Premonsoon aerosol characterization and radiative effects over the Indo‐Gangetic Plains: Implications for regional climate warming
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In this paper, a detailed characterization of aerosols over the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) and their radiative effects during the pre-monsoon season (April-May-June) was presented, using ground radiometric and spaceborne observations.Abstract:
The Himalayas have a profound effect on the South Asian climate and the regional hydrological cycle, as it forms a barrier for the strong monsoon winds and serves as an elevated heat source, thus controlling the onset and distribution of precipitation during the Indian summer monsoon. Recent studies have suggested that radiative heating by absorbing aerosols, such as dust and black carbon over the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) and slopes of the Himalayas, may significantly accelerate the seasonal warming of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas-Tibetan Plateau (HKHT) and influence the subsequent evolution of the summer monsoon. This paper presents a detailed characterization of aerosols over the IGP and their radiative effects during the premonsoon season (April-May-June) when dust transport constitutes the bulk of the regional aerosol loading, using ground radiometric and spaceborne observations. During the dust-laden period, there is a strong response of surface shortwave flux to aerosol absorption indicated by the diurnally averaged forcing efficiency of -70 W/sq m per unit optical depth. The simulated aerosol single-scattering albedo, constrained by surface flux and aerosol measurements, is estimated to be 0.89+/- 0.01 (at approx.550 nm) with diurnal mean surface and top-of-atmosphere forcing values ranging from -11 to -79.8 W/sq m and +1.4 to +12 W/sq m, respectively, for the premonsoon period. The model-simulated solar heating rate profile peaks in the lower troposphere with enhanced heating penetrating into the middle troposphere (5-6 km), caused by vertically extended aerosols over the IGP with peak altitude of approx.5 km as indicated by spaceborne Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization observations. On a long-term climate scale, our analysis, on the basis of microwave satellite measurements of tropospheric temperatures from 1979 to 2007, indicates accelerated annual mean warming rates found over the Himalayan-Hindu Kush region (0.21 C/decade+/-0.08 C/decade) and underscores the potential role of enhanced aerosol solar absorption in the maximum warming localized over the western Himalayas (0.26 C/decade f 0.09 C/decade) that significantly exceed the entire HKHT and global warming rates. We believe the accelerated warming rates reported here are critical to both the South Asian summer monsoon and hydro-glaciological resource variability in the Himalayan-Hindu Kush snowpack and therefore to the densely populated downstream regions.read more
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Latitudinal variation of aerosol properties from Indo‐Gangetic Plain to central Himalayan foothills during TIGERZ campaign
Umesh Chandra Dumka,Sachchida Nand Tripathi,Amit Kumar Misra,David M. Giles,Thomas F. Eck,Thomas F. Eck,Ram Sagar,Brent N. Holben +7 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the optical properties of aerosols are calculated, and shortwave clear-sky aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) is estimated, and an insignificant difference is found in columnar ARF and columnar heating rate (HR) when vertical profiles of aerosol are included in radiative transfer models.
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Dust aerosol feedback on the Indian summer monsoon: Sensitivity to absorption property
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the sensitivity of dust radiative feedback to the dust absorption property during the Indian summer monsoon (June-September) season from 2005 to 2010 using the Regional Climate Model version 4.1.
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A study of aerosol optical depth variations over the Indian region using thirteen years (2001–2013) of MODIS and MISR Level 3 data
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented a temporal (annual and seasonal) study of aerosol optical depth (AOD) in the country using satellite data for thirteen year period (2001-2013).
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Synoptic weather conditions and aerosol episodes over Indo-Gangetic Plains, India
Dimitris G. Kaskaoutis,E. E. Houssos,Daisuke Goto,Aristides Bartzokas,Panagiotis T. Nastos,P. R. Sinha,Shailesh Kumar Kharol,Panagiotis Kosmopoulos,Ramesh P. Singh,Toshihiko Takemura +9 more
TL;DR: In this article, the main atmospheric circulation characteristics associated with aerosol episodes (AEs) over Kanpur, India during the period 2001-2010 were identified using the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis Project and daily Terra-MODIS AOD550 data.
Journal ArticleDOI
Heterogeneity in pre-monsoon aerosol characteristics over the Indo-Gangetic Basin
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors studied the heterogeneity in aerosol characteristics at five different locations over the Indo-Gangetic Basin (IGB) region during the pre-monsoon period (April-June 2011) using concurrent measurements from sun/sky radiometer, which is hypothesized to affect the Indian monsoon circulation and also the global climate system.
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