made across the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) using an instrumented aircraft operated from three base stations – Jodhpur (JDR), representing the semi-arid western IGP; Varanasi (VNS), the central IGP characterized by significant anthropogenic activities; and the industrialized coastal location in the eastern end of the IGP (Bhubaneswar, BBR) – just prior to the onset of the Indian summer monsoon. The vertical profiles depicted region-specific absorption characteristics, while the scattering characteristics remained fairly uniform across the region, leading to a west–east gradient in the vertical structure of single-scattering albedo (SSA). Integrated from near the ground to 3 km, the highest absorption coefficient and hence the lowest SSA occurred in the central IGP (Varanasi). Size distribution, inferred from the spectral variation of the scattering coefficient, showed a gradual shift from coarse-particle dominance in the western IGP to strong accumulation dominance in the eastern coast with the central IGP coming in between, arising from a change in the aerosol type from a predominantly natural (dust and sea salt) type in the western IGP to a highly anthropogenic type (industrial emissions, fossil fuel and biomass combustion) in the eastern IGP, with the central IGP exhibiting a mixture of both. Aerosol-induced short-wave radiative forcing, estimated using altitude-resolved SSA information, revealed significant atmospheric warming in the central IGP, while a top-of-atmosphere cooling is seen, in general, in the IGP. Atmospheric heating rate profiles, estimated using altitude-resolved SSA and column-averaged SSA, revealed considerable underestimation in the latter case, emphasizing the importance and necessity of having altitude-resolved SSA information as against a single value for the entire column.