EGU21-11003, updated on 24 Jan 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-11003
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Ubiquity of quasi-aerosol layers in the free troposphere over the Indian region: Results from multiyear satellite observations

Gaurav Kumar1, Jean Paul Vernier2, Bomidi Lakshmi Madhavan3, Kamran Ansari4, and Puna Ram Sinha1
Gaurav Kumar et al.
  • 1Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Trivandrum, India (prs@iist.ac.in)
  • 2NASA Langley Research Centre, Hampton, USA (jeanpaul.vernier@gmail.com)
  • 3National Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Gadanki, India (madhavanbomidi@gmail.com)
  • 4Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India, (kamraaan1997@gmail.com)

Vertical distribution of aerosols and their composition in the lower troposphere is critically important for assessing the Earth’s radiation budget and their impact on monsoon circulation. We combine the extinction coefficient, particulate depolarization ratio obtained from CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) for period of 11 years (2008-2018) over the Indian region to provide an unprecedented climatological overview of the physical and optical characteristics of quasi-aerosol layers and their source and formation mechanism throughout its annual life cycle in the free troposphere. The key findings includes: i)The quasi aerosol layer over the Indian region are found to be persistent between 4-6 km during all seasons and occasionally reach above 6 km and exhibited strong seasonal and regional dependency, ii) Layer thickness varies between 2.0 -3.0 km corresponds to primary peak are more frequent of about 80-90 % of cases over all six regions and while  secondary layer occasionally forms (10-20 %), iii) The aerosol layer thickness increases by about 36.7 and 25% during summer and fall season compared to that of spring, and winter, iv) Layer-AOT showed year-to-year variations of up to a factor of two with a relative variability of about 15-23% (1σ), v) Trend in layer AOT is not very conspicuous and showed oscillatory pattern, vi) Depolarization ratios generally increase with height suggesting that the irregularity of aerosol shape increases with altitude, vii) The polluted dust and smoke are the major aerosol components of the observed quasi aerosol layer  between 4 to 6 km for spring and fall season while these are the polluted dust during winter and summer.

How to cite: Kumar, G., Vernier, J. P., Madhavan, B. L., Ansari, K., and Sinha, P. R.: Ubiquity of quasi-aerosol layers in the free troposphere over the Indian region: Results from multiyear satellite observations, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-11003, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-11003, 2021.

Displays

Display file